Originally Posted by jayeff

Considering the number of Iraqis who have died as a consequence of US foreign policy since the first Gulf War, one must assume you are more concerned about how innocents die, than about how many. Saddam Hussein was a monster by many peoples' standards, but inflicting suffering on more people than even he affected was surely not a logical, let alone ethical response.

And are you only concerned with governments which cause death by their actions, or also with those which cause death by their inactions? If the value of human life itself is the standard, you might note this comment from Washington University: "If you survive infancy and early childhood you are better off [in terms of longevity] almost anywhere in the world other than in your own American neighborhood if it is extremely economically distressed".

There is now a 20-year disparity between the life expectancy of males living in our own capital city, depending on where in Washington they live. Should we not replace the glass walls of our house with something more solid before we start throwing rocks at someone else?