The Cost Of The War

3/25/2007 11:37:00 PM UTC +0300

We often hear about "the cost of the war", whether it be measured in dollars or in lives. Maybe we hear about how President Bush wants to spend another 10 billion dollars in Iraq, or maybe about how we just lost 50 more troops in some particular month, and it doesn't really matter what these numbers are because most Americans have little perspective on what it really means to spend 20 billion dollars or to be killed.

There is a great deal going on over here that I know nothing about. In particular, there has been an increase in bombings around Baghdad the last day or two. I can hear them off in the distance and I'm not overly concerned, since this is all taking place a couple kilometers away and my particular location isn't a very interesting target.

I do know about how some of these "costs" are incurred though. I've discussed how my office is spending money to equip Iraqi Security Forces. There are lives lost in this process as well, and it's worthwhile to understand how these casualties are occurring.

Everything we purchase must be moved. While we try to purchase as much as we can through local vendors, many items must be brought in through sea or air ports, or driven across the border from neighboring countries. How is this done? You can't simply drive a BREM down the highway. Vehicles of this sort must be loaded onto a heavy trailer and driven in as large a group as can be safely protected by an armed escort. The problem here is that this sort of movement is an obvious target, especially when there's nothing but sand as far as you can see.

People are killed on these missions. At first, it seemed lamentably frivolous to die while trying to move a water tanker from Iraq's central depot to one of the regionally-distributed units. But upon further consideration, this mission bears military necessity just like any other. The Iraqi military cannot operate without the ability to move large volumes of water; therefore any lives lost in moving water tankers may as well be lives lost in the military operations that are made possible by these water tankers. That's how I look at it anyway.

There's no doubt that we have troops breaking down doors and engaging enemies in populated areas. People are killed doing this as well. Depending on your general opinions about the war, you may see this as an inappropriate way to risk the lives of our loved ones. But this is not necessarily the norm, as I suspect many observers presume. Perhaps being killed trying to bring water to a poverty-stricken community is a more noble act?

archive | 4 comments