Everyone here has seen those horrific photographs by now and heard the sobering news from Iraq. It is a sad truth of combat that people die... and it is seldom a peaceful death. No man who has ever borne a weapon in service to his fellow citizens can see those scenes and hear those reports without feeling his heart torn apart.

This is the first time in history that those left at home are able to go along with our military men and women, looking over their shoulders as they go about their deadly trade and seeing it in real time with only a one second or so delay. I am still not all that certain that this is good idea, but it is what is.

The sob sisters have already begun their weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth..."Oh my God! We've had 25 men killed already and who knows how many more injured and the Iraqis are fighting back. Should we be tehre? Is it time to pullout?" I actually heard a program host (female) say those exact things earlier tonight and I wanted to slap her face.

It is a horrible truth that when men take up arms against one another, people will die. Our military planners are making unprecedentd efforts to aim our ordnance and fire power in a way that limits "collateral damage," a nice-nice euphemism that simply means civilian dead and wounded. We Americans fight wars in ways few others do. Once a foe is defeated, he is treated with respect and human concern. Yesterday I watched U. S. Marines rushing frantically to render first aid to wounded Iraqi combatants they had overcome in a vicious fire fight. These were the same enemy soldiers who only moments before were intent on killing those same American soldiers who were ministering to their wounds now. You can be assured that the Iragis, North Vietnamese, North Korean, Germans, teh Japanese and the Spanish, all of whom we have faced on battlefields in our history did not act that way with out men who fell. The Brits, the Aussies and our soldiers alone and almost no one else I can think of do these acts of humanity as a natural matter of course in our prosecution of war. We don't torture prisoners of war or slaughter them senselessly. They are well fed, even better than our own men often. They have clean, dry clothing and medical treatment. Ask the islamic madmen at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are confined, but they are not mistreated in any way whatsoever. Perhaps we aren't coddling them the way so many mindless fools say we ought, but they live, sleep and eat better at "Gitmo" than they did in the mountains of Afghanistan. We even provide them with means for following their religious beliefs. Does anyone dare claim they did the same for even one of our soldiers they got their hands on? Please don't say it if you do believe that mindless garbage. Just go away for you have no place here.

Ok, so everyone wanted to be able to see what was happening, as it happens. As the Jewish wisdom says, "Be careful what you wish for; you just might get your wish." Now, do we have the intestinal fortitude to watch as what happens in all wars happens. Men (and women) will die or suffer grievous wounds. We will have some successes and the outcome is not really in doubt, but you can also be assured there will be setbacks along the way. No war is ever conducted in a spotless vaccum. The other guys have an army and weapons too. In this case, they also usually get to choose the batlefields on which we will clash. Their logistics foundation is their own country. It is right there. We have to plan our advances based on the slowest speed of logistical resupply vehicles and systems.

Another maniac from a middle eastern nation made a big deal tonight over the fact that our advance units are bypassing "pockets of resistance." Doh! Of course we do. We have more men coming behind us who can address those tasks and they are equally as competent as the men at the front of the parade. They will patiently take on each challenge one by one until our rear is clear of threats. And, here too, men will die at young ages. Every one of those fallen heroes will leave behind a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, a girlfriend or a wife and even young children. Every one of them is a great and irreplaceable loss to us all, but we must remember the truee goal we have set for ourselves.

In all battles, good men die from friendly fire and the more technically advanced we become, the more likely it is that we will have common accidents that kill and maim. Those too are parts of all wars.

As I sit before the tube for hours on end attempting to find a way to get one more breath in these historic days, I see those soldiers there and see their struggles. I am proud to be a past member of their fraternity with dues that are paid only in blood and grief. I see their professionalism under fire and I am somewhat relieved. My replacement showed up and he is not half bad at this stuff. That's a comfort for I will leave many of you behind in his care. I entrust my freedoms and security into his hands and yours as well. I feel relief.

He's up to the challenge and he outclasses every one of those screaming, screeching, misbehaving, sign-carrying cretins on the city streets spewing mindless drivel about giving peace a chance. Haven't they figured it out yet? There's only one way to give peace a chance when faced with a tyrant and an evil regime. You have to be willing to fight him off. He makes that choice...not us. We never get to make that choice. Failing to face up to that responsibility and obligatory defense of freedom only serves to make you into his next victim.

It would be wonderful were we able to truly beat our swords into plowshares. The problem with that is that, so long as the likes of Usama bin Laden, teh Al Quaeda and their Arabic clones, Yasser Araft along with members of his Fatah Martyrs Brigade, along with Hamas and Al Aqsa, Saddam Hussein and Kim Il Jong exist, doing that will only mean that we would eventually wind up plowing the fields of the guy who kept his sword.