National Security, National Interest
I had to wipe away a tear when I read on goodnewsfromthefront.com about how 40 Shia Turkomans marked the end of Ramadan by praying at a shrine previously forbidden to them by Saddam. Good for them! If it wasn't for our invasion, they'd be praying at home or in a parking lot or something.
iraqthemodel didn't do much for me - it's kinda confusing - but reading that The Rat Of Clubs is dead made me feel that justice is being served against the monstrous Saddam regime.
The "optimism" mkchicago cites and would presumably like us to share is a little harder to muster when reading iraqnow, which instills pessimism off the bat with their tagline: "All your bias are belong to us." [sic]. I'm not sure how railing against editorials is part of the "good news" coming out of Iraq, but I agree with the blog's author when he says about Iraqi villagers complaining about being burned alive by white phosphorous used by US troops: "Don't like it? Don't be an enemy combatant. Or even let them operate in your neighborhood." Damn straight! They should post little "NO ENEMY COMBATANTS, PLEASE" signs in their windows, or install anti-terrorist bumps in their roads (like speed bumps, but explosive). If they don't, that's their own damn fault.
So despite a few moments of skepticism, I was ready to come around to the idea that things are going great. Then I happened upon this. Yaaah! Shrine prayings, dead Baathists, and screeds against lazy Iraqi civilians - these things are all good things, and I could even be persuaded that they marginally increase our national security, and are in our national interest. But at such a price?
At what point does the cost benefit analysis kick in for supporters of this war? Is there any dollar amount that would make the shrine praying benefits of our invasion seem a little... expensive?
iraqthemodel didn't do much for me - it's kinda confusing - but reading that The Rat Of Clubs is dead made me feel that justice is being served against the monstrous Saddam regime.
The "optimism" mkchicago cites and would presumably like us to share is a little harder to muster when reading iraqnow, which instills pessimism off the bat with their tagline: "All your bias are belong to us." [sic]. I'm not sure how railing against editorials is part of the "good news" coming out of Iraq, but I agree with the blog's author when he says about Iraqi villagers complaining about being burned alive by white phosphorous used by US troops: "Don't like it? Don't be an enemy combatant. Or even let them operate in your neighborhood." Damn straight! They should post little "NO ENEMY COMBATANTS, PLEASE" signs in their windows, or install anti-terrorist bumps in their roads (like speed bumps, but explosive). If they don't, that's their own damn fault.
So despite a few moments of skepticism, I was ready to come around to the idea that things are going great. Then I happened upon this. Yaaah! Shrine prayings, dead Baathists, and screeds against lazy Iraqi civilians - these things are all good things, and I could even be persuaded that they marginally increase our national security, and are in our national interest. But at such a price?
At what point does the cost benefit analysis kick in for supporters of this war? Is there any dollar amount that would make the shrine praying benefits of our invasion seem a little... expensive?
posted by Germanicu$ at 12:26 PM
3 Comments:
Andy, were you aware of this?
Hey Kraut,
Great points. The media's lazy reporting of the war in terms of body counts and little else ("dealiest day since Nov 2nd!"--this reminds me of how ESPN has gone out of its way to find strange statistics that no one ever cares about, like Jim Bunning was only the third left handed pitcher for the Phillies since Sandy Koufax to strike out more than 10 batters in a rain shortened game).
Somehow I don't think the loss of lives should be treated as a horse race.
To some extent, I think better media coverage could give us the opportunity to better ask whether it's worth it (not quite "run the numbers," but at least we could compare, as you suggest, the benefit per lost life, macabre though that is). At the same time, only time will tell if we have introduced democracy that will be spread or merely encouraged jihadists to hold on all the stronger, while providing ample recruiting material as well for them.
I might also suggest it to be a possibility that we'll help Shi'as set up a state which will morph into an American hating Sha'ria, a la the mujahadeen.
In some ways, I miss the Soviet Union. Quite the stabilizing force.
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