A. It was an immature display of street-corner machismo(男子气概)that appalled people familiar with the agonizing ordeals of combat.
B. The American death toll in Iraq at that point was about 200, but it was clear that a vicious opposition was developing.
C. This is another example of the administration's inability to distinguish between a strategy and a wish.
D. Some were little more than children when they signed up for the armed forces, like Ramona Valdez, who grew up in the Bronx and was just 17 when she pined the Marines.
E. The latest fantasy out of Washington is that American-trained Iraqi forces will ultimately be able to do what the American forces have not: defeat the insurgency and pacify Iraq.
F. That has not been the case, which is why we can expect to remain stuck in this tragic quagmire for the foreseeable luture.