Wasted is too nice a word

Like most people, I like to read and hear stuff I agree with. Especially when I'm on record for having said the same thing earlier! A few weeks ago, I complained about Barack Obama's apology for his statement that the 3200 or so US troops killed in Iraq were wasted:

Actually, I think "wasted" was being nice. It implies being put to no use--US forces have been used for criminal purpose in the last five years decades--that's even worse than being wasted. Nevertheless, any time any politician comes remotely close to speaking the truth, he feels compelled to apologize.

Well, John McCain used the same wording on the Letterman show recently:

"Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be," about the situation in Iraq, McCain said. "We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives."

Before the "maverick" even had a chance to get back in lie (sic intended), the Dumbocrats were all over him:

"Senator McCain should apologize immediately for his comments," Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney said in an e-mail to reporters.

McCain has a lot to apologize for, but saying that the 3200 lives were wasted isn't one of them. Of course, like Obama, McCain soon repented of his near brush with truth.

Back to my original point: Arthur Silber, a rather prolific and excellent blogger I just discovered recently, says much the same thing now that I said after the Obamarama:

The truth is infinitely worse than that these lives have been "wasted": these deaths have served to strengthen our enemies and weaken our own country in countless ways that our actual enemies could never have achieved on their own. That these lives have been "wasted" is the best one can say, not the worst. They are the greatest boon our enemies could dream of. These lives have not been "wasted": they are the precious tribute laid at the feet of our enemies, by our own leaders in the pursuit of indefensible and criminal aims.

Of course, the recognition of this truth requires that we act like adults, and that we are capable of coherent thought, shorn of lies. We must be willing to give up the myth of the "noble soldier" who "selflessly sacrifices" his life for the glory of the Perfect and Good United States -- and see that these individuals died in a criminal war of aggression launched to consolidate and expand America's hegemonic role, a goal embraced by almost every leading politician, Republican and Democratic, over many decades of entirely avoidable conflict, chaos and death.

Actually, while I agree with Silber about myth of the "noble soldier" who "selflessly sacrifices", I think Silber himself is perpetuating another myth--that of "our enemies." Soldiers aren't laid at the feet of "our enemies," they are sent far and wide to make sure that we always have "enemies." There may be a few people out there who hate America and Americans "just because," but most of our so-called enemies have been manufactured by our imperial adventures, as Silber frequently documents. We aren't doing our enemies any favors--we're just creating more of them.