Military responses to problems have a way of creating all sorts
of new problems. The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy
offers an opportunity to reflect on the costs and benefits of
the wars the United States initiated against Iraq and
Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks. A comprehensive new
study, "Costs of War," sponsored by Brown University (and with
which I have been affiliated) suggests that the costs have been
wildly out of proportion to the benefits. The study should be
required reading for political commentators and national
security policymakers across the country. Presidential
speechwriters' inspiring words about the courage of American
soldiers and the success of the "surge" notwithstanding, it is
hard to find any metric by which one can judge the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan as successes. In money and in human suffering,
the expense of the wars has been appalling -- as the Costs of
War website makes clear, with a mixture of snappy graphics and
carefully sourced research. We could pull every