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. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

Eisenhower said that. A great general. A great statesman. And it seems to me, a great human being.

A special report up on CNN’s website is showing names, photographs, and brief descriptions of the circumstances surrounding each of the 509 military deaths in Iraq so far. A trend is starting to develop as I scroll through the list. Many are being killed by ‘non-hostile gunshot wounds’, which I guess is a military euphemism for ‘friendly fire’. It seems to me that a bullet entering the body is pretty much always hostile.

Another subset of this group have been killed in automobile accidents, falling off buildings, helicopter crashes, and even one listed as ‘death by natural causes’. Are they trying to tell us that someone died of old age while in a combat zone?

I have mixed emotions about this war. First, there are three dozen other dictatorships in the world just as brutal. Most of those our government supports in one way or another. All are considered ‘friendly’ to the United States, though they are decidedly unfriendly to their own. While overthrowing this dictator is undoubtedly a good thing, it was done for entirely the wrong reasons and as Jesus said, “Grapes can not grow from thorns.”

No, I believe we went in there for a few bad reasons. President Bush needed a villain to point at, otherwise the world would be pointing at HIM as the bad guy. Corporate interests wanted the resources, and they are very close to this administration and particularly close to Cheney. They’ve even passed a ruling stating that our corporations shall be free from the rule of law while doing business in Iraq. Is that even legal in a global sense? What if China said that their businesses would be absolved of ANY crime in the United States? I guess the rules are different when you’ve destroyed the standing military of a sovereign nation and sent its ruler into hiding.

To the families of those who have died, my bitterness does not lessen your grief or the sacrifice of those who have fallen. Like all soldiers, they were called, they went, and they died for purposes that were beyond them. It is for us, as a nation, to ask if the end justifies the means. In the end, what defines us as a nation will not be our economic status, the number of jobs available, our religious views, or our perceived freedoms. It will be our willingness to support injustice or deny tyrants their power over us. And I’m not talking about Saddam.

As a brief side note, Halliburton stock is up from 20.38 to 23.35 since the invasion began. Wall Street knows what this is about, even if the rest of America doesn’t.