Did We Save Lives After All?, Ctd.

Tim Lambert counters Eric Posner's post on deaths in Iraq. Posner responds:

A number of people think that my post was meant as a defense of the Iraq war. I have long criticized the idea of humanitarian intervention and have never defended the Iraq war, which was certainly a mistake on the basis of national-interest considerations. But many people, including likely members of the Obama administration (such as Susan Rice, who has advocated a military intervention in Sudan), believe that humanitarian wars are justified. The humanitarian effect of a particular war is an empirical question. The answer in the Iraq case will help determine the Obama administration’s ability and willingness to launch humanitarian interventions in places like Sudan.

(Ethnic cleansing in Baquba, Iraq, under US occupation, by Ali Yussef/AFP/Getty.)