From the Columbus Dispatch – Monday, October 2nd, 2006
By Michael Kinsley
It was, I believe, Rep. Barney Frank (D) Mass., who first made the excellent, bitter and terribly unfair joke about conservatives who believe in a right to life that begins at conception and ends at birth.
This joke has been adapted for use against various Republican politicians ever since. In the case of President Bush it appears to be literally true.
Bush believes deeply and earnestly that human life begins at conception. Even tiny embryos composed of a halfdozen microscopic cells, he thinks, have the same right to life as you and I do. That is why he cannot bring himself to allow federal funding for research on new lines of embryonic stem cells or even for other projects in labs where stem-cell research is going on. Even though these embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, where they would otherwise be destroyed anyway, and even though he appears to have no objection to the fertility clinics themselves, where these same embryos are manufactured and destroyed by the thousands – nevertheless, the much smaller number of embryos needed and destroyed in the process of developing cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s are, in effect, tiny little children whose use in this way constitutes killing a human being and therefore is intolerable.
But Bush does not believe that the deaths of all little children as a result of U.S. policy are, in effect, murder. He thinks that some, while very unfortunate, are also inevitable and essential. You know who I mean. Close to 50,000 Iraqi civilians have died so far as a direct result of our invasion and occupation of their country, in order to liberate them. The numbers are increasing: more than 6,500 in July and August alone. These numbers are from reliable sources and are not seriously contested. They include many who were tortured and then killed, along with others blown up less personally by car bombs and suicide bombers. The number does not include the hundreds of thousands who have died prematurely as a result of a decade and a half of war and embargoes imposed on the Iraqi economy. Nor does it include troops on both sides, most of whom are innocent, too. Last week the number of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan surpassed the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks.
Bush is right that the inevitable loss of innocent life in wartime cannot be a reason not to go to war or a reason not to fight it in a way intended to win. “Collateral damage” should be a consideration weighed in the balance. But there is no formula to determine when the balance is right. It does seem that both Iraq wars were started and conducted with insufficient consideration for the cost in innocent blood. Callousness, naivete and isolation – isolation of the decision makers from democratic accountability and isolation of citizens from the consequences, or even the awareness, of what is being done in their name – have played a role. I don’t see anything coming out of this war that is worth 50,000 innocent lives, although a case can be made, I guess.
But it is hard – I would say it is impossible – to reconcile Bush’s absolutism over allegedly human life when it is a clump of unknowing, unfeeling cells with his sophisticated, if not cavalier, attitude toward the loss of innocent human life when it is children and adults in Iraq.
In all discussions weighing the cost of something or other in terms of human life, a philosopher pops up and says that the crucial difference is a matter of intentions. Terrorists target innocent civilians. We try hard not to kill innocent civilians, even if we know it can’t be avoided. They’re worse, even if our score is sadly higher.
But are stem cells any different? Researchers don..t want to kill embryos. They know that the deaths of embryos are a consequence of what they do, and they think that curing terrible diseases is worth it – just as Bush thinks that bringing democracy to Iraq is worth it. In the case of stem cells, there is the added element that the embryos in question will be killed anyway (or pointlessly frozen indefinitely) if they are not used for research. And there is still the question of whether a clump of a half-dozen cells you can..t see without a microscope is a human being in the same sense as a 6-yearold girl blown up as she skips off to kindergarten in Baghdad.
A commander in chief who must face life-or-death questions deserves a bit of sympathy. I would sympathize more with Bush if his answers weren’t so preening and struggle-free. It is wonderful to be so morally pure that you won’t allow a single embryo to be destroyed in the quest for medical cures that could save lives by the thousands. You are way beyond Gandhi, sweeping the path ahead to avoid stepping on an insect: Insects have more human characteristics than a six-cell embryo.
And regarding Iraq, you are quite the man, aren’t you, “making the tough decisions.” A regular Harry Truman, consigning thousands to death in order to bring democracy and freedom and peace to millions. But Truman actually produced democracy and freedom and peace, whereas you want credit for your hopes. That’s not how it works. If you want to be the hard-ass, you get judged by results. And you can’t be Gandhi and Truman at the same time. Michael Kinsley writes for The Washington Post.
Is the United States knowingly using a dangerous battlefield weapon banned by the United Nations because of its long-term effects on the local inhabitants and the environment? Explore the illegal worldwide sale and use of one of the deadliest weapons ever invented, which will render the Middle East uninhabitable for 4.5 billion years. 
