Ten Years Gone, The Real Costs Of War

There are days when it all seems to be too much.

We're not just talking about the massive pile of news stories that came pouring in like a flood as this week began. The CPAC recap. The GOP "autopsy" of why they failed in 2012. The banking debacle in Cyprus. The Stubenville rape trial verdict. The media failing to ethically cover the Stuebenville trial. Hillary Clinton announcing her support for same sex marriage. The majority of Americans - nearly six in ten - agreeing with Hillary Clinton on same sex marriage. The release of the Lyndon Johnson tapes that revealed the 1968 "October Surprise," where Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon sabotaged Johnson's peace deal to end the Vietnam War, four days before the election.

Did you miss that last one? You're not the only one. Millions of Americans did. Which is, sadly, the problem.

Americans have purposely ignored the fact that at least two American presidents in the last fifty years have lied us into war. Now, it's been revealed that a presidential candidate actively sabotaged peace in order to prolong the Vietnam war and guarantee his election to the Presidency.

These are the real costs of mad men's dreams - and of the laziness and denial that keep us all from preventing those dreams from becoming reality.

As we stated in our commentary on December 19, 2011, the day after the Iraq War officially ended, 4,474 Americans died in America's war of choice in Iraq. The numbers of American deaths related to PTSD and other post-battlefield trauma are unknown, though estimates range from a few more thousand Americans, to potentially as many as 10,000 Americans dying as a result of the Iraq War. As we noted in that commentary, the estimated Iraqi deaths from that conflict - both military and civilian - range from 60,000 to one million.

The final cost of war operations in Iraq is estimated to be $800 to $900 billion, when all is said and done. Because we're not entirely done in Iraq yet. We still have 220 American service members at the American consulate in Iraq, in what used to be the Green Zone. In practical dollars, the estimates of the total cost of George and Dick's misadventure in Iraq will eventually end up somewhere between $1.7 and $6 trillion dollars.

Those cost figures are staggering, but in the end, those numbers only represent money. The lives that were lost unnecessarily in Iraq can't possibly be counted in dollars and cents. The Iraq war also cost us lives in Afghanistan, since Iraq was a diversion from our original goal of destroying the leaders of Al-Qaeda.

As we said back in 2011, at the end of the war, "No matter how the final tally is collected, we know the cost of the Iraq War was too high."

President Eisenhower warned us all about the creeping danger of the military industrial complex, and he was right to do so. But, sadly, we didn't listen to him any more than we're likely to listen to the warnings of modern scholars.

It's true that there's no one universal solution to ending our macabre American fascination with perpetual war. There are several things that would help, though. Yes, Americans have to pay attention to our politics more. We also can't allow just a small number of our fellow citizens to fight any future wars we might get involved in. Drastically cutting down the size and cost of our military would help America too. Paying attention to the advice of those who've deeply studied why we go to war would also help greatly.

Most importantly, though, we need to remember that the real cost of war is not measured in dollars and cents, but in the numbers of our fellow Americans unnecessarily and senselessly gone.

The Clueless Clown Hate Circus

For most Americans, the weather this weekend was a nearly perfect way to say goodbye to the season of winter. With moderate temperatures and mostly clear skies, if Americans were watching TV this weekend, they were likely catching college championship games, and filling out their brackets for March Madness.

That's likely a very good thing for the Republican Party, as the clueless clown hate circus, better known as CPAC - the Conservative Political Action  Conference - was in full-on crazy mode for much of the weekend, showcasing exactly why the GOP lost so badly in 2012. If you were looking for a moderate Republican at CPAC this weekend, you might as well have been hunting for a real leprechaun while stone cold sober.

From Karl Rove swiping at Sarah Palin for leaving her governorship halfway through, to Palin firing back mockingly at Rove, the conference that was supposed to help Republicans answer the question of why they lost the 2012 election became an example of why they might not win in 2014 either.

From attendees at CPAC, there seemed to be no real consensus why the GOP lost the 2012 election. From the media, to GOP consultants, to Hurricane Sandy and Governor Chris Christie, conservatives kept coming up with all kinds of excuses about why they lost the last election. RNC Chairman Reince Preibus even announced a $10 million dollar plan by the RNC to "beef up" their outreach to minorities.

