Saturday, October 12, 2003 / Legends of the Fall: More myths about the current war.

In National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson writes:

...Of course, a single dead American soldier is a tragedy, both for the nation and for the aggrieved family. But, by any historical measure, what strikes students of this war so far in its first two years is the amazing degree to which the United States has hurt its enemies without incurring enormous casualties and costs. So far there have been five theaters of conflict: Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Afghanistan, and Iraq. After suffering about 3,000 dead, $100 billion in direct material damage in Manhattan and D.C., and perhaps another $1 trillion hit to the economy at large in areas as diverse as airline losses, increased security expenditures, and tourist and travel drop-offs, the United States has lost under 400 soldiers in defeating the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, and probably spent roughly $100 billion in direct military expenditures, with another $100 billion in slated reconstruction costs.

In terms of American military history, this is a staggering paradox. Usually the initial attacks that have prompted past American wars were relatively mild, while the subsequent reaction was costly — in the manner that Fort Sumter paled in comparison with Shiloh, or Tonkin was not Hue, or Pearl Harbor was nothing like Iwo Jima. But 9/11 itself was much more deadly than all of the subsequent campaigns that have followed in the last two years. Unlike other wars, our present offensives going into the third year of fighting have cost far fewer lives than the first 25 months of any major conflict in American history — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, or World War II. But then, to see the logic of this anomaly, one must first accept the initial premise that we are currently in a war — and millions of Americans apparently do not. ...

Read the full article here.

Thursday, October 9, 2003 / Weapons of Mass Destruction Will Likely Be Found Says Weapon Inspection Chief

David Kay, leader of the team searching for weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, is "amazed" by the U. S. Media's mischaracterizations of his findings according to Andrew Bolt of the Harold Sun.

Says Kay: "This is information (that), if it had been available last year, would have been headline news." He's now certain "we're going to find remarkable things" in the future, too.

Read the full article here.

Wednesday, October 8, 2003 / California Governor Recalled, New Governor

Governor Gray Davis was recalled yesterday by the people of California. We will wait to make comments about his replacement until after we have seen what he does over the next few years.

More news about that here: Polls: Davis Out, Schwarzenegger Leads

Wednesday, October 8, 2003 / Colin Powel on Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Secretary of State Colin Powel writes: "The interim findings of David Kay and the Iraq Survey Group make two things abundantly clear: Saddam Hussein's Iraq was in material breach of its United Nations obligations before the Security Council passed Resolution 1441 last November, and Iraq went further into breach after the resolution was passed." Read the whole article here.

Wednesday, October 8, 2003 / The New York Post on Weapons of Mass Destruction

The New York Post writes: "Saddam Hussein was a threat - and did have an active weapons-of-mass-destruction program. That's the upshot of an interim report released last week by top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay. Though you'd never know it from President Bush's critics." Read the whole article here.

State of the Union Address

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