For the cost of one month of the Iraq War, the "God Particle" discovery could have been a U.S. triumph
The possible discovery of the Higgs boson subatomic particle, announced last week, is one of the biggest triumphs in the history of science. The
discovery was announced by scientists at CERN, the research center
in Switzerland that operates the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the
massive particle accelerator that detected the Higgs boson.
Once upon a time, most big scientific breakthroughs like this were made
in the U.S. But in an era of declining science budgets and fewer science
degrees awarded, America is increasingly no longer the leader in
cutting-edge science.
The LHC cost
around $8 billion. Although that sounds like a steep price tag, it's
important to keep this figure in perspective. After all, during the Iraq
War, the U.S. was typically spending $8 billion every month in that disastrous and unnecessary conflict.
For that same $8 billion that we pissed away every month in the Iraq
War, the U.S. could have built its own LHC. And the
amazing Higgs boson scientific breakthrough could well have been a U.S.,
not a European, triumph.
It's also important to remember that, for their $8 billion, the
Europeans will almost certainly be enjoying many other benefits in the
years to come, via the LHC. Who knows what other major unforeseen
scientific breakthroughs the LHC will make possible? (If you doubt this,
consider that the World Wide Web itself was originally invented at
CERN, as a means of sharing computer data, before it went on to conquer
the world.)
Yes, the $8 billion spent on the LHC will likely pay benefits to Europe for decades to come.
By contrast, what, exactly, did the U.S. get for spending $8 billion per
month in Iraq? We didn't get anything in return, except to draw out
that disastrous war yet another bloody month.
Even today, nearly a decade after George W. Bush ordered the invasion,
Iraq remains a shambles. It is still one of the most dangerous and
unstable nations on earth. And Iraq must be the only nation in world
history where on a given day, car bombs can kill 100 people and the
world's media outlets no longer consider such a tragedy front page news.
Indeed, Iraq remains a broken, bloodied state and a shattered society,
abandoned by the West. Outside of the nation's large oil reserves, the
U.S. simply doesn't care about Iraq, much less its people.
The Iraq War remains one of the great tragedies of human history, with
hundreds of thousands (if not a million) needless deaths. And, of
course, the fiscal cost was tremendous, as well, with the U.S. sinking
well over $1 trillion into the quagmire.
And for the cost of only one month of the Iraq War, the U.S. could have enjoyed one of the great scientific triumphs of history.
But that's really the story of modern day America: a nation that has increasingly gutted budgets for essentials like science and education, while lavishing trillions of dollars for death, destruction, and greedy, pampered defense contractors.
And for the cost of only one month of the Iraq War, the U.S. could have enjoyed one of the great scientific triumphs of history.
But that's really the story of modern day America: a nation that has increasingly gutted budgets for essentials like science and education, while lavishing trillions of dollars for death, destruction, and greedy, pampered defense contractors.
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