Counting Straws in Iraq

Decimation.

It's a term that comes down to us from classical Latin. It originally referred to the killing of every tenth man, an extremely effective punishment used in the Roman army to discipline mutinous legions. The rebellious troops were divided into groups of ten, forced to draw straws, then kill the man among them with the shortest straw. Obviously, given the high cost to troop strength, even the militant Romans didn't resort to except in the most extreme cases.

Decimation came to my mind last night while I was watching the McLaughlin Group on PBS. Each week, they give the numbers of Americans that have been killed or wounded in Iraq. So far, over 1,000 Americans have died since the war started, and almost 13,000 have been wounded (by wounded, the producers specified dismembered, maimed, burned, or suffered mental breakdowns). Put it all together, and approximately 14,000 Americans have either been killed or wounded in Iraq.

Then I began to consider the fact that since the war began, we have had about 140,000 troops in Iraq at any given time. When you do the math, it's sobering. Roughly 10% of our forces n Iraq have been killed or wounded in the last year-and-a-half. And it was at this point that the word decimation popped into my head. Granted, our troops aren't being forced to draw straws and kill each other, but the fact remains that about 10% of our troops have been killed or wounded. That means that a soldier going to Iraq stands a one in ten chance of being killed, dismembered, maimed, burned, or mentally disabled. In short, our troops are being decimated in Iraq.

President Bush has stated publicly that deposing Saddam Hussein and "liberating" the people of Iraq was worth the cost in lives and money. President Bush has stated that even if he had known that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (and I have my doubts about the true extent of his knowledge) he wouldn't have done anything differently. He still would have driven our country into war against the advice of his own military and security advisors and against the wishes of the UN. Because he believes in his "core" that it was worth the sacrifice.

But I wonder about that 10% I just talked about. I wonder how the families of the 1,000+ dead soldiers feel about that sacrifice. And I wonder how the nearly 13,000 limbless, crippled, burned, and mentally broken soldiers feel about it. Would they have done everything exactly the same? Would they have wished President Bush to do everything exactly the same. After all, how many of us would accept those odds for a dubious cause? I mean, imagine if the president came before the American people and claimed that there was some vague threat to our nation and that the only way to eliminate that threat was to ask for volunteers. The volunteers would be lined up and someone would walk along the line and kill or maim every tenth person. How many of us would be willing to volunteer for that lottery? How many of us would accept those odds? How many of us would rather say, "Wait a minute. Surely, there must be some other way. Let's try some more diplomacy first." I know I sure as hell would.

I have a son who's going to Iraq as a combat medic. My son is not yet 19 years old. I'd like to see him celebrate his 20th birthday, but I don't like the odds he's facing over there. And I can't say that I believe he's going to be risking life and limb for a worthy cause.

Sure we deposed a cruel dictator, but there are cruel dictators all over the world that we do nothing about. Why this one and not the others? Sure we thought there were weapons of mass destruction (a claim that turned out not to be true), but there are several rogue nations with weapons of mass destruction that we do nothing about. Why these weapons and not the others? Sure we were told that Iraq was a threat, but there are a lot of dangerous countries that we do nothing about. Why this country and not the others?

Now many people reading this will think that I must be one of those bleeding heart liberals who are opposed to all wars and who want to placate dictators and despots at the cost of American sovereignty and security, but I'm not. I served in the military. So did my older brother. My old man served for twenty years with the National Security Agency, and I have an uncle who did two tours of duty in Viet Nam and one in Korea. I'm not a pacifist, but that doesn't mean I think war is the answer to all the world's problems.

War is an ugly affair that should only be undertaken when ALL other avenues have been exhausted. But our president chose not to do that. Instead, he chose to throw our country into an ill-planned war with an enemy he didn't understand. And the result is 13,000 Americans who have either lost their lives or had them changed forever for the worse and a worsening quagmire in Iraq that we are gong to find it harder and harder to extricate ourselves from with anything resembling dignity.

Meanwhile, the decimation continues.