Café Philos: an internet café

This morning, The New York Times is carrying a story of how many Iraqi refugees in Syria have been forced to turn to prostitution to survive. And so the war that "liberated Iraq" has yet another unintended consequence.

Unintended, but not unpredictable. Most -- perhaps all -- wars lead to such things as refugees and survival prostitution, among many even worse evils. Yet, how many people think of children with their arms blown off, sisters forced to prostitute themselves, infants dying from outbreaks of cholera and other diseases, average people forced to flee their homes, and on and on and on -- when the politicians, pundits, and bimbo talk show hosts are banging the war drums before the fighting begins?

Not even many opponents of a war point to those likely costs before the war begins. It seems we are surprised every time. Yet, why should we be surprised? Those evils are the consequences of nearly every war.