You don't want to go "squishy" Saunders? Go sign up and put your own life on the line. You don't have a clue, and you never will, because all you do is manufacture words that are bereft of experience. Read the column here of your colleague Mr. Shields, and God forbid, you might learn something.

*** "On the left, the pressure to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan is even greater. At a Chronicle editorial board meeting Wednesday, Rep. Jackie Speier, D—Hillsborough, complained about the cost of the war and the lack of an exit strategy. "To me," Speier added, "Pakistan is almost a greater threat." *** Funny how liberals are only worried about "costs" when the spending issue is defense related, or better still, when there's an actual war going on. I never heard a peep from these fiscal hawks when Obama proposed spending over a TRILLION dollars to "reform" the healthcare system, a change that the American people do not need or want. They also didn't object to the Pork-ulus, the bailouts of the auto companies, the takeover of the banking industry, ad nauseum. They're only interested in counting pennies when the survival of the US or one of our allies is at stake. Hypocritical bastards.

Re: Masako. Oh brother...and here I thought maybe we'd finally heard the last of this "chickenhawk" childishness. Did it ever occur to you that Shields is off-base? I read his column sometimes, but sorry, I don't think that someone who wants to throw Afghanistan to the wolves has all that much to teach someone else.