The Sickness That Is War

Trey Smith

A day after visiting Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to reporters in Turkey on Saturday and said this, according to the DoD’s own site:

“There is no question that the United States was divided going into that war,” he said. “But I think the United States is united coming out of that war. We all recognize the tremendous price that has been paid in lives, in blood. And yet I think we also recognize that those lives were not lost in vain. . . .

“As difficult as [the Iraq war] was,” and the cost in both American and Iraqi lives, “I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world,” he added.

The “price” that Panetta believes is “worth it” includes dead civilians in the hundreds of thousands, countless more maimed, millions of Iraqis internally and externally displaced (a huge number who remain so), tens of thousands of American soldiers killed and/or injured, and at least $1 trillion spent, contributing to “austerity” so severe that Panetta himself has been urging cuts to core social programs.
~ from Panetta: Iraq War Was “Worth It” by Glenn Greenwald ~

We see this play out all the time. It doesn't matter which side won or lost, the spin is still the same. The big wigs -- those who do NOT fight the wars -- almost always think it was "worth it." The war had to be fought for national honor or national interests (always a nebulous term).

The reason WHY war almost always is worthy for the elite is that it brings them two things: wealth and status. They prize these desires above all others -- including all the faceless people who are killed and maimed.

War always makes somebody rich or richer. If wars were bad for the corporate bottom line, they would be few and far between. Diplomacy would spring to the forefront and the titans of industry would apply immense pressure on governments to avoid war at almost any cost.

Too often, unfortunately, diplomacy is bad for business. Killing faceless human beings brings lucrative federal dollars and what wealthy mega corporation doesn't want to pocket public money?

Except for the few who became insanely richer as a result of the war in Iraq, it was an abysmal failure. Not only did it destroy the nation of Iraq, but it is also responsible for the impending destruction of the US.

But hey, that's okay. Why worry about trivial human life when there are trillions of dollars to be made!!!