I'm sitting in my parent's living room. It is the last day of a one-week vacation. My son is on the floor at my feet and most of the bags are ready to be loaded for the trip to the airport.

In the wake of a week trying to avoid the focus of my professional life, I'm attempting to ease back into the chaos. It is always fascinating that one week of vacation routinely seems to result in a one month backlog of "stuff" to do. I need to do research, interview players, and analyze the issues.

For starters, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and apparently other national officials are partnering with Communist Red Chinese in assorted efforts to disarm law-abiding American citizens. It apparently seems odd to several of my listeners and readers that Lockyer's SKS website is being administered by an Australian company, and that one of the phone numbers is in Peking, China. Gotta check on that one. I need to work on three different research projects, and two charities. I am just one transcontinental airplane trip from re-entering chaos, frustration, and insufficient resources. Cool!

Meanwhile, I have heard that while dislocating their collective shoulder, NATO aggressors and Clintonistas are wallowing in hypocritical self-satisfaction at what did and didn't happen in the Balkans.

Kosovo was not called a "war" when NATO trashed their charter and became aggressor in the assault of a sovereign country.

Kosovo was not called a "war" when a valued and traditional ally was bombed.

Kosovo was not called a "war" when Albanian immigrants tried to annex land that wasn't theirs.

Kosovo was not called a "war" when the perfumed quislings of socialist one-worlders conducted their massive propaganda campaign in the Balkans.

However, now we have been told the "war" was executed and "won" with "zero casualties." ;-) That is a wink and smile, folks.

As a student of military science for over 30-years I have a few issues to raise:

 
• Zero casualties? That should be changed to "none reported." The first casualty of the Kosovo armed conflict (are we allowed to call it that?) was, and remains, Truth. Duty, Honor, and Country were wounded, but the extend of those injuries remains unknown.
• Truth was killed before the first Tomahawk flew. Truth died in Rambouillet.
• What ever happened to the pilot of that stealth fighter that was shot down? Huh?
• During the Bosnian live-fire field training exercise, a young American pilot was shot down and had to escape and evade for days. He was a national hero. The book was compelling. He became an American hero.
• Three young soldiers were "captured" by the Serbs. Their names and pictures dominated the news for weeks. We never heard the accusations they might have violated orders in search of beer. We never heard questions about how these shake- and-bake heroes were captured without having fired a shot. The physical abuse and "beatings" they might or might not have received were never compared to what any first sergeant "might" have done to one of his charges. Three young soldiers were awarded a packet of medals and America was proud.
• Notwithstanding the claims of "zero casualties", there is a litany of "oddities." And I'm not the Lone Ranger in questioning the rash of G-1 (Administrative/personnel) anomalies.

Geoff,

For the first time in the history of mankind we have fought a no-loss war!

Not exactly. We have significantly depleted our already short supply of whiz bang ordinance, most significantly our Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Interestingly (and coincidentally?), we have sure had a lot of "accidents" all over the planet in the past few months!

Training accidents happen. When the job is dangerous, you train doing dangerous things, and stuff happens. Before the alleged death of the Soviets, they used to have an annual large live fire field training exercise. The Warsaw Pact would routinely and pretty regularly kill around 8 percent of their troops.

Pilots killed in car wrecks in Italy, planes full of troops going down all over the world, helicopter and plane crashes killing pilots and passengers (Marines, commandos, and rescue teams) in Israel, Kentucky, Florida, Puerto Rico, etc., etc., etc.

Amazing!

Well that could very well have been an administrative error.

If our attrition rate under "normal" conditions is so high, the greatest miracle of all is that attrition does not apply to a "hot" war, when men and equipment are pushed to the limit --not to mention being shot at!

My question is: Who are in all those pretty coffins that the Marines have been (since our "war" began) carrying into Crete and Thessolonica? They were not body bags, the result of war, but nice, shiny coffins to be sent home to relatives.

I find it personally offensive to question the deaths of ANY soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who has paid the ultimate price for whatever reason and in whatever political misadventure. However, have ANY of the families of these recent training accidents questioned the details of their loss? Finally, have ANY military leaders done or said anything to questions their complicity in any creative writing of after action reports?

The grunts and pilots understand "Ours is not to reason why ... ours is just to do or die." And they have, they do, and they will. You and I can ask "why?" Madeline NotSoBright can say "why not?"

The truth is always the first fatality of war. We lie, they lie, everybody lies. Sometimes there is even solid strategic rationalization for the lies. However, now that the "not really a war" war is over, now that we are apparently committed to rebuilding the infrastructure we destroyed, now that the occupation force in on the ground (and will be for years to come), what is the strategic significance of feeding the lies? Let the sunlight of a resurrected truth disinfect the wounds.