"Peter Duniho" wrote:

A single P-51 lost still represents well under 1% of the total fleet. What
percentage was lost during their intended use? A lot greater than that, I'd
guess.

Your point, such as it is, merely demonstrates that sometimes absolute
numbers are more relevant than percentages.

It's wonderful that it [the Mona Lisa] exists, but there would be absolutely
no suffering in the world should the original Mona Lisa painting be
destroyed. Some people would irrationally bemoan the loss of the painting
(forgetting that the painting WILL eventually be destroyed one way or the
other), but that doesn't make it useful.

Most parents would mourn the death of their young child. By your
logic, such mourning would be "irrational" because the child would
"eventually be destroyed one way or the other". If you claim that
such parental mourning is not irrational, then your arguments in this
thread fail. If we accept that such parental mourning is indeed
irrational but nevertheless reasonable, understandable, and
acceptable, then your arguments in this thread fail. If you claim
that your arguments in this thread apply only to inanimate objects,
then your arguments fail. If you don't agree that such parental
mourning is reasonable, understandable, and acceptable, then you are
disconnected from normal human feeling and your arguments in this
thread become irrelevant.

- Ken -