Your opening sentence speaks volumes about how you approach this subject, F. Lee.  If life is not about winning or losing, then why bother keeping score?

I am more inclined to take the word of the three soldiers of whom I spoke earlier (all of whom I have known since they were little boys), as well as others with whom I have spoken (who have actually been there) as a far more reliable source of information than news organizations which literally make things up when they are not divulging our war strategies to the enemy and putting American troops in even greater danger.  Where is your outrage at that?

You keep mentioning the 2,500 dead soldiers in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Iraq as thought it is a reason not to fight.  Well, here's a news flash: armies have two purposes--to kill people and break things.  War is ugly business and it's not something that can be wrapped up neatly in 30 minutes or less.  I agree with you that one death is too many, but militarily speaking, 2,500 deaths in three or four years are considered acceptable tactical losses under the circumstances.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I think your comparison of those 2,500 deaths to the incident in Somalia is intellectually dishonest.  Those 18 soldiers' deaths were rendered meaningless by a President of the United States who didn't have the stomach to see the mission through because of perceived "public anti-war sentiment".  The “cut-and-run” strategy you seem to be advocating would do nothing but accomplish the same objective.

Why is it that liberals always try to deny that they are liberals?  You say you eschew labels, yet you probably wouldn’t like it if I came to your house and removed all the labels from your canned foods and household products.  My reference to the (D) beside someone’s name has nothing to do with whether or not I agree with them.  It was a reference to the way the hit-and-run media seems to give a “pass” to anyone with a (D) beside their name.  No, I don’t automatically assume that everyone who disagrees with me is a democrat or liberal.  There are plenty of Democrats with whom I agree on some issues, (you being one of them) and I do keep an open mind, but I don’t keep it so open that my brain has fallen out.  There’s a big difference between being open-minded and empty-headed.

Finally, Canada is the leader in oil imports to the United States at 1.88M barrels per day, followed by Mexico (1.58 M) and Saudi Arabia (1.46M).  Venezuela is #4 with 1.17M barrels per day.  My information on crude oil imports comes direct from the Energy Information Administration.

You know what I find most puzzling about you, F. Lee?  You’re a man of such obvious intelligence, yet you never let facts and evidence stand in the way of your distorted world view.