Each of the 500 unusable “WMD” artillery rounds Senator Rick Santorum is screeching about carries an extraordinary price tag. At current rates, the cost per unit is $6 hundred million in direct costs, 5 dead US soldiers, 40 wounded US soldiers, and hundreds of dead Iraqis. Add in the lifetime of medical care many US soldiers will require, along with death benefits and other incidentals such as the lost income and societal contributions of the dead, and the price tag rises considerably. Add in the costs to Iraqis, and it rises still more.
Of course finding and disposing of the useless weapons before the terrorists and insurgents who didn’t exist in Iraq prior to the invasion can find and not use them — except for the same purpose as all the other explosive munitions we failed to secure, which is as conventional roadside bombs to blow up our troops — isn’t the only causus belli of the war. There’s the destruction of Iraqi’s remaining infrastructure, the fomentation of sectarian warfare and the opportunities for corruption on a Brobdignagian scale. When you add in those factors, the cost per unit drops considerably, probably by a hundred million dollars or more and perhaps 1.5 dead soldiers. We’re talking bargain basement now. Throw in the loss of international good will, and it’s looking like a real steal.
One of the points a number of disadvantaged “conservatives” are making in response to the delusional leftist dismissal of Santorum’s proof positive that it’s all good in Iraq comes in the form of a challenge: “if these weapons are so harmless, why don’t you get some for your back yard?” I have to admit I wouldn’t want to have one in my back yard. I also have to note that there was never the slightest possibility that I would have one in my back yard. Especially at that price.
My earlier commentary on the subject was picked up by the good folks at Free Republic, the preeminent bastion of serious conservative thought on the web. You can catch a representative sample of their sentiments in the comments section of the post linked above.
Hey, are you planning to throw a “Bush didn’t lie afterall” party or isn’t 500 * 10,000 = 5,000,000 lives “mass” enough for you. How many of those same shells do you think it took to wreak havoc on the kurds–only a few. Ooops, forgot, your feeble mind can’t accept reality.
Marky Mark: these aren’t the same shells Saddam used against the Kurds: those shells were functional. You could put them in an artillery piece and shoot them at someone. These shells are not functional: you can’t put them in an artillery piece and shoot them at someone. Moreover, the chemicals are degraded, which in the real world means they’re either less potent or have devolved into different chemical compounds, depending on the depth of the degradation.
I realize these differences may be obscure or confusing to you, but I’m sure you’re comfortable with your incapacities so I won’t waste time mourning them.