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But Seneca’s unfriendly portrayal of the Greeks is premised on the ignoble purposes and conduct of the victors, whose introduction to the audience comes with a description of an argument among them as to how to divide the spoils. The cause of the war was almost personal–the abduction of Helen by Paris–and the victors have purposely reduced the vanquished Troy to a heap of dust.
Quite the contrary. The U.S. military action was conducted to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible, notwithstanding the fact that the resistance included combatants in civilian clothing, often operating from what are normally considered civilian sanctuaries and that danger and expense to the U.S. were increased by this precaution. The action was conducted to cause the least amount of physical destruction as well, so that Baghdad and other Iraqi cities are largely intact. Moreover, the U.S. has announced, and no good reason exists to doubt the announcement, that Iraq’s most prominent asset–its oil–is to be used for the benefit of the Iraqis; it will not be confiscated by the victors. Further, the U.S. is attempting not to destroy the Iraqi nation, but rather to rebuild the country as a democratic society that, rather than constituting a menace both to its citizens and to its neighbors, will unify the disparate elements of the country. It may be legitimate to question the practicability of the enterprise, but not its motive. The expense of ousting the tyranny as well as that of rebuilding the country is certainly to be borne in large part by the victors, exactly the opposite of the Greeks’ attitude (according to the playwright) toward the hapless vanquished Trojans.
