Gadhafi's death didn't cost American lives

Eight months, $1.1 billion and zero Americans lives.

That's what it cost the United States in its effort to help rid Libya and the world of Moammar Gadhafi, pocket change by Pentagon standards.

By contrast, we've already burned through 10 years, $500 billion and 1,733 lives in Afghanistan and spent nearly nine years, $806 billion and 4,408 lives in Iraq.

Like most Americans, I know a bargain when I see one.

The good news for the immediate future is that on Friday, President Barack Obama announced that the last U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by year's end.

The bad news? Don't worry, there's plenty of that, including the fact that some troops will be in Afghanistan until at least 2014 and we'll be dealing with the wounds of all these wars -- the visible and invisible wounds -- for decades to come.

But now at least we can learn the lessons of compare-and-contrast. Those lessons include:

It's easier to get into these conflicts than out of them.

It's good to have allies, especially when they'll help with the dying and the bills.

It's best not to occupy other peoples' countries.

It's ideal when the people who live there do most of the fighting themselves.

Simple principles, hard earned, at a very high price.

ASKED AND

UNANSWERED:Is this how John Hadden says, "Thanks, Long Island"? By moving his IRX Therapeutics (25 current employees) from Farmingdale to St. Petersburg, Fla.? . . . What would YOU rather look at, a fence or a lake? Folks near Great Patchogue Lake, who've been saying "lake" for decades, finally get their wish . . . Was that Timothy Weekley stranded in the marsh off Cedar Beach? The 36-year-old kite surfer was breezing nicely along from Tobay Beach to Oak Island until he got separated from his windblown flock . . . If LI is going to buck national jobs trends, can it please be the bad ones? In September, we lost jobs (12,800) while the state (8,800) and the nation (103,000) both gained . . . How did LI power trio Lights Resolve generate such electricity at the CMJ Marathon music fest? Great, LOUD music, frontman Matthew Reich says.

THE NEWS IN SONG:

Finally, finally, finally: John Legend, "Coming Home": tinyurl.com/

fartoolong

LONG ISLANDERS OF THE WEEK: NINE SMART KIDS

We had another banner year of regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Despite some complaints about LI schools' tax burdens and six-figure-salaried administrators, we still have amazing students who achieve amazing things. Whatever the contest, whatever the year, Long Island high-school students are almost always overrepresented at the top. Thanks this time to Roslyn's Christie Wang, Huntington's Holly Flores, South Side's Austin Wild, Smithtown's Alexandra McHale, Oceanside's Blake Smith, Wheatley's Tom Wang, Garden City's Alina Ranjbaran and Half Hollow Hills' Matthew Rudin and Aneesh Shah. You do us proud -- again.

Email ellis@henican.com

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