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June 19, 2005
Is The Iraq War Worth The Price?
Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted in his June 19, 2005 column for The Washington Post that: Wars remain subjects of debate not just because their "necessity" is in doubt but also because their results are mixed. No war has produced unmitigated successes. The Civil War did not completely "free" African Americans, who remained oppressed for another century. World War I destroyed Europe, and helped pave the way for the rise of Hitler and the Soviet Union. World War II defeated Hitler but enslaved half of Europe behind the Iron Curtain and introduced the world to nuclear warfare. The Persian Gulf War drove Hussein out of Kuwait but helped produce the Osama bin Laden we know today. Add to that the millions of innocent lives lost, and the toll of these wars, generally regarded as "successful," is high. Does that mean those wars were not "worth it"?
He said, "Demanding unmixed results and guarantees against the unintended consequences of war is as unrealistic as demanding absolute confidence in the "necessity" of going to war in the first place. See "Whether This War Was Worth It: In Analyzing Iraq, Consider the Effects of Having Done Nothing" for more of Mr. Kagan's analysis..
Posted by Munir Umrani at June 19, 2005 06:06 PM
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