There's an Op-Ed in today's New York Times whose title just keeps cracking me up: It Used to Be Just the Soldiers Who Died.

The author, a Mr. Gardner Botsford, apparently comes from a universe in which Genghis Khan and the Mongol invaders (geez, that sounds like a rock band: Genghis Khan and His Mongol Invaders) spared civilian populations. Where no civilians died in the Crusades. Where the Thirty Years War didn't decimate Germany's population. Where German troops did not put entire Belgian villages to the firing squad in World War I.

Mr. Botsford himself fought in World War II, a war in which, even if you ignore the SIX MILLION civilians killed in death camps, there was plenty of civilian death and suffering.

There have been periods in history (some parts of the 1700's probably) where war was a game fought neatly by armies on isolated battlefields, with relatively little harm to the civilian population. But for the most part, war has always been hell for civilians: this is not something new that has come about with the invention of the bomber and the cruise missile.

I'd cue up a rant about "Don't they teach kids anything in school these days!" but Mr. Botsford is old enough to be my grandfather.

It's a pity, because he does have an interesting point which I can perceive when my historical pedantry meters aren't hitting the red zone: that war has gotten remarkably less dangerous for soldiers of late. We are evolving toward a situation in which war is waged by remote control, with bombers and missiles and drones.

There is something weird and icky about the prospect of wars in which only civilians die. But let's not pretend that in the good old days, only soldiers died.

Okay, remember yesterday when I said that it would be fun to add a Company C to the mix? Just got a call about possibly doing some freelance work for, well, let's call them Company C. This wouldn't be a full-time thing, so they're not really in competition with Company A or B. Still...

Well, I have a bunch of stuff to do, so I'd better go to it.