Nothing can make up for the losses of our soldiers and their families. Their sacrifices are for our nation and not any temporary Commander in Chief.  I know, because my wife and I have had friends and relatives “over there” in Iraq and Afghanistan (some, on multiple deployments) and our families have served and lost a few since 1776.

I wonder where the media are this time, as we hit what some seem to think “a goal” of 2,000?  I remember the daily reports from Iraq when a Republican was President. I remember none since a Democrat won the title.  “Even” thousands tend to make news.  But the media is absent today.

Of course, I also remember ‘Nam … when most of our current crop of reporters were in diapers.  Back then, I hated President Nixon [R] (who tried to win, then brought our troops home).  Because of the media, I somehow thought that President Nixon was responsible for the war, although President LBJ [D] created it. Over 58,000 American lives were lost, oft over 500 a month!

As an aside, about 3,000 civilians lost their lives on September 11, 2001 in an hour.  By comparison,  2,386 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor in ninety minutes, almost all (but 55), military.  I am still waiting for some reporter to make this comparison.

President Bush (II) directed our military to overthrow the  Taliban government of Afghanistan in five weeks.  In that time, our military accomplished what it took the Soviets nine years to fail.

The war against the Nation of Iraq took 26 days.  We won.

Occupation is a different story.

I suppose/hope President Obama will take credit for losing twice as many lives in Afghanistan as President Bush, just as he blames President Bush for spending as much in eight years as he has spent in four.

Not to forget our allies, including the much-derided French and the Canadians who thought Iraq a misguided endevour:

Other Afghan Casualties, by nation:

UK                  433

Canada          158

France            86

Germany        52

Australia        38

Poland            35

There are more, from other NATO nations.  We our lax in applauding our allies’ service men and women particapation in dying for a just cause.