The issue at hand.

A PERSON'S LIFE comes to an end, and suddenly the span of that life is complete. For a time those closest to the deceased live in a warp flooded with memories and the mind's attempt to fill in gaps. More so when death comes quickly, as in the case of a fatal accident or a casualty of war, questions abound regarding decisions made, degrees of control, and the nature of causality.

As we approach the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, the issue at hand in the March/April Humanist points directly to life lost in military action and begs the questions: How do we value life? What, if anything, is worth dying for?

The United Nations recently reported that 34,452 Iraqi civilians died in 2006. Since the March 2003 invasion of that country more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed. For what?

This issue's cover story, titled "The Long Game" offers an answer to that question that's chilling to say the least. Here, Kenneth Anderson examines the evolution of an Iraqi oil law and presents mounting evidence regarding the rationale for the invasion of Iraq and the president's desire to continue sending troops to the region. Those reasons may also help to explain outrageous changes to the U.S. military's recruitment standards as detailed in Robin Morgan's piece on "The Surge: Moral Waivers and Legal Triage."

For those of us who don't believe in an afterlife, life is rich and death is the ultimate sacrifice. The life of the individual matters, and if humanism is to matter humanists must weigh in when people's lives are devalued. War is a harsh and horrid enterprise and if it isn't waged to improve the lives of the oppressed or to protect the innocent, then it isn't worth a drop. In the words of General Smedley Butler: "War for any other reason is simply a racket."

Of course, with value comes appreciation, and so this issue champions "The Continued Concern of Scientists" by Al Huebner and celebrates life at the university with the concept of the "secular cathedral" as eloquently described in the interview with Harvard Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein. Lucas Carpenter examines how the liberal arts education is being diluted within the university system, and Alison Bates turns our attention to the need for humanists to embrace museums, concert halls, and each other's homes as secular cathedrals wherein art and music can be appreciated for their ability to elucidate the truth of the human condition.

On January 19, 2007, my father died as the result of a high-speed cycling crash and so the aforementioned experience with death comes firsthand. "People who live fully often increase their risk of dying earlier," states one of this issues letter writers in reference to the pursuit of adventure, discovery, truth, and beauty. Permit me to say that my father--a naturalist and pioneer by nature--lived (and loved) quite fully and quite artfully throughout his sixty-seven years. I speak for him when I say that in the end, it's what made it all worthwhile.