Is the surge working? Some members of Congress might think so, but just ask one of the mothers of the nearly 4,000 American service members who have died as a result of our occupation of Iraq.
Better still, ask a single mother, in one of the poorest inner city families, whose child support has been funneled into the coffers of the state in which she lives to compensate for her welfare payments (NYT) Think of how much she would have benefited if only a fraction of the billions spent in Iraq went to cover the states' aid to dependent families program instead.
Oh, and while we're at it, why not ask one of the relatives of the thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children who have been slain to bring "democracy" to that country. While we, in this country, can sit comfortably back, and celebrate the assertion that casualties are down, one casualty in this illegal war is one casualty too many.
If we, as a nation, are so concerned about importing
representative government to foreign lands, why did we look the other
way when President Pervez Musharraf, of Pakistan, informed this
administration, in advance, that he was declaring martial law, and
suspending the constitution? If we're so concerned about making the
world safe from terrorists, where did the $11 billion we gave Musharraf
go, and can it be into the pockets of those who have been trying to
undermine "democracy" in Afghanistan?
If this administration is so concerned about democracy, then why don't
we invade Beijing whose human rights abuses are egregious, or North
Korea whose leader poses the most direct, and ongoing threat to world
peace, and stability of any? And, what about Khaddafi? He's been
neutralized as Musharraf appears to have been. Nobody buys silence
better than those American presidents who preach democracy, but whose
practices are surpassed only by mob bosses.
Civilizations measure the cost of war not merely in terms of
collateral, and reconstruction, but in terms of human cost. The cost to
our karma, for our assault on the Persian Gulf, is immeasurable and
equal to the loss of a parent for a small child on the outskirts of
Baghdad. That loss is our loss, too.
Were it possible to ask a former president, Thomas Jefferson, what he
thinks of this White House, and its rhetoric, he'd probably say "Don't
bother me, I'm sleeping." Oh, and as for George Washington, he'd be on
his way back to London by now.
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