Taken from Andrew Sullivan's blog, "The Dish."
Montagne: Ten years later, nearly 5000 American troops dead, thousands more with wounds, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead or wounded. When you think about this, was it worth it?
Perle: I’ve got to say I think that is not a reasonable question. What we did at the time was done with the belief that it was necessary to protect this nation. You can’t a decade later go back and say we shouldn’t have done that.Neoconservatism: never look back; never question; never take responsibility; always avoid accountability. Just seek power. Then wage war.
2 comments:
Does it count that instead of 500,000 Americans dead, as in WWII, there has been some reflection, there has been some learning, there has been some unwillingness to allow maniacs to persist and to escalate their violence?
No doubt that every life lost is a terrible cost, but thankfully the loss was 1/1,000th of the loss in WWII, and one-tenth that of the Vietnam war. Maybe there will be more progress to the point where there are no maniacs, no need for action and no lives lost. We can only hope, as a contestant in a beauty pageant would say, for world peace.
Seems like progress to me, but there is still room to learn and understand, for sure.
To be direct in response to your question, I would say "no, it doesn't count at all."
Some things, like honesty and accountability for one's actions, are constants, and have nothing to do with the relativities you are raising.
Do I have no right to demand a certain standard of behavior and accountability from airlines, for example, because the physical conditions in steerage were horrific for my great-grandparents when they immigrated from Poland? Should I just be grateful travel is relatively easier nowadays?
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