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An interesting letter in today's Times:

To the Editor:

Victor Davis Hanson compares the American death toll in Iraq with the much greater tolls from earlier wars, including World War II. The comparison is not appropriate.

In World War II, we fought with highly competent leadership for a constant objective that could be obtained by military action, and the actions in which our soldiers were killed were necessary to the victory.

In Iraq, our soldiers fight under incompetent leaders for a vague and changing objective that their fighting deaths cannot achieve.

Tom Hess
Lafayette, Ind., Oct. 27, 2005

We slightly disagree. We think our incompetent leaders have always had very precise objectives for the war in Iraq; they just haven't, and can't, tell us what they are.