The quickest way to a man's heart really is through his stomach because then you don't have to chop through that pesky rib cage. -- J. Jacques

"How many American troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year?

None of the witnesses at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Afghanistan had an answer."

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/11/simple-question-on-afghanistan-leaves-officials-stumped/

Wild guess, not looking it up: 5K.

[Checking]

Damn... I was more than 50% high by some sources, and 400% high by others.

Bob's question is something you'd want commanders and government servants to keep at the forefront of their attention at all times, indisputably.

But how many deaths are appropriate for something like that? Our presence is constabulary... we invaded to get bad guys, not to get good resources. We've apparently passed the hat to other world powers (Japan, etc.) to defray the financial weight. We're doing it because it needs to be done, and nobody else can do it.

When people say it's "America's longest war," as if the relative duration were so poignant, we might be tempted to ask why it's so relatively bloodless.

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