WAR BY NUMBERS, WE'VE LOST THE CONFLICT

This letter is by no means giving 'comfort and aide' to the enemy--but rather a stark reality in which this war has been waged thus far to date.

Consider this factoid: 10,000 US and Iraqi "troops" recently started a series of operations designed to kill and eliminate Al-Qaida forces in and around Baghdad.

From what happened in the three days since the launch of one operation, media reports and the US military have confirmed the death of only 22 enemy "combatants".

That's it? Only 22?!? It takes 10,000 US and Iraqi "troops" to hammer the area in and around Baghdad, and we only kill 22 Iraqi insurgents? And let the bulk of Al-Qaeda of Iraq's leadership to escape--AGAIN--on top of that?

Wow. This is soooo impressive!

Really!

At the rate we're going, we aren't going to make one single dent in the embedded Iraqi insurgency for at least twenty more years--if we keep having "victories" like this.

Because if this is all we can hope for, then we have no realistic chance of getting out of this lost conflict in one piece.

It really will make Vietnam look like a 'cakewalk'!

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

(XXX)-XXX-XXXX