Those figures aside, their broader point is that the relative merits of war and containment hinged on various probabilities that were impossible to know in advance.
New and old Europe have split on the merits of war against Saddam, and, as with the Democrats, this has helped Mr Bush.So why should he worry?
It has been hard to judge the merits of war or tax cuts by the standards of what the administration said about them at the time.Mr Kerry has been no better.
That Sgt. Bergdahl might have been neither a military-style hero, nor a turncoat, but someone who voted with his feet on the merits of war, American-style, in Afghanistan is not an option that can be discussed calmly here.
"It's no accident that Lone Survivor ignores the question of whether the SEAL team's mission was justified or worthwhile, just as it ignores, even more broadly, the merit of the war in Afghanistan to begin with," he writes.
On the merits of the war in Iraq, on public confidence in the intelligence services.
The arguments about the merits of the war are familiar enough, as are the arguments about how best to rebuild the Iraqi economy.
But for the first time the Turkish people are openly questioning the merits of the war".Ergenekon and Daglica have sapped the army's prestige.
Dated Oct. 2, the letter read: "Although Americans of good will debate the merits of this war, we can all agree that those who serve with such great courage deserve our deepest respect and gratitude.
In recent years Chamberlain has become adopted as a kind of cover-all bogeyman by neo-con pundits keen to justify the merits of "preventative war" on Iraq or Iran.
Their resolution was an attempt to spur a broader debate on the merits of the war itself.
