It's refreshing to see the university is returning to normal in that faculty and students can be concerned about issues of war and peace off campus rather than on. It's also good to see students looking for moral clarity in a war. Unfortunately, WW II may have been one of a kind, and even that one had little to do with liberating the concentration camps on the front end. Prior to December 7, 1941 the American people had little interest in war and little concern for Hitler's victims.

Using casualties as an argument against a specific war makes little sense. That is the nature of war, and in this case the level of casualties is extremely low by any historical standard. Our losses to date are less than 1% of those experienced in the Civil War or WW II, and they are well below 10% of the casualties suffered in Korea or Viet Nam, two wars that really lacked moral clarity.

It is also important to note that we have yet to bring the troops home from Germany, Japan, Korea, and Kosovo, and for good reason.