$2 trillion's worth of obliviousness

Edited to fix link.

In “Liberals, Neocons, Zionists, Fascists, Anti-Fascists and the Rest,” Roger Cohen constructs a ridiculously self-serving list of arguments you are forbidden to use when debating the Iraq War with him.

You are not allowed to mention the bogus casus belli, the stunning lack of international support for the invasion, the incompetent pre-war and post-war military planning and execution, or any and all NeoCons and Likudniks.

If you try to mention civilian deaths and collateral damage -- and Cohen is not willing to argue just what those figures might be -- he parries with this: the deaths of those who die during this period of “flux” are noble deaths, whereas the deaths of those who died during Saddam’s regime were merely a horrific waste.

Which leaves Cohen with only two things to talk about: Uday and Qusay, and boy were they some mean motherfuckers.

Worth about $1 trillion a piece, I’d say.

Update See also Scott Lemieux’s “Bully” and Josh Marshall’s “My Own Private Mid-20th Century Totalitarianism.”