> -----Original Message----- > From: Nick McClure [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 8:32 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: RE: What could $456 billion buy. > > How does one quantify that?
I don't think we're able to quantify either position: either that we're safer or that we're not. It is clear that the war has lead to more vocal hatred of the US in some groups, but it's unclear whether it's actually led to more hatred. It's hard for anybody to seriously get up and defend Saddam (note that the extremists screaming "free Iraq" never seemed to scream "bring back Saddam") - he was essentially a secular and incredibly selfish ruler - not really fit for any group to back. However the Taliban WAS fit in that way: there are powerful pushes in Afghanistan to bring back religious Taliban control. Iraq distracted us almost completely from Afghanistan so I would say that's a potentially bigger long-term threat. We've also stretched ourselves so thin that Iran and North Korea have essentially taken over the playgrounds - they are also both very dangerous long-term threats. All told, looking at the evidence, I do think that we're less safe (perhaps even much less safe) because of the Iraq war. In any case I don't think that you can claim with any kind of certainty that the war in any way lessened the chance for an attack (much less a nuclear attack) on a target like NYC. That's actually one of my biggest peeves about war proponents: that ridiculous argument that war is working because we've not had another 9/11. It's a child's argument, a simpleton's argument. We've never had anything like 9/11 in our history. It's hard enough to support to a trend from a single extreme event like that, it's impossible (and stupid) to support a trend from the absence of one. To be simple it's difficult (but at least reasonable) to say that we've systemic security issues because 9/11 happened. It's clear - it did happen. Now it could have been a fluke, it could have been luck and perhaps we didn't have actual security problems - after all it never happened BEFORE. However to say that a lack of a 9/11 -class event proves that some strategy is working is ridiculous: it never happened before and (so far) hasn't happened again. No decision can reasonably take credit for that - especially not one as tangential to the original attack as invading Iraq. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJQ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:234585 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
