What's changed in America in the last 60 years?

WHILE Congress, the president and the media play politics with questions of victory in Iraq, as a combat veteran and student of history, I think we should consider a far more fundamental question: Can America ever win another war?

What might seem silly on its face is magnified to full significance in the looking glass of history. Should we retreat from the battlefield in Iraq - which is what anything short of legitimate victory would be - America will have established a 60-year record of failing to prevail against strategically significant enemies.

So what's changed?

Certainly not soldiers' character. The military's dissatisfaction with the war reflects not desire to retreat, but rather frustration with the "rules of engagement" and politically dictated resourcing that restrict them from taking the fight to the enemy.

What has changed is America's stomach for the fight. This is reflected in months of resistance to the obvious need for a greater tactical commitment. It is displayed in congressional games that ultimately focus on surrender for domestic political advantage, regardless of the cost.

But, most significantly, it is shown in voters who cannot compare Baghdad 2007 with Bastogne 1944 (unless they watched "Band of Brothers"), and who would rather flip over to "American Idol," anyway. It is citizens who find three deaths per day repulsive, while ignorant that their freedom was won in battles with casualty reports rounded to the nearest thousand.

For much as we seem to already have forgotten the shock and pain of 9-11, we have equally forgotten that there once was no America, and that its birth came at a price.

Robert C. J. Parry is a National Guard veteran of Iraq. Read more.