A Callous Calculus

There is one simple fact that stands out above all others when trying to understand the catastrophic failure that is the Bush administration’s foriegn policy. That fact is the sheer callousness of their calculus.

I understand how the Project for a New American Century folks think. They think they will get through this rough bit, that people will forget, and the shining, democratized, US-emminent-domain Middle East will bring showers of wine and tiny roses for generations of Americans to come, both from domestic sources and international actors.

The thing that works against them is akin to the six degrees of separation phenomenon that swept American pop culture a few years back. You see, the Americans are simply killing too many civilians. 500,000 or more in Iraq are dead as a result of the US presence there. 4,000 in Kabul and who knows how many across Afghanistan. Now a thousand in Lebanon from the US-sanctioned Isreali bombardment.

Each one of those dead civilians had an extended family who loved them, who had good wishes for their future, their success. Every dead child had a parent who wanted them to grow up, be healthy, happy, and find love. Every grandparent cherished their now dead grandchild. I won’t continue. It is too heartbreaking.

Let’s say for easy figuring each one of the dead had ten relatives and ten friends. Each one of those people will feel strongly about the circumstances that led to the death of their family member, loved one, friend. They will speak out, influencing their friends and associates. The Americans are making enemies at a staggering rate. They lost the hearts and minds they were trying to win.

Leave aside for the moment the moral decrepitude of any callous calculus of acceptable civilian casualties. The simple fact is, friends and family don’t get that logic (if you can call it that). They don’t accept it. And they hate. They hate as I would if my child were killed by a bomb.

So I say to my fellow Americans: get these people out of your government. They are leading you to ruin in more ways than one. Financial ruin. Moral ruin. A ruined standing among the nations of the world.

And to those who follow the ideology of “you have to break some eggs to make an omlette” or “you have to go to war to make peace”, I say you are lazy, weak-minded and arrogant. You haven’t a creative thought in your head. You are dealing from the bottom of an old, dog-eared deck that should have been tossed out with the last century. Your time has passed.