Panetta: Iraq War was “worth it”

[Source] A day after visiting Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to reporters in Turkey on Saturday and said this, according to the DoD’s own site:

"There is no question that the United States was divided going into that war," he said. "But I think the United States is united coming out of that war. We all recognize the tremendous price that has been paid in lives, in blood. And yet I think we also recognize that those lives were not lost in vain..."As difficult as [the Iraq war] was," and the cost in both American and Iraqi lives, "I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world," he added.

Panetta’s statement is highly reminiscent of the 1996 2001 incident in which Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes about the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" Albright replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it." They’re similar not just because the words are virtually identical, though they are, but also because they spring from the same rotted imperial mentality.