2008 Woodie Awards
Crying over spilt milk does not clean it up
By: Kampire Bahana
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Forum
As we approach the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war, some would argue that it solves nothing to look at what the war has cost us.
It solves nothing, in the middle of an economic crisis, to reflect on the $600 billion that has been added to the national debt. (Experts such as Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz put the true cost of the war closer to $3 trillion).
There is no point in questioning the past five years' exorbitant military expenditure which, according to Hillary Clinton's best calculations, could "provide health care for all 47 million uninsured Americans and quality pre-kindergarten for every American child, solve the housing crisis once and for all, make college affordable for every American student and provide tax relief to tens of millions of middle-class families."
It does nothing to dwell on the 90,000 Iraqis who have lost their lives in the war, the 3.9 million refugees created by the crisis and the 14 million Iraqis who today live in absolute poverty.
It is unproductive, in fact some people have even cried "unpatriotic," to list the names of the 3,988 American soldiers who have died fighting that shadowy enemy called terrorism on Iraqi soil.
Some have argued that reflecting on the propaganda and the blatant lies that led the country to another war does not change the fact that we are in this mess today.
Since it is painful, unpatriotic or unproductive to reflect on where the past five years have brought us, then how are we to learn from our mistakes?
If we examine the motives that led this nation to choose war - not the motives of greedy, war-mongering politicians, but the motives of the normal American families who have sacrificed their own sons to fight for a cause they believe in - we find valid fears about an insecure world.
Unforeseeable terrorist attacks, possible environmental collapse, terrible epidemics only an airplane voyage from your doorstep, corrupt corporations and economic insecurity - it is only normal and right to feel threatened.
It solves nothing, in the middle of an economic crisis, to reflect on the $600 billion that has been added to the national debt. (Experts such as Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz put the true cost of the war closer to $3 trillion).
There is no point in questioning the past five years' exorbitant military expenditure which, according to Hillary Clinton's best calculations, could "provide health care for all 47 million uninsured Americans and quality pre-kindergarten for every American child, solve the housing crisis once and for all, make college affordable for every American student and provide tax relief to tens of millions of middle-class families."
It does nothing to dwell on the 90,000 Iraqis who have lost their lives in the war, the 3.9 million refugees created by the crisis and the 14 million Iraqis who today live in absolute poverty.
It is unproductive, in fact some people have even cried "unpatriotic," to list the names of the 3,988 American soldiers who have died fighting that shadowy enemy called terrorism on Iraqi soil.
Some have argued that reflecting on the propaganda and the blatant lies that led the country to another war does not change the fact that we are in this mess today.
Since it is painful, unpatriotic or unproductive to reflect on where the past five years have brought us, then how are we to learn from our mistakes?
If we examine the motives that led this nation to choose war - not the motives of greedy, war-mongering politicians, but the motives of the normal American families who have sacrificed their own sons to fight for a cause they believe in - we find valid fears about an insecure world.
Unforeseeable terrorist attacks, possible environmental collapse, terrible epidemics only an airplane voyage from your doorstep, corrupt corporations and economic insecurity - it is only normal and right to feel threatened.
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Justin
posted 3/20/08 @ 4:48 PM EST
So what do you deem as a "relatively stable country?" Is it one that murdered, well no, executed any person who opening opposed the dictator? One where mass graves where scattered throughout the desert? Or one which poverty strickened the country as one sole man and his cronies took the revenue of the country?
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