Quote:
Originally posted by lendaddy
It's awful there, it's hell I'm sure....that's war. It's not a lack of empathy, it's a logical rather than emotional approach to the problem. I can feel awful and weep for the soldiers and civilians that lost their lives while logically understanding that it is a cost of war.
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But that's where I think you are lacking a bit of perspective, or seeing other's perspective.
It's the "cost of war" issue - your last sentence.
It really should read "it is the cost of a necessary war," because that's what it presumes. Because if it's an illegitimate, unnecessary war, it's an illegitimate, unnecessary cost.
From your perpective, the Iraq war always was and continues to be necessary and legitimate, so you accept 3500 deaths as a legitimate cost of war. Assuming that perpective, you are correct, 3500 is a relatively small number in the context of a large scale war.
But when you assume the other perspective, the war is and/or continues to be illegitimate and unnecessary, then 3500 past, and an undetermined number going forward for the unforeseeable future, becomes a bigger issue. For someone holding that perspective, casualties (esp. continuing and future casulties) is a fair issue to raise. Because every single additional life we continue to lose is unnecessary, to the person with this perspective.