Sorry for my late arrival to this thread...
First of all, Ham Phisted, you ARE a pacifist, at least compared to everyone else living in Texas!
And what are you doing having intellectual debates with USAF lieutenants? Let's have a rational discussion about it over lunch and a beer tomorrow, like civilized men!
Now for the rest of you who view American military and politics as being straight out of "Dr Strangelove", don't let the comments of one idiot USAF engineer (how'd he even get into the bar in the first place??) represent the US stand on Afghanistan. If we only wanted to level the place into a flat, boring wasteland (why bother when we already have west Texas?), then we wouldn't be spending all our time and effort dropping humanitarian relief to the locals. We could pack more Daisy Cutters into the back of the C-17s and have ourselves a nice little fireworks show!
And as for that media survey, as helmet fire so aptly pointed out, it was a loaded question. Pretty much along the lines of "when did you stop beating your wife?" It's what happens to the press in a free society when there is nothing sensational to report. If there is no news than make some. And as for statistics...
Hey, could be worse, it could be a Greek prison!
Cheers!