Quote from the story:
"The president believes that every life is precious and he grieves for each one that is lost," deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said Tuesday.So, I'm thinking... western military deaths are probably the smallest fraction of deaths in this situation, compared to enemy combatant deaths and civilian deaths. I don't care so much about enemy combatant deaths, but civilian deaths is a little bit different.
It's hard to get an accurate count of Iraqi civilian deaths, but I bet it's pretty darn high. If we subtract out the number of Iraqis that would have died under the old regime, I bet it still far exceeds the number of people killed on 9/11.
So, we, as a nation, have answered violence with overwhelming violence. We responded in anger to an attack, and look where it's gotten us.
Lesson: next time, take a deep breath and get the facts right. And, if you do go in, plan for an after-victory program. We are the world's policemen. Like any New York City cop, we have to treat everybody with a certain minimal amount of civility.
