Iraq

First, a disclaimer: I never served in the military. Few in our family have for the past few generations. Still, I feel as frustrated about Iraq as you do. But the arguments I hear/read that suggest we should give up the fight sometimes seem very ridiculous. Having said that, here are some thoughts that occur to me frequently:

A couple times every day I drive by a sign in our town that says "3,800 deaths in Iraq...What for?" The implication I get from that sign is that Iraq is not worth that many US deaths.

Well, I just want to apply that same principle to a some other scenarios:

In the D-Day invasion, June 6-20, 1944--in those 2 weeks alone--the US armed forces lost 3,082 killed in action. The total for US, UK and Canadian forces was 5,287, plus those from other participating countries. This does not consider the thousands of other deaths in the European Theatre. Was Europe worth those deaths?

On Iwo Jima, a tiny speck of an island--hardly worth anything--allied forces sacrifices "nearly 50,000" men to gain this foothold in the larger Pacific Theatre of WWII. Was Iwo Jima worth it?

In the Korean War, allied forces lost over 54,000 men to gain nothing. We simply returned the boundary between North and South Korea to the same place it was before the war. Was Korea worth it?

I feel as frustrated as most Americans with how the conflict in Iraq is moving. But if we as Americans are at all concerned with the well being of other nations, I believe that Iraq is at least as deserving of our investment as these other areas of conflict. To justify the deaths in Europe, Japan and Korea as deserving and then to suggest the deaths in Iraq are undeserved boils down to this: prejudice. It means that Arabs/Iraqis/Muslims are worth less than these other ethnic groups. I believe a stable government in Iraq is as worthy a goal as stability in Europe, Japan and Korea.

What do you think?