Every life lost is a tragedy. Our humanity is determined by how much compasion and tolerance we show for those suffering loss in times of war whether they are friends or enemies. However the only way to objectively evaluate whether a war is justified or not is to make numerical comparisons. Or you can just use the primitive standard of its either them or us.

Given the number of people that human rights organizations have claimed have died due to sanctions any lengthy continuation of sanctions would probably result in more deaths than this war. The only difference is the deaths happen a few at a time with no one present to directly blame. It doesn't seem as evil but choosing a path that results in unecessary deaths is always bad. I would have preferred we continue with a tough probing inspections program with a clear threat of force for non-compliance, but the inspection leader and the French made it obvious that wasn't going to happen. The next option leading to the lowest loss of civilian life was the war IMO.

And no I don't consider this a diplomatic failure on Bush's part. I don't see any reason to believe anyone could have gotten Chirac onboard with a clear threat of force.

Regards,
Mark