[antimedia] antimedia: People whine about the cost of the Iraq war....

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Posted by antimedia:
People whine about the cost of the Iraq war....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1175222738.shtml


   ....in both blood and treasure. Beldar [1]demolishes the argument
   without even breaking a sweat.

     Many people on the left, on the right, and in the center have
     remarked â and correctly so â on the enormous difference between
     the Iraq War and, for example, either of the World Wars, in terms
     of the sacrifices the American public has been asked to make. The
     sacrifices asked of the public in those other wars were
     non-trivial, and they weren't just for show. Rubber and petroleum,
     for example, are commodities that get used up very rapidly in
     wartime, and for which synthetic substitutes or alternate
     production processes were just becoming available in the 1940s.
     Japan seized Indonesia precisely to guarantee its own supply of
     those commodities; the southern half of Germany's invasion of the
     Soviet Union was directed at seizing the strategically essential
     oil fields of the Caucasus (in part so the Germans could make
     synthetic rubber out of the oil there). And America, in addition to
     building the network of government-owned (but industry run)
     petrochemical plants along the Texas gulf coast that remain a
     backbone of our petrochemical economy today, instituted rationing
     to ensure that the military had the rubber and petroleum it needed
     to fight and win the war. People had to patch their flat tires, run
     them bald, or just do without, and gasoline was rationed too.
     But of course, World War II was not just a "world war," it was a
     "total war." The total strength of the U.S. armed forces by the end
     of that war was over 12 million men and women, and we built more
     entire airplanes during World War II than we've ever had individual
     soldiers stationed in Iraq. Our modern military forces were able to
     topple, in a matter of weeks and with amazingly few casualties, the
     armed forces of Iraq that had withstood years of conventional
     warfare, and that had inflicted and taken hundreds of thousands of
     casualties, against Iran just a few years earlier. But they're just
     that damned good, God bless them. And yes, we were able to do that
     without having to stop manufacturing new cars (to switch the auto
     plants to tank production), and without having to ration gas or
     rubber, and without having to draft millions of new soldiers.
     If it's your husband or your sister who's been killed or wounded in
     Iraq, it's as horrible a tragedy for your family today as it was
     for the American families of the 1940s; so I don't mean to minimize
     or trivialize the casualties we have suffered. And yes, we've spent
     a whopping bunch of money on the Iraq War too.
     But we could double, or triple, or grow ten-fold our current
     commitments in Iraq â of course that would take a while to do, but
     I'm talking hypothetically â and still not make a fraction of a
     shadow of a dent in the American economy, or in everyday Americans'
     lives, as compared to the upheavals that World War II created.

   The problem is and always has been cowardice and avarice. Our
   politicians are much more interested in self-aggrandizement and
   self-enrichment than they are in what's good for the country.
   So, while everyone was in a agreement before the war began, the
   Democrats saw a political opening when Joe Wilson pandered his lies to
   the media and they dove in, without any regard to the damage it would
   do to us or to the world. And some Republicans, cowering in fear at
   the onslaught of lies from the Democrats and the media, caved in and
   began attacking the President. Again, with no regard to the lasting
   damage it could do to this country and to the world.
   One of [2]the comments to Beldar's article is quite telling.

     I get very irritated at the "sacrafice" meme, as well. WW2 called
     for great sacrafice in terms or rationing, etc. but it was total
     war and we were afterall coming out of a DEPRESSION! Nobody had
     anything. Now, our greatest weapon/asset is our fricking economy.
     Thats why one of GW's first priorities after 9/11 was to ensure
     that that asset was protected. The sacrafice that was (and still
     is) needed for this new war isn't material things or manpower. It
     is making sacrafices to protect and enhance the most critical
     factor in this conflict -- our national will to win. That means
     that politics stops at the border. That if you truly dissent, you
     keep it inside the tent. Instead of sacrafice, we got active
     resistance from the left. They didn't and don't give a F--- about
     supporting the national interest. They have treated this conflict
     at a partisan wedge/weapon from the day they voted for it and the
     country be damned! Where woulod Iraq be now if a consistent,
     unified message of national will to win had been in place from the
     beginning? If every problem had been an opportunity to get better,
     instead of a chance to take internationally public pot shots at
     GWB?

   Where would Iraq be indeed? And how many Iraqis would be alive today
   if America had been united and focused on the mission?
   Those days are long gone, however. The best we can hope for is that
   America can survive the present divisiveness and somehow turn the mess
   we have now into a victory. The alternative is far too discouraging to
   even consider.

References

   1. http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2007/03/fish_barrel_law.html
   2. http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2007/03/fish_barrel_law.html#c64790246