November 3, 2003 - Central Command is admitting that 16 American soldiers died as November 2, 2003 took its place in military history as the day the Chinook was brought down. The official report has it that there were 21 wounded in the incident but that it hard to credit if the helicopter exploded in mid-air and came down in flames. The army says that the incident is "under investigation" and giving out few details. It is pretty clear that the chopper was brought down by a shoulder launched surface to air missile. It was, Secretary Rumsfeld said with eloquent understatement, "a bad day" and he warned that more were to come.

Then he spoke with irrational exuberance of the great successes we were experiencing in Iraq . That success was celebrated in the streets of Falujah as we were sickened by images of an Iraqi dancing down the street waving an American's combat helmet, its camouflage cover shredded and blackened in another attack in the city's street. The crowd was waving newspapers soaked in blood before the lens of the television camera. There were no flowers of welcome in evidence.

That morning 30 or so soldiers boarded the Chinook headed home for two weeks of rest and recuperation, a too short vacation from the constant threat of death and destruction. That morning they started a long flight home. They are still coming home. Most come in body bags, some few maimed and burned will find their rest and recuperation in hospital beds. Who were these soldiers, the young men and women sacrificed in this old men's war? We don't know their names and we won't see their faces but they are casualties of the determination made months ago to fight this war on the cheap. That decision was not the Army's nor should the consequences of that decision be laid at Central Command's door. The military leaders told us in February that a successful campaign and occupation required more than twice the boots on the ground than the political leadership was willing to commit. And that is why November 2, 2003 became the day of "Chinook Down!"

Secretary Rumsfeld had it right. It was a bad day indeed and there are more to come unless he and his boss find the courage to fight this war without staring at the ballot box. Election Day is just a year away and the Bush Administration is at a fork in the road. One road, the route that they call on America to follow as it "stays the course" leads to more such bad days. Taking the other road, calling on the American people to sacrifice their comfort and give Central Command the tools to finish the job without mortgaging any more of the nation's future, will call on George Bush and his Administration to write a new profile of political courage. That is a commodity that is in short supply in Washington on the day of Chinook Down