How Much is Enough?

How much is enough? This question occurs to me every time I pick up the paper....and read about the excesses of our world.

Today, it is the war on Iraq: How many dead are enough before one side or another proves a point? How many maimed? When does the scale get balanced between their dead and our dead? We lost almost three thousand innocent citizens on 9.11.01. We have killed approximately one hundred thousand men, women and children of Iraq in return. Is it enough yet? They were not responsible for the actions of Saddam nor did they participate in attacking America. I can’t believe that over 45% of Americans still believe they are guilty. What am I missing?

How many of our honorable young men and women have to die or return home with life altering wounds before enough is enough?

What is it we have accomplished? Have we proven our leader had a higher level of testosterone than theirs? Everyone already knew we had more weapons of mass and individual destruction than anyone else in the world...so that was not the question.

When our troops rushed to protect the oil facilities instead of the halls of antiquities...was that a revealing tip-off about our coveting the second largest source of oil in the world?

We allowed the looting of hospitals, schools, and government offices. We allowed a power/leadership vacuum to develop when we dismantled the government structure. We blew the cover of “democratic intent” when we closed down the press. We approved torture via official documents before we planned the war. Is it any wonder we have lost the respect of the world? How much of our international reputation being trashed by our actions is enough?

We showed an empty heart when we did not immediately fix the infrastructure of water, waste disposal, and access to medical services that we bombed into oblivion. How desperate and sick do people have to get?

We showed a greedy soul when we gave the jobs of rebuilding Iraqi industry to American companies and their contractors rather than unemployed hungry Iraqis. Think about the insult of Americans making $500 a day when Iraqi men have no way to feed their families. How much abasement is enough?

After thousands of years of tribal and religious government structure, who are we to come and tell them they have to change? How much ignorant insult is enough? How does this country founded on the establishment of freedom of religion and the right to choose our form of government deny that right to other countries?

When did we lose our minds and begin to believe that bombs and bullets can change beliefs? How have we come to embrace the idea that causing more poverty, hunger and loss of hope can turn around the actions of a desperate people?

Power...world resources...wealth...control? How much is enough in terms of our greed? Dead...wounded...hungry...homeless...hopeless?. How much is enough in terms of the cost paid?

We need to hold our leaders accountable. We have the power to make a difference...one vote at a time. But we need to ask ourselves.....how much is enough?