The Price of Someone Else's Life

Left I On The News found this simple yet intriguing question by Harry Browne:

....How many human lives are a proper price to pay for the removal of Saddam Hussein? Would you say removing Hussein would be worth it if a million people — Americans and Iraqis — had to die to achieve it? If the answer is no, let's try a lower price. How about 100,000? If that's too many, how about 10,000 lives being snuffed out to remove one man from power? ....Let's make is simpler. Rather than throwing numbers around, let's ask just one question: Would removing Hussein be worth it if the cost were just one human life — but that life was yours? Would you be willing to die to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq? If the answer is no, then anything you have to say about the world being a better place now — about collateral damage — about the glory of soldiers sacrificing their lives for their country — is meaningless. You're not willing to pay the price. You're like so many people who believe various government programs are wonderful — provided someone else pays for them. Everyone who has died so far in Iraq had a life that meant as much to him as your life means to you. But now that life is gone, done, finished, nevermore. By supporting the war in Iraq, you have supported the idea that it's okay to kill people — other people. But until you're willing to volunteer to be one of those killed, your words don't carry any weight.

We all know one group of powerful, ultra right-wing politicians currently living in a government complex in Washington, D.C., who place the value of their lives far, far above that of all others. We must show them the errors of their ways this November and beyond. Go out and vote!