What a profoundly stupid article! Of course our military power has limits. Of course troops that are tied up (and/or killed or wounded) in Iraq and equipment tied up or destroyed there are unavailable for fighting in Afghanistan. If there is a third area of the world where our national interests require that we respond, of course we will be limited by the troops and equipment wasted in Iraq. We lack the manpower, equipment and money to engage in expensive, fruitless invasions and occupation. There is no way to "win" in Iraq, just two different ways of cutting our losses -- fast or slow.

Iraq was only our enemy because we invaded and occupied them. Afghanistan was our enemy because they harbored and trained Al Qaeda. The notion that we can engage in as many wars as we wish is a sister to the notion that we can spend as much as we want and never tax to pay for it. It is simple-minded and is destroying this once-great nation at home and in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Let's reinstitute the draft and start it by drafting the offspring of Presidents, Congressmen and Senators. Then we would see how cavalier our brave chickenhawks would be in deciding to engage in preemptive wars of occupation modeled on those of Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Russia.