22 January 2007
What Price War?
On Sunday, 21 January 2007, Tim Russert commented on the NBC News that the American public was questioning whether the Iraq war was worth the price. That was an odd characterization of their displeasure with Bush Administration policy. It begs the question, What price is the war in Iraq worth?
If the public has concluded that it was deceived by the Administration into supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then the entire expense has surely been a waste. If the public was taken in by the DOD strategy espoused by former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld that Saddam could be overthrown on the cheap and that the Iraqi people would welcome their liberators with flowers, then it has retreated a long way from the aspiration of President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address over 40 years ago—“We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Have we truly advanced the cause of liberty by invading Iraq? We certainly have not created security for its people. How free can they be if they are in danger of losing their lives?
It is not the mission of the U.S. to restore order to a state that was only kept together by brutal repression. And if it is the responsibility of the U.S. Government to assure access for its citizens and corporations to energy resources in a volatile region of the world, then the price we pay for that oil will include the “external diseconomy” of human suffering. That was already included in the price when Saddam ruled—back to square one.
On Sunday, 21 January 2007, Tim Russert commented on the NBC News that the American public was questioning whether the Iraq war was worth the price. That was an odd characterization of their displeasure with Bush Administration policy. It begs the question, What price is the war in Iraq worth?
If the public has concluded that it was deceived by the Administration into supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then the entire expense has surely been a waste. If the public was taken in by the DOD strategy espoused by former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld that Saddam could be overthrown on the cheap and that the Iraqi people would welcome their liberators with flowers, then it has retreated a long way from the aspiration of President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address over 40 years ago—“We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Have we truly advanced the cause of liberty by invading Iraq? We certainly have not created security for its people. How free can they be if they are in danger of losing their lives?
It is not the mission of the U.S. to restore order to a state that was only kept together by brutal repression. And if it is the responsibility of the U.S. Government to assure access for its citizens and corporations to energy resources in a volatile region of the world, then the price we pay for that oil will include the “external diseconomy” of human suffering. That was already included in the price when Saddam ruled—back to square one.
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