Counting the cost

I admire the work done by the Center for American Progress.

But I have to complain about their "Project Billboard" ads presenting a running tally of the dollar cost of the war in Iraq a la the National Debt Clock.

I appreciate the idea behind Project Billboard. I'm not entirely sure, however, that once troops are committed the dollar cost ought to be a top concern.

A far greater cost of this war is that of "coalition" casualties — and if by increasing the dollar figure we could decrease the number of casualties, then I don't think we ought to hesitate to do so. Then there's the also too-expensive-to-bear cost of civilian casualties. Those who are interested in measuring this figure are not able to do so; those who are able to are not interested.

Related to the high cost of civilian casualties is this: the high cost of becoming the kind of nation that does not account for civilian casualties.

The greatest cost of this war is also almost impossible to quantify — and it is directly related to that mounting total of civilian casualties. The invasion and occupation of Iraq played directly into the hands of Osama bin Laden and has done immeasurable harm by helping him to recruit and create new terrorists for his network.

My immediate concern with "Project Billboard," however, is far more mundane and petty and has nothing to do with the moral, strategic or financial cost of the war.

My problem is that the ads CAP has been running make the pages they're on load slower than molasses, they lock up my browser and basically prevent me from reading anything else on the blogs on which they appear. Since the ads have appeared on some of my favorite regular reads — including Eschaton and Talking Points Memo — this has been particularly frustrating.

Anybody else been having this problem?