War and Peace

By Thomas Louis "Tom" (Fox) Fox, II

I subscribe to President Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy: Speak softly and carry a big stick. We should be strong, but we should use that force, only when absolutely necessary. We should no longer use that force to act as the world's police force.

Former President, James Madison, commented on war:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes ... known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

There is no shortage of Neoconservatives, or Neocons, that support American intervention at every turn. There has been support for American troops to invade Iran in order to destroy their nuclear research program. The cry for American military intervention in Syria has been going on for a couple of years now. Most recently, there has been an outcry for the American military to intercede in the Ukraine to stop the Russian advances in that region. There has been criticism for American troops withdrawing from Iraq as well as the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. Looking at the instability of those hot spots, there is no rational reason for us to use our military force. Our involvement won't be able to bring stability to the region, nor will it promote our national interest of defending our country.

I came of age in the early 1970's when America was drafting its young men and sending them off to the Vietnam War. At that time, the young of America were very involved in protesting that war because it had a direct impact on us, we were being drafted and forced to go fight a war that didn't make any sense to many of us. I vividly recall experiencing those, then rights of passage for every young American man: registering for the draft and receiving a draft card on the 18th birthday, and being glued in front of the television set on that evening once a year when the draft lottery numbers were picked that determined, based upon that birth date, the order in which they would be drafted that year. Once drafted, a young man was sent to 8 weeks of basic training and then off to combat.

The people were also kept apprised by the nightly news report on the number of Americans who had died that day as well as images of flag draped caskets arriving at some unnamed military base, carrying the remains of those dead American soldiers. Those realities were brought to each and every home on a daily basis.

Historically, these wars of choice seem to have a pattern and they never end well. In the Vietnam War, the drumbeat for war was advanced by Hawks, the Neocons of the day. The American people were told that an American destroyer had been fired upon in Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin. That act of aggression became the basis for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that resulted in American's going to war. After the escalation of that war and sometime during the death of over 58,000 American service members and over 1 million Vietnamese, we later learned that the "attack" never occurred.

The Vietnam War ended only after the American people, angry that they had been lied to and that so much of our country's resources had been wasted, pressure the government to end of that war.

In Iraq, we were told various stories by our leadership; that Saddam Hussein had collaborated with Osama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda in the planning and implementation of the September 11 attacks. We were also told that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that he had used on his own countrymen, that he would use on us. We were told that the administration had proof, but it was classified and with that proof withheld from the American people, our country went to war.

This time, however, Americans were encouraged to carry on their lives insulated from the horrors of war. Television cameras were banned by the administration from chronicling the caskets of our dead service members coming home. Their strategy was simple; keep the American people insulated from the financial, human and emotional costs of the war. The Iraq war lasted for about 9 years and has been the longest war in America's history.

While the American people were insulated from the financial realities and the horrors of that war from the outset, they are accountable for them now and those costs now play a major role in our dismal economy.

Right before the rattling of the sabers for the war, the administration radically cut back the tax rates, primarily for the wealthiest of Americans. This is the first war in U.S. history that was "financed" on a tax cut, rather than a tax increase. The Iraq war alone cost over 2 trillion dollars. The expense that we will now face to the injured veterans of that war is now estimated to be an additional 6 trillion dollars. That is 8 trillion dollars, on a war of choice, financed by tax cuts. Those figures are contained in the national debt that we now hear so much about. You can add the cost of the war in Afghanistan on top of these figures.

These are the costs in terms of dollars. The cost in human loss can't be rationalized in financial terms. In Iraq, we lost about 4500 soldiers. That is 4500 mothers and fathers who lost a child, a loss from which they probably will never recover. Countless children who lost one or both parents. And our country lost some of its bravest citizens.

There were many wounded. Many lost limbs. Many suffered from brain injuries and many have come back from war with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PDSS). We will, and should be, paying for these veterans' injuries for the rest of their lives.

Here is troubling statistic; for the first time in world history, more veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have died from suicide after the war than the number of troops that died in those wars. The veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are now committing suicide at the rate of 21, per day. That is tragic and is a stain on our nation's morality. These veterans need our immediate help.

We have had a lot of debate about the federal deficit, spending and the allocation of our resources. We have heard from our leaders the wisdom of further tax cuts; future tax increases and for the elimination of Medicare and Social Security as well as the dismantling of our social safety net for our most needy citizens. Yet there is no discussion about one of the fundamental facts is that these wars of choice have added trillions of dollars to out national debt and, in a major way, to our current financial predicament and the plight of our veterans is largely ignored.

We should have no more hiding of the facts from the American people. That is immoral. We are the ones who are required to pay for the costs of the war and we should be appraised of the facts every step of the way. Never again should we be placed in the predicament of being "surprised" by a financial obligation in the trillions of dollars when the leaders who spent with reckless abandon. And, never again, should the sacrifices or the needs of our veterans be swept under the rug.

As a country, we should share in the sacrifice of our soldiers. I am not just talking about the obvious here, such as eliminating the blackout of the caskets of our young dead soldiers coming home from the war. There should be an active account of the dollars that are being spent on the war effort, in real time, so that we can see the bill that we are required to pay. And, at the outset of the war, prior to troop deployment, there should be a war tax imposed on the American people. This could be in the form of an additional sales tax, or an additional gasoline -tax, to be lifted only after the withdrawal of our troops from the war.

The purpose of the tax is not to be punitive to the American people; it is to keep us aware and vigilant. If you cringe at that thought, then it will work. If we share in the suffering, the suffering will last only as long as is necessary. This will act as a safeguard, a check if you will, against the reckless leaders who involve us in wars of choice, ensure that our soldiers will be taken care of and it will minimize the finical impact of such wars on our economy.

War is hell, and it should be ... on all of us.