To the Editor
Image by Chicago Booth Publications
Calculating the Cost of War
Assessing the costs of war—and of no war—in Iraq is an interesting idea (“The Cost of War,” Winter 2007). The main challenge is to select the factors to be costed out. The process of selection is, indeed, a very qualitative—and necessarily political—one. I challenge some of the main hypotheses that determine to a large extent the cost estimates and the conclusions thus arrived at.
1. Length of policy of containment. Selecting a 33-year period puts a very high weight on the cost of containment. Because history never repeats itself, comparisons made with past historical political situations in other countries and continents are not convincing.
2. Cost to the Iraqi people. The argument ignores the 2.5 million Iraqi refugees, no less! How should this “cost” be evaluated as part of the cost of war?
Thus, two issues with a major impact on the calculations are almost impossible to evaluate, and the calculations then give a misleading feeling of certainty about this very complex problem.—François Carlioz, ’66, Paris, France
“Dishonesty and Distortions” in Cost of War
With all the dishonesty and distortions created by the U.S. government surrounding the reasoning for the war in Iraq, I wonder if more dishonesty and distortions are being passed off as truth in your article about the cost of the Iraq war. It seems like hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq and 600 million upset Muslims did not make it into the calculations of the real cost of the war. Add the international upset regarding America’s unilateral actions and complete disdain for the rule of law, and what are these Muslim and international perspectives really going to cost us in the future?
I am already paying huge energy cost premiums exacerbated by the incursion into Iraq. If I had to pay now or pay later, it seems like later would be better, from my financial perspective. Doesn’t anyone consider the cost of my money, my cash flow, the cash flow of most Americans? It seems like sloppy economics and dishonest calculations to not include everything like the time value of money!
I guess the real test for the cost of the war is whether America and Americans are any safer as the result of this war. Maybe if I accepted the dishonest and deluded calculations of the true costs of the war like the authors of the research, I would say that I must be safer. However, given the hatred and passion of the Muslims due to our insensitive actions and our willingness to impose our culture onto theirs and the acrimony created with the rest of the international community and citizens of the world, I wonder if another 9/11 with its hundreds of billions of dollars in cost to Americans is more likely now than before the war. Maybe that is my opinion, or maybe that is realizing the potential costs of the war, not just some limited political perspective of the economic data presented in the article.—R. Cree, ’78, Columbus, Ohio
Leadership—Not Gimmicks—Needed in Corporations
I read with interest the piece on research by Tanya Menon (“Memo to Managers: Forget the Gimmicks,” Spring 2007), though there are more and more consultants peddling more and more gimmicks and cure-alls for corporate woes. What’s worse, this nonsense is being bought by those who should know better.
I agree with Menon’s basic premise that workshop gimmicks do little to help build effective teams and that leaders possess more powerful tools (than these gimmicks).
However, she fails to address the primary underlying issue: It takes good, effective, motivating leaders to develop effective teams, and without this, the powerful tools will not work. This leadership is, by and large, missing from the corporate scene, based on my 45 years experience in the corporate milieu.
Leadership skills, in general, are weak, and as you move closer to the top of the corporation, the quality of leadership becomes based almost solely on instilling fear by the superior into the subordinate. I have seen little in the way of any meaningful attempt to develop true leaders and eliminate the sloths who populate the corporate structure. The good leaders I have observed are driven out because of the threat they pose. And I have yet to see an article in any business publication that seriously addresses this critical issue.
Until this leadership vacuum is addressed, “building effective teams” are only empty words.—Fred Kessler, ’65, Fountain Hills, Arizona
