John's Blog: The Iraq War: Pro and Con

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The Iraq War: Pro and Con

Wednesday, April 09, 2003
I have generally been against this war, for a variety of reasons, to the point of standing in a vigil with a local peace group every Wednesday over my lunch hour. Unlike many peoples' stereotype of an anti-war protester, however, I do grant the complexity of the issue, and that there may be good reasons to do it. In the company of my fellow "peaceniks", my spirit would like to be against all war, but my head is not yet convinced.

Much of my opposition to this particular war, I think, is a combination of concern for the long-term effects in our relations to the rest of the world, as well as a suspicion of the motives of many of those who are pushing for the war. Bush may (!) believe that it is purely good against evil, and it is all about removing Saddam from power just because he (Saddam) is a horrible person (which he is), but I doubt that everyone around him has these same motives, and it would be naive to think that that is the only reason we are doing it. Even his motive is suspect, as it is never good to presume that your side is all good and incapable of sin. Pride is one of the Roman Catholic church's major sins, isn't it? And there's the proverb about pride going before a fall.

I could go on, but for now, I'll enumerate some costs and benefits that I'm thinking about as the war seems to be winding down, which I'll probably make into the sign to hold at today's vigil. The sign will be entitled "SCORECARD".













Benefits
Costs


  • Saddam is gone (but where?)

  • Thousands of Iraqis love us (so far)

  • 1200+ civilians killed

  • 5000+ civilians injured (Source: CNN.com, page since removed)

  • Significant danger of political chaos and humanitarian crisis

  • Hundreds of thousands around the world hate us

  • God/Allah knows how many more al-Quaida recruits

  • Undermining (further) of U.N. credibility

  • 120+ Coalition casualties

  • $100+ billion US taxpayer money


Worth it? What do you think?

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2 comments

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