Libya vs. Iraq: Return on Investment / 9-8-11

After seven months of fighting: the outcome is certain: Libyan rebels, assisted by coalition forces, have executed a successful coup against one of the most despotic despots of the last century.

Only four towns, shown here in green, are controlled by forces loyal to Dictator-For-Life-But-Not-Too-Much-Longer Muammar Gaddafi. That's as of today. Feel free to check back in next week.

As you might have noticed, a certain anniversary is coming up. Sunday will mark ten years. Like a marriage, sometimes the past decade has felt like an entire lifetime, and sometimes it's felt like only weeks have passed.

With that on my mind, that's probably why I started comparing outcomes between what happened in Iraq since Sept. 11, 2001 and what has transpired in Libya this year.

U.S. military casualties in Iraq: 4,474.

In Libya: Zero.

Cost of military operations in Iraq, 2002-2011: between $2 and $3 trillion (estimate)

In Libya: about $1 billion (estimate)

(That's "billion," with a "b." Do the math -- no, let me do it, you're lazy: Libya's running about 0.04 percent of Iraq's cost so far. Or 0.08 percent. Or 0.01 percent. Somewhere in there, way after the decimal point.)

Oil in Iraq: Lots. It's the 12th-highest oil-producing country.

Oil in Libya: Hell yes. Libyans are 18th highest on the list.

(The U.S. is third. Huh. You learn something new every day.)

Apples and oranges, you're free to say. You should say! The objectives and methods employed by our forces in Iraq and Libya were dissimilar, to say the least. In Libya, the NATO-led coalition performed airstrikes to achieve its military goals; in Iraq, there was that ground invasion the media mentioned once or twice. In Iraq, no rebel force rose up against Saddam; in Libya, that's how the whole war started.

Yes, but let's compare results in the last two wars of choice initiated by our leaders.

Iraq: Saddam gone, fledgling democracy in gear, $2,500,000,000,000 invested.

Libya: Gaddafi gone, fledgling democracy awaits, $1,000,000,000 invested.

Look at those zeroes. Again, I say, Huh.

You Probably Won't Even Remember This Headline / 3-16-11

I'm not a history scholar by any means.

But it sure seems to this untrained observer that world events move at a different pace now.

In 1989-1991, an entire empire (one built on the quicksand of totalitarianism disguised as communism) disappeared from the face of the earth, just like that. My senior year in high school, a whole quarter of our social studies course was to be dedicated to studying the U.S.S.R.; it was naturally meant to fall under the rubric of geography. Yeah. That ended up being a history lesson instead.

We marveled at the breakneck speed of revolution. Boy, were we ever young.

(And before I go on, hell yes, those were awesome times to be a teenager! The world was on fire. [Hey! Billy Joel is NOT playing in the background. You're not hearing that song. You're really not. You might be hearing this one, however.] Relatively bloodless revolutions toppled regime after regime in Eastern Europe. Borders opened, walls fell, and a speedy war in Kuwait placed America so very squarely on top of the international food chain. Outside the food chain, even. For a decade.)

And to think, at the time, we didn't even have cell phones, the Internet, digital cameras, music downloading, DVD's... those things spent the 90's becoming ubiquitous.

So instead of experiencing another round of political upheaval, we held on the rest of that decade for dear virtual life as technological advances raced ahead with maniacal all-obsoleting speed. CD's used to mean something. Cordless phones used to mean something. 1 megapixel used to mean something. Digital cameras used to mean something. Huh. 128 megs of RAM was once considered ostentatious.

But you were there. You know all this.

What does it mean?

It means we're living in an uncertain era of change, and sometimes we don't even know what brand of change is lurking around the calendar's corner. Unhyperbolically, we're passengers in an era of hyper-accelerated cause and effect. Facebook and Twitter and other platforms have brought the reality of constant motion and constant contact to every doorstep, or to every doorstep's neighbor. You can be unconnected, but it takes an advanced degree in Hermitology and a will of titanium. Or a trip to the inner reaches of, say, Congo. (In a pinch, a week of watching Fox "News" will fill you with enough untruths that your connection becomes spotty.)

Everything is everywhere -- even in Congo, truth be told -- if only we want it. Sometimes when we don't want it, hm. The next thing is always about to happen; the last object in your rear view mirror is way, way, way farther than it appears.

Sudan voted to split into two nations way back in January. Remember? More than 100 people died in a bombing in Moscow a couple weeks later. Anyone recall the New Zealand earthquake that killed 200 people? Yeah, me neither. That was all the way back in February. Three weeks ago already.

Who was the president of Egypt from October 1981 until last month? Can't think back that far. That was one 9.0 quake, one tsunami, two near-government shutdowns, one bloody civil war, five major civil unrests, one oil spike, four nuclear explosions, one stock market hiccup and one Charlie Sheen ago. (Come to think of it, Charlie's kind of old news.)

I'd like to offer three conclusions from the observations above:

1. No longer does the phrase "We've always done it this way" carry any weight. For better or worse, traditions are measured in weeks and months, maybe years, but certainly not decades or longer. One-day-old news is exactly that. No, not news -- one day OLD.

2. People resistant to change are going to have a very, very, very hard time the rest of this century.

3. September 11, 2001 will be 10 years old when we go back to school after summer vacation. It might as well have happened a thousand years ago.

Madison, Egypt / 2-21-11

Tunisia and Egypt threw off their Dictator-Presidents earlier this month. Hundreds of protesters perished last weekend in Libya; the carnage there continues today.

Why?

It's simple. They've been oppressed for decades. Centuries.

All they want is some freedom. Self-governance. Civil liberties. Economic freedoms. More guaranteed rights. Just like the ones a lot of other humans enjoy. Freedom engenders a righteous envy.

Most basically, they want more flavors of liberty.

It makes perfect sense: Freedom is delicious. Far from blaming Tunisians, Egyptians and now Libyans for causing trouble, we admire their efforts and wish them success.

Meanwhile, nobody has died in Wisconsin (U.S.A.) during the week of protests against Governor Scott Walker's plan to remove certain collective bargaining rights from nurses, firefighters, teachers and cops.

And Mr. Walker has only been in office eight weeks. He's not yet eligible for dictator status anyway.

Plus, he's not proposing to suspend religious freedom. Or curtail free speech. Or revoke the Second Amendment. He's just trying to break unions.

But this is where comfort might come from tonight: Human beings a continent and a half away are selflessly shedding their own blood, in pursuit of more rights. And thankfully, respecting their sacrifice, enough of us in this freest of nations continue to resist those who would nudge us (even if only a little) back toward the ugly place from which so many North Africans are trying to flee.

Carry on, Wisconsin protesters. And any lovers of liberty worldwide, you too.