Devil's Arithmetic

I have never understood how life can be counted down to numbers. How exactly do you calculate the value of a human? Or wage the risk factor for going to war? Or understand relationship between cancer death rates and exposure to harmful chemicals based on statistical predictions? How do we do that? How do we make it okay to send people to die based on some value that we expect others to believe in? Okay, so obviously I've transitioned here. I still fail to understand the justification for starting a war with Iraq based on the view of spreading democracy. Democracy has to be built from the people by the people. And what kind of democracy are we offering? The kind contracted by halfhearted corporations and dictated by our Western-capitalist-consumer sense of reality. Do people realize that Iraq has more PhD's per capita than the US does? Do people see that of all the ministries in Iraq- the ministry of education, the ministry of communication, etc.- the only one to not be destroyed by "ally" forces was the Ministry of Oil? What kind of precedent does that set? Its okay to demolish educational records....but don't touch that precious natural resource? Please.

I'm disgusted by people who say peace isn't possible. It just takes time, that's all. It disguted me in Israel, and it disgusts me now. Why do people fall back on terrorism? Obviously they are angry at something. I feel like every question but "why" gets asked. So here I am, asking why.