Wednesday December 20, 2006 Worth it?

Let me try to understand. I need to draw an analogy.

The fire in Iraq is growing and growing. Idiots over there are throwing gasoline and their furniture onto the fire and sniping at our firemen as we try to bring it under control. It's almost reached the out-of-control point where you pull back and let it burn.

Now someone says: “Let's throw some more firemen into the fray and hope that somehow more bodies can bring it under control”. Even the smart people in Washington are listening to the dumb ones and saying “Well, maybe it will work – I don't see how, but maybe they know something I don't know.”. After all, what's a few more firemen? Didn't they volunteer for hazardous duty? Let's just ignore the idiots over there that are throwing gasoline on the fire. The fact that all the people are clapping and chanting for the fire doesn't mean anything. I'm sure in their hearts they really love our firemen.

Obviously our leaders understand a lot more about the situation than I do. I'm sure that it's very important to our welfare that this fire in Iraq doesn't spread clear over to us. I'm sure that we know more about what's better for the Iraqis than they do. Once we build some fire stations over there and help them control their businesses and oilfields and help them understand that we are there as friends with their best interests at heart, they will welcome us with open hearts and flowers as their liberators.

Meanwhile, we estimate that the total cost for this expedition may end up costing 2 Trillion dollars. That's a lot! That's a lot more than we pay to educate our kids or to medicate the uninsured. That's a lot of Katrinas and earthquakes and forest fires and floods.

I don't see the logic. To me it seems a huge waste of lives and dollars that could be used in so many other helpful ways in our own country. I feel so bad for the wounded and dead and their families that they tried so hard to do their duty and that their efforts were misdirected and wasted.

30 or 40 years from now when we are friends with our former enemies (England, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Japan, Germany again, Italy, Korea, China, Vietnam, Russia, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, etc), some will wonder whether the sacrifice was worth it.

I wonder now.