James, I know we've gone back and forth on this topic before, but personally, I believe history will vindicate much of what has transpired over the past few years. Where else in history has so much been accomplished by a military with so few losses, and that's without taking into account the horrid nature of the insurgency and the shattered society left in Saddam's wake. Once before I said, "What if this is as good as it gets?", and you said something to the effect that it was a tragedy if that was true. I won't disagree that it is a tragedy, but I still do believe that it would have been dificult to do much better than we have done. But, having said that, I am greatly encouraged to hear that the rules of engagement are changing. I've been a strong advocate of that for a long time. There is only one way to deal with people who are so willing to kill and to die to accomplish their goals, and that is to grant the latter before they can carry out much of the former.

Gee, I don't remember St. Louis winning the world series the last three years.