PINKtank

John Tirman, executive director of MIT’s Center for International Studies, posted this piece Friday on The Nation.com on the human cost of war. It’s incredibly sobering: about one million dead, 4.5 million displaced, one to two million widows, and five million orphans. Tirman writes:

“By any sensible measure, it would be difficult to describe this as a victory of any kind. It speaks volumes about the repair work we must do for Iraqis, and it should caution us against the savage wars we are prone to. Now that Bush is gone, perhaps the United States can honestly face the damage we have wrought and the responsibilities we must accept from it.”

Now, as Obama and his administration escalates the war in Afghanistan, we must push the lessons from Iraq, understand that we’d wreak the same damage there (if not more) and create another human catastrophe. We must hold him to his words of peace!