Brian McKay posted a question to his readers, asking how much one would pay for democracy. I think that question would better be put as, “How much are you willing to pay for freedom?” To quote Erik H. Erikson, it is so typical for one who is “so rich in his opportunities for free expression that he often no longer knows what it is he is free from.”
I must respond to that question with a resounding “a whole lot!” There are those who are willing to die to ensure freedom for others; how much is a life worth to you? How many lives were lost in the American Revolution? Should we not have fought that war and remained suppressed? How many lives were lost in WWII? How much are all those lives worth to you?
With the population at 25 million in Iraq, the cost of freedom is $6,000 per person, a measly amount to see that no one will be tortured again, that more money will be used for its intended purposes, not into the pocket of one family.
Having lived through WWII, lived in countries where you can be jailed, beaten or hung for even the slightest expression of anti-government, the freedom that we have here in the United States is truly a beautiful thing.
-Tooran Khayam-Bashi