| Again, you are looking at it too narrowly. First, how much would you pay to have not sustained the blow in terms of loss of life or assault on the national psyche? Hard to put a price tag on it, right? Second, we are not talking about preventing one attack, but curtailing any number of attacks, by being pro- active instead of waiting for the next outrage. We can only guess at the financial losses that might have been incurred had there no been such a disruption of terrorist networks, but we know that there were foiled plots, and we know what some of the successful attacks cost. Third, the policy of containment was itself costly, and uncertain. How long were we going to enforce the no- fly zones, or maintain a strong presence in the Persian Gulf? Fourth, the abuse of moneys gained under the Oil for Food and Medicine program led to a lot of deaths among Iraqi children over the last decade or so, perhaps half a million. How long were we going to maintain the embargo in the face of growing evidence of inadvertent complicity in such deaths? Fifth, if, say, Iraq had established hegemony in the region, and effectively gained control of extent oil reserves, how much havoc might he have created in the economies of the West? Well, that is enough to show the inadequacy of your analysis....... |
