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Today marks the first day that the number of Americans who have died in Iraq is greater than the number of Americans who died in the WTC on 9/11. I don't mean to be glib in pointing that out. Measuring such sacrifice and suffering is a difficult, if not impossible task. For those of us who have not lost loved ones in either tragedy, it's easy to compare the numbers. For those who have suffered the ultimate loss under the short-sighted and dangerous policies of our administration, it's much more difficult to see a loved one as a number. I only mean to point that out to say that I have nothing but compassion for families who have lost their sons or daughters or sisters or brothers or mothers or fathers as a result of equal parts arrogance and ignorance on the part of our leaders.
Back to the point that I wish to make -- that now we have lost more of our countrymen as a result of the conflict in Iraq than in the towers on 9/11 (and indeed, shortly we will have lost more in Iraq than in all of the attacks during 9/11) -- the bald-faced deceit that rears it's head when our leaders say that they are protecting us. Night after night, we hear constantly from Fox, CNN, and NBC about how our leaders are focused on making us safer. Day after day, we read in the papers that they are committed to a fight against terrorism; determined to prevent yet another attack on American soil.
Today, if I could say anything to them and be heard, it would be this: take a good, long, hard look in the mirror, sirs. For my part, I do not believe that they set out to murder the close to 3,000 Americans who have now died in Iraq nor the more than half a million Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives. They believed in the principle value that their cause was built upon: greed. Of course, they knew that we would not send our sons and daughters off to die in a desert to make Halliburton's bottom line a little bit fatter, so they spun lies for us. They told us Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not. They told us Saddam Hussein had a working relationship with al-Qaeda. He did not. They told us that he was torturing his people. Now there is more torture happening under the shade of the American flag. They told us the Iraqis wanted to be liberated. Freedom is wonderful, but I'm sure they didn't want the civil war that Iraq is now steeped in.
Recounting the numerous lies, half-truths, and spinning of this administration on Iraq is beyond my abilities as both a writer and as a citizen. The only thing which I wish to make clear is my utter disgust with this administration. They took the nearly unanimous support offered to them by the American people after 9/11 and turned it into the tombstone for some 2,753 of our kin. They turned it into the mass grave of some half a million Iraqis.
At the beginning of this post, I noted that it is perhaps unfair to compare the death tolls between 9/11 and Iraq. The life of a son or the life of a daughter means everything to their parents. For them, the numbers won't figure. The numbers, for them, are meaningless.
I propose, however, that the precipitating and perpetuating forces of this conflict have an entirely different means of comparison - to which I ask the following question: has it been worth it? Have the deaths of thousands been worth the support of your base, Mr. Bush? Has the suffering of countless American families been worth the satiation of your share-holders, Mr. Cheney? Has it been worth it?
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