his op-ed in today's Washington Post, "The Smart Way out of a Foolish War," Zbigniew Brzezinski asks what price the American public would have been willing to accept if honestly informed about the Iraq invasion's "costs":

"Nonetheless, if the American people had been asked more than five years ago whether Bush's obsession with the removal of Saddam Hussein was worth 4,000 American lives, almost 30,000 wounded Americans and several trillion dollars -- not to mention the less precisely measurable damage to the United States' world-wide credibility, legitimacy and moral standing -- the answer almost certainly would have been an unequivocal "no."

Is there a prominent omission here in the list of what would provoke a "no" from the American people?

Or is it my imagination?

What about the concept, "Scores if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, untold wounded, and millions driven into being refugees"-- wouldn't this have also provoked a "no" from the famous "American people"?

Why is this omitted in the calculations by an ostensibly wise man like Mr. Brzezinski?

Can you wonder why non-Americans get a little put-off they hear this stuff from even supposedly enlightened American powers that be?

Appreciations to Uber.com, where this appears on my Brain Flakes blog.
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http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13758

And just let Saddam Hussein run rampant.I'm p#$ed as everyone else about this war but we should have gotten out when the objective was met namely that cretin Saddam Hussein

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...

why does this make me think of Bush?

Who gives a damn what others think about America? I want out of Iraq because the war is unconstitutional, and destroying our economy. All the other reasons are peacenik feel-good bullet points on a long list of politicized B.S.

And honestly, who here really gives a damn about Iraqis here?

The reason "many don't love us" is, because there are a certain amount of people, both in private life and in the media, who spend all their time trashing America. If these people would be more positive or at least offer suggestions in lieu of the endless hate America rhetoric, so many wouldn't hate us.