Left I on the News

"Absurtainty" - an absurd assertion of certainty. As demonstrated by George Bush yesterday in making this claim:

"[The amount of money being spent on war in Iraq] pales when compared to the cost of another terrorist attack on our people."

Really? What is the cost of another terrorist attack on "our people"? What were the costs of the most wildly successful non-governmental terrorist attack in the history of humanity ("non-governmental," i.e., not including the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fire-bombing of Dresden and dozens of Japanese cities, and other atrocities over the years)? $27 billion and 3000 dead. And against that, we're supposed to believe that $3 trillion (estimated total future cost), 4500+ American dead (Iraq plus Afghanistan, and that's to date, of course, not including any projection of future fatalities), thousands of Afghan and 1,000,000+ Iraqi dead, "pales in comparison"?

Is there really any reasonable chance, much less the absolute certainty expressed by Bush, that "another terrorist attack on our people" would extract a greater price than the one paid by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? I think not.