Gipper ( AKA Ronald Reagan, the mass murderer of Nicaragua ), it looks like the Head of Central Command does not share your touching faith in the big guy upstairs...
"...As coalition and Afghan forces entered the second week of a major offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, the head of U.S. Central Command warned that the potential loss of lives among U.S. forces in the operation "will be tough."
Gen. David Petraeus said the losses could be comparable to those seen after the 2007 surge of U.S. troops into Iraq.
"They'll be tough. They were tough in Iraq," Petraeus said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
From the time the U.S. surge in Iraq began in January 2007 until its official end in July 2008, 1,125 U.S. troops died -- more than a quarter of the total 4,379 Americans who have died in the Iraq war.
"The reality is that it's hard, but we are [in Afghanistan] for a very, very important reason, we can't forget that," he added. "We're in Afghanistan to ensure that it cannot once again be a sanctuary for the kinds of attacks that were carried out on 9/11."
Despite stiff Taliban resistance to Operation Moshtarak in Helmand province, Petraeus said that the militants are "a bit disjointed at this point in time."
"When we go on the offensive, when we take away sanctuaries and safe havens from the Taliban and other extremist elements that we and our Afghan and coalition partners are fighting in that country, they're going to fight back," he added. "And we're seeing that in Marjah, we will see that in other areas, but we are going after them across the spectrum."
Petraeus noted that the offensive is just the "initial salvo" of what will be a 12- to 18-month military campaign, but results are being seen already..."
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/21/petraeus.afghanistan/index.html
Comrade Stalin, Victor of the Great Patriotic War against the Hitlerite Pestilence.