The Value of Life: American vs. Iraqi vs. African

Ever so much is made constantly of the 3,000 (actually, there were less) deaths on 9/11/01 in the attacks on the U.S.

However, just in Baghdad, just in the first few months of this year, and just from the sources from which numbers could be garnered, more than 5,000 Iraqi civilians have died from actions that grew from our invasion. In all, it's estimated that anywhere between 100,000 and more than 300,000 Iraqis have died to date. Some call this a ridiculously conservative estimate, too.

We are also fast approaching the time that just the number of American service personnel dead in Iraq - and we're not counting Afghanistan, of course - will exceed the 9/11 deaths.

And, as the right is fond of pronouncing that anything that saves even one fat American life is a good thing, bear in mind that it is now estimated that nearly 200 million - 2,000,000 human beings - will die in sub-Saharan Africa as the direct result of climate change by the end of THIS century. That's like two-thirds of the U.S. population.

But, of course, only precious white American lives matter. Don't they?