Is Iraq "Worth It"? Some say no. I'll admit that if my child or spouse had given their life over there that might influence my own opinion and I might think differently than I do. Over at the Washington Post, Robert Kagan addresses the question of 'whether this war was worth it' and makes some good points.

"One problem is that we always know what did happen as a result of war, but we never know what didn't happen. What if we had not gone to war in Europe in 1917, Korea in 1950, or even Vietnam in the 1960s? Would we have rued those decisions not to act as much as we now rue the decision not to drive Hitler out of the Rhineland in 1936? ... We know what happened as a result of not going to war in 1936. We know, in particular, that British efforts to avoid war ... did not prevent war at all but only delayed it." (And, I might add, strengthened Hitler's resolve and military capabilities. - James)

"A more intriguing question is whether a decision not to go to war in 2003 would have produced lasting peace or would only have delayed war until a later date -- as in the 1930s. There is a strong argument to be made that Hussein would have pushed toward confrontation and war at some point, no matter what we did. His Hitler-like megalomania does not seem to be in question. ... He fancied himself the new Saladin, much as Napoleon and Hitler had fancied themselves the new Caesar."  ¶ Monday, June 20, 2005