Three items from the Wichita Eagle this week.

Feb. 28: "Israelis retaliate with attack on Hamas in Gaza":

Israeli aircraft blasted Hamas government offices and metal shops late Wednesday, killing a baby and wounding more than 30 people in a retaliatory strike after a militant rocket killed an Israeli college student.

The bloodshed fed worries about a new outbreak of heavy fighting between the Israeli army and militants in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the deadly rocket attack on the college in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which came a few hours after two Israeli airstrikes killed seven people in Gaza, including two senior commanders in the Hamas rocket operation.

Israel has used Palestinian rocket attacks to justify collective punishment of Gaza, targeted assassinations, and random retaliation, so they must be pleased that Hamas has so indulged them. As the cycle makes clear, neither preëmptive attacks nor retaliation prevent the rockets. The only thing that has worked has been a cease fire, which Hamas had in place until they wearied of unanswered Israeli attacks. What's notable about this piece is that it at least offers a bit of context, showing the rocket attack as a response to an Israeli attack. The arithmetic is still a bit of a problem: the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in this 24-hour period was 30.

Also in Feb. 27 issue, a piece by Kevin G. Hall (McClatchy Newspapers) called "Highest cost of war yet to come", about the new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. Note the White House response:

The White House doesn't care for the estimates by Stiglitz, a former chief economist of the World Bank who's now a professor at Columbia University.

"People like Joe Stiglitz lack the courage to consider the cost of doing nothing and the cost of failure. One can't even begin to put a price tag on the cost to this nation of the attacks of 9/11," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, conceding that the costs of the war on terrorism are high while questioning the premise of Stiglitz's research.

"It is also an investment in the future safety and security of Americans and our vital national interests. $3 trillion? What price does Joe Stiglitz put on attacks on the homeland that have already been prevented? Or doesn't his slide rule work that way?"

Courage? That seems all the more kneejerk because it has no conceivable relevance, unless Fratto means his dogged conviction to ignore the consequences of the war regardless of cost. I have no idea how to calculate the "cost of failure," but if such were possible Stiglitz should add it to his $3 trillion baseline, because failure is one of the few things that seems assured.

The "cost of doing nothing" is more hypothetical because we didn't do nothing. What would have happened had we not responded to 9/11 with Bush's Crusade is open to debate, but whatever it is would have to be gauged against the $3 trillion baseline -- Stiglitz's scenarios go up to $7 trillion, and he probably hasn't factored in the full 100 years McCain is hoping for.

The Feb. 27 Wichita Eagle had an article by Jonathan S. Landay (McClatchy Newspapers) called "Pakistan to try talks, not fighting":

The secular party that won last week's elections in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province plans to open peace talks with al-Qaida-allied Islamic insurgents, a drastic departure from the military crackdowns that the national army has pursued with U.S. backing for the last five years.

The Awami National Party says army offensives in the tribal region abutting the provine have killed, maimed and displaced untold numbers of civilians, driven recruits into the arms of the radicals and helped fuel a surge in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks across the country.

"The war against terror has failed. So there should be no war," said Haji Mohammad Adeel, one of the party's most senior leaders. "The only solution is peace. We will do it with negotiations, not with bombs, not with guns, not with airstrikes."

A dangerous idea, sure to be anathema to Al-Qaeda and the US alike. They are, after all, so much alike.

William F. Buckley, Jr., died, age 82. His father made a fortune in Mexican oil, so he was born rich, a beneficiary of US imperialism. He spent his whole long life defending his class and race, extolling his religion, and promoting the militarism and imperialism that made his pampered life possible. Or at least until recently, when the Iraq war got to be a bit much, even for him.