The campus conservative’s October 17 article “Iraqis give terrorists the purple finger once again” is well argued and persuasive; but it fails to give an objective analysis of the situation at hand. Though democracy may prevail in Iraq–and, as a good-hearted liberal, I hope it does–political decisions of national importance such as war must always be examined in terms of their opportunity costs. Shortly after 9/11, unification and a strong sense of national identity permeated throughout the streets of America: every vehicle seemed to boast an American flag, and patriotic energy was ubiquitous. The rest of the developed world largely supported America’s pursuit for the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks. Academics were as plentiful as their advice. Clinton’s surpluses were still ringing in and the world seemed to fear and respect the hitherto unchallenged United States of America. Then came the invasion of Iraq… Let me clear something up: I hope our endeavors in Iraq are successful; I hope Iraq prospers and sets an example that helps spread democracy throughout the Middle East; I hope Iraq becomes a valuable and reliable trading partner and ally for the United States. But this best case scenario would seem fruitless considering the prices we’ve paid: the US is no longer unified; a recent poll shows that the rest of the world views China more favorably than the US; academics–General Eric Shinseki, Richard A. Clarke, Gregory N. Mankiw, all Republicans–were fired by President Bush for their accurate and sobering estimates of the costs of the occupation of Iraq; America has spent nearly $300 billion and lost over 1,900 American lives and approximately 100,000 Iraqi lives; furthermore, due to the lack of resources being squandered in Iraq, the US was unable to use the threat of force to prevent North Korea from creating seven nuclear weapons and Iran from strengthening its nuclear program; the US was unable to truncate the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan; the US was unable to provide adequate funding to the tsunami-stricken areas of southeast Asia; the US was unable to reinforce the levees surrounding New Orleans; the hunt for Bin Laden was replaced with the pursuit for Sadaam Hussein; and a world that feared and respected the US started to realize that America’s military prowess was largely an inflated and self-designated proclamation. It will take many years to evaluation accurately the success of Iraq as a democratic nation; but by giving up all of the opportunities made available after September 11, and by evaluating our response to that tragic day in terms of resource management and opportunity cost, the occupation of Iraq was a tremendous strategic blunder on the part of the United States and its political leaders.

Jon Piron [email protected] (702) 287-8604 CAS, English News writer for the Centre View (part of the Connection Newspapers) President of the Economic Foundation for Higher Education Previously published articles in the Vancouver Sun and the Ubyssey