Never once did any of the attendees admit openly and publicly that the biggest problem the Republican Party has at the moment isn't just failed messaging or outreach strategies - it's the outdated, ineffective, and plainly offensive policies of the extremists running the Party.

Nowhere was this more evident than at the CPAC forums.

One particular forum sponsored by the extremist group Tea Party Patriots was nominally on "racial tolerance." It ended up being a primer on how not to handle the topic of racism. During the 'Q&A' portion of the forum, a couple of white supremacists and the panel's moderator stirred the crowd into a frenzy with idea that slaves should have been thankful to their masters for food and shelter.

The intolerance didn't stop there.

Throughout the conference, attendees blasted Ohio GOP Senator Rob Portman's decision last week to come out in favor of same sex marriage, after his own son came out of the closet. Rampant misogyny and patronizing attitudes were also pervasive throughout CPAC, as Ana Marie Cox pointedly noted for The Guardian.

Whether it was the delusional ambitions of Wisconsin's current Governor Scott Walker, or the anti-Muslim rants of George W. Bush's former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, what the Republican Party and the conservative movement proved this weekend is that they haven't learned anything from their massive losses in the 2012 elections.

Sadly, that's not surprising coming from the clueless clown hate circus that the annual CPAC meetings have become.

For sensible, moderate Republicans, we hate to remind you, but this is the face of your party today. Either take control of the wheel or expect to go over the edge with these clowns soon.

Friday Funday: Truly Important Things

The Ides of March are upon us today, and while our week hasn't been nearly as bad as Julius Caesar's was 2,057 years ago, it wasn't exactly a Roman holiday.

The sequester cuts continue to grind on, spreading more economic pain daily, as many had forecast - including us. President Obama continued his somewhat pointless outreach to Congressional Republicans this week, while some of those same GOP stalwarts postured and pouted, yet got nothing done.

Congressional Democrats were actually hard at work this week, putting forward two balanced, honest budget plans, and even passing out of the Senate Judiciary Committee a renewal of the assault weapons ban. Add to the crazy news cycle this week a sabre-rattling North Korea, clouded thinking in China, the election of a new pope, and the crazy political rumschpringe that is CPAC, and you can likely understand why we're incredibly glad it's Friday.

It's easy enough in the whirling mix of the professional media to end up jaded and bowing to the political media idol of partisan politics - without much thought to more nuanced political positions, let alone truly consequential ideas.

As we were reminded by a detailed story in the Hartford Courant this week, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was just three months ago - and there are things far more important than arrogant Senators and partisan political battles.

To start with, the accomplishments and activities of some our friends and professional colleagues.

Our congratulations go out to both Chris Hayes and Ed Schultz of MSNBC, who are shifting their time slots on that cable network. With new opportunities for both men, and hopefully more time each day for Ed to spend on his radio show and with his wife Wendy - who successfully battled cancer last year - we have to send our professional congratulations and best wishes on their great new projects.

If you're in Washington, DC this weekend, we highly recommend you check out a screening of a new series about politics in the nation's capitol called "Chasing The Hill," being screened at the Letelier Theater in Georgetown. Even if you're not in DC, you can watch some of the series online at chasingthehill.com, where you can see a few talented people that we happen to know. If you liked "The West Wing," we are very certain you'll enjoy this show.

If you're at home, or getting ready to travel, you might want to slip over to SnowByNight.com and check out the latest chapters in the ongoing graphic novel helmed by the husband of one of our editors. Crisp, rich looking printed copies are available for those of us who like our cartoon artwork the old fashioned way, though thankfully, you can also read the comic on your favorite digital device.

If you're looking for something more sports oriented, the Husker men's basketball team is still alive in the Big Ten Tournament, a sign that bodes well for the team's move to the Pinnacle Arena next year. There is plenty of basketball on television this weekend - or if you're in Florida or Arizona, you might even catch a Spring Training baseball game.

Whatever you do this weekend, take some time for yourself, and for your friends and family, to just enjoy the truly important things in life.

The rest of it - the partisan politics, the crazy international news, and all the rest of our insane modern world - it'll all wait until you get back.

This weekend, focus on what's really important.