TIME: Deadly Mission - The battle at Shah-i-Kot

This story has such a negative, weepy tone it's hard to believe that we're winning. Obviously nobody wants casualties, but if we turned and ran every time we got surprised, we mighnt as well not have a military. Obviously, our intel has to get better; we're still discovering that many of our friends are playing on both sides of the street. Still, to fly into an ambush and come out with a 100 to 1 loss ratio in our favor is not something we should hang our heads about.

Toughen up, people! This is what my father's generation went through, but worse. It's probably why so few of them could talk about the battles they were in without losing their composure. It's here again, and I'm too old and sick to enlist, but these men did, and they deserve more than wobbly thumbsuckers reporting this stuff at home. Every one we lose is added to the list on the plaques in countless city halls and public cemeteries around this country, where they will live in honor as long as this nation goes on. There will be more. They know that. It's part of the deal they made to defend this country.

What they don't need is reporters making it sound like we're beaten by a bunch of third-world thugs after a tough fight. We are winning this. These guys are heroes. They have the best training, equipment and weapons on earth. We must not let them feel that the nation hasn't got the resolve to stand behind them.