It occurred to me that the debate on Iraq and its effects on terrorism has missed an essential point.  No matter what your opinion of the target of our attack, you must admit that one stunning effect of this war has been to announce to the world, and particularly to states that sponsor terrorism, that the US is big enough and strong enough to attack unilaterally, displace the existing power structure, and install at least nascent democracy in about 5 years' time with a relatively limited loss of life.  The effect of our broad response to the 9-11 attacks, that is, not just limiting our response to targeted attacks in Afghanistan, but to look at strategic invasion elsewhere, is to show rogue countries throughout the Middle East that they are fair game if they are aggressive and defiant.  Every life lost in these past few years is precious, and I don't diminish in any way those soldiers' sacrifices.  I'm merely looking at a context of the all of the wars this country has fought and the resultant loss of life.  The enemy is different now and thus the measurement of results is different.