That might well be. And, if the outcome could be reliably sketched and the chances of success advantageously stated, I might even support such a longer term commitment. The berry in the crucible now, however, is whether things have deteriorated so far now that we would only be deferring the inevitable. That's the question, and, returning to my dilemma, there are no clear objective indices to guide us. If Course A has 49% chance of succeeding and Course B has 48% chance of succeeding, virtual dead heat contingent on so many unknown variables, why not choose the course that saves more of our lives. The rejoinder, of course, to which I'm sensitive, is that many more Iraqis may lose their lives. Yet, that itself may be almost an inevitability if things are as grave as touted. It's a Herculean decision that has to be made, and, effectively or not, in my little corner of the world I'm trying to contribute to it. Look at it this way, and I mean this in all seriousness and humility, deferring, of course, to those cogniscenti who may be found who can reliably guide us (and I don't consider Bush, Cheney or Rice to be among that mumber), this problem may be harder to solve than the Theory of Relativity was to discover.
