For quite a while, I’ve been frustrated with how the Whitehouse has handled information about Iraq. Well, yesterday, I’ve gotta say, the President took a step for the better, willingly taking questions from an unscreened audience and giving straight answers. According to this NPR report, Bush surprised the audience when he invited questions after his prepared speech on the US’s Iraq policy. Apparently, the first questioner asked how many Iraqis had been killed in Iraq.

I literally jumped up and down in circles hearing this question. It’s a question I’ve been using as an example of how lame the media has been on Iraq coverage. There was a time, relatively early in the entanglement, that the Pentagon announced that it was no longer going to count Iraqi casualties. That was just about the last I heard about the subject, except for reports from a variety of NGOs, who mostly have their own agendas. The American media, though, seemed to just take the attitude of “Oh, the Pentagon isn’t counting anymore, I guess we won’t report on it anymore.” Twerps…

Anyway, there it was! One brave citizen stood right up and asked the Commander in Chief that very question! I was so pleased. Thank you, whoever that was!

Bush didn’t seem taken back. He seemed impressively composed, actually. I am one who thinks he’s pretty poor at speaking, and especially on the spot, so I was impressed that he didn’t shy away from the question. He gave a straight answer, about as straight as I could imagine, really.

30,000 dead.

He quickly added, again with confident composure, that if he had to make the decision again, he would make the same decision. So, I guess, there’s my answer. If anyone had asked the President the following in 2003, he would have said “yes”:

Mr. President, do you think that the overthrow of Saddam is important enough to justify the sacrifice of 2000 US troops, the serious injury of countless more, and the killing of 30,000 Iraqis, even if no weapons of mass destruction are found, and even if no link between Iraq and the September 11 attacks is found?

Well, I disagreed then, and I still disagree now. The difference of opinion couldn’t be any more stark, really. But, I gotta say, at least I’m glad that he accepted the question and answered it straight on. We just disagree on what justifies the sacrifice of at *least* 32,000 lives… At least ten times the number of people killed in the September 11 attacks, and from a country that wasn’t even involved. I don’t understand how someone believes that to be ok, but our country (led by a bunch of proud followers of Jesus Christ) went ahead and re-elected him. Doesn’t make sense to me, but it is the way it is.

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