Foreign deaths a price worth paying - again - for the US regime
The moral bankruptcy of the US ruling class was on display again this week, with the resurgence of the obscene argument that immense numbers of foreign deaths caused by US actions are a price worth paying for the achievement of US foreign policy goals.
Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright notoriously made this assertion about the Iraqi deaths caused by sanctions:
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
FAIR
This week, Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the same argument, although now those deaths of foreigners are justified merely to provide a chance of achieving Washington's foreign policy objectives:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan do not assure those countries will become successful democracies. But she said the chance for success is worth the price.
Rice: Democracy Uncertain in Iraq, Afghanistan, Washington Post, June 14th 2006
Americans generally seem unconcerned at their leaders' willingness to decide for other people how many of their lives are worth sacrificing for an American cause. I suspect they might not take the reverse situation so smugly.
Imagine the American hysteria we'd all have to sit through if Iran's President Ahmadinejad were to make some public speculation about how many dead Americans would be "a price worth paying" for Iran to be safe from attack!
Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright notoriously made this assertion about the Iraqi deaths caused by sanctions:
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
FAIR
This week, Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the same argument, although now those deaths of foreigners are justified merely to provide a chance of achieving Washington's foreign policy objectives:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan do not assure those countries will become successful democracies. But she said the chance for success is worth the price.
Rice: Democracy Uncertain in Iraq, Afghanistan, Washington Post, June 14th 2006
Americans generally seem unconcerned at their leaders' willingness to decide for other people how many of their lives are worth sacrificing for an American cause. I suspect they might not take the reverse situation so smugly.
Imagine the American hysteria we'd all have to sit through if Iran's President Ahmadinejad were to make some public speculation about how many dead Americans would be "a price worth paying" for Iran to be safe from attack!
posted by Randal at 6:41 AM
2 Comments:
Let's be clear about who is causing these deaths. OK, we may have destabilized Iraq by invading it in the first place. OK, we may have flouted international law and opinion. But it's the Iraqis that are killing themselves! If they are stupid enough to do it, that's their business. Anyway, arab lives are not priced the same as US lives, as Saddam has shown. When we count all the thousands, they probably amount to a few dozen equivalent US marines' lives.
Go for it Bush, Go go Condi!!
Let's be clear about who is responsible for these deaths.
In each case, the person who pulls the trigger is directly responsble, and so too are Blair and Bush for destroying the Iraqi state and creating a situation where lawlessness and conflict replaced peace.
Until the Americans leave the Iraqis to sort out their own problems, the US regime and the American people will continue to be responsible for the ongoing death and destruction in Iraq. If Americans prefer not to shoulder that responsibility, then perhaps they should not have taken it upon themselves to invade.
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