How To Value A Life

Just a quick thought. Lots of things annoy me about the President's well-worn line of reasoning that we need to continue the fight in Iraq so that we don't have to fight the enemy at home. For one, my guess is that the victims of the bombings in London and Spain would argue that we are, in fact, fighting them at home.

That's not what bothers me the most, however. The most disturbing thing about this line of reasoning is that the President is implicitly acknowledging that American lives are, in his view, more valuable than Iraqi or Afghan lives. It is a point that I think should be discussed more not only for its moral implications, but as a matter of strategy in the "Global War on Terror."

Obviously, I don't want open war erupting on the Sixteenth Street Mall, but neither the Iraqi or Afghan people were the targets of the 9/11 attacks. Yet, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans are being asked to sacrifice their lives so that more Americans do not have to do so. In a struggle that will likely span our lifetimes and beyond, those that can win the hearts and minds of the Islamic world will likely prevail. By articulating to the Islamic world that we believe that American lives have more intrinsic worth than the lives of those living in the Middle East, we likely seal our fate as the vanquished in this war.