It should be obvious by now that I'm generally against warfare

and I think that our administration unfortunately succeeded at a shell game to go into Iraq...but I can't really host some important counters on blog*spot, as some of them require files to be in the same directory as this page. But you can click your way:

• for the monetary Cost of War in Iraq
  
• for American and Coaltition Casualites
  
• for Reported Civilian Deaths

I'm not saying it's all bad...I mean, yes, Saddam Hussein is captured and out of power. But a full-scale invasion of a sovereign country on shaky evidence cannot be erased with good results, and the horrors of war still make it reprehensible. War can only be just if it is truly unavoidable. This is not a just war, and represents a failure--not a victory--for America. True leaders recognise this. I think that two quotes given by the Cost of War site--both by Republicans, both by veterans (although obviously one saw more action than the other)--says it all:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.--President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.--President George W. Bush, May 5, 2000

Sad, isn't it?