Iraqi war senseless -- even to those who should know

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20031111tony1111p1.asp

War never fails to bring with it a plethora of contradictory values. Because civilians are slow to adopt the morality of the battlefield, we're often left to reconcile pre-war values of decency and fairness with whatever passes for wisdom once the shooting begins.

The Bush administration's Iraq policy would be easier to understand if the morality it produces weren't so cockeyed. These days, every previous notion of heroism has been upended like glitter drifting into the curved ceiling of a snow globe after a vigorous shake.

<snip>

After her Humvee crashed, it was up to Miller and the convoy's other survivors to protect their unconscious comrade. When the soldiers emerged from captivity three weeks later, they were amazed by the "national hero" hype surrounding Lynch. Miller was too polite to ask why he didn't get a $1 million book deal, too. Somehow he stopped short of telling Mike Wallace he'd gladly trade his heroic obscurity, Silver Star for valor included, for the tiniest piece of Lynch's lucrative dumb luck.

<snip>

This is a war in which a nation born of revolutionary fervor zips itself into an iron corset called the Patriot Act while the faithful ardor of liberty sputters in the cold wind of public indifference. What's not to like about a war with so many upside-down values?

I think I'd feel a lot better about this war if I could only understand its logic.