Retired army General Barry McCaffrey testified before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday:
No one is actually at war except the Armed Forces, their US civilian contractors, and the CIA. There is only rhetoric and posturing from the rest of our government and the national legislature. Where is the shared sacrifice of 300 million Americans in the wealthiest nation in history? Where is the tax supplement to pay for a $12 billion a month war? Where are the political leaders calling publicly for America's parents and teachers to send their sons and daughters to fight "the long war on terror?" Where is the political energy to increase the size of our Marine Corps and US Army? Where is the willingness of Congress to implement a modern "lend-lease program" to give our Afghan and Iraqi allies the tools of war they need to protect their own people? Where is the mobilization of America's massive industrial capacity to fix the disastrous state of our ground combat military equipment?
What do you mean there's no shared sacrifice? Didn't you hear the President? He decider-ed that there was shared sacrifice, because the things that the rest of the country sees on TV are so bad. So what we need is for the rest of the Evil Mainstream Media to only talk about the good things that happen. Then, people won't be disturbed, so it will be OK to ask them to actually make a sacrifice that doesn't involve a remote control and a couch.
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This is one of my biggest beefs with the administration over the war. If the war is important enough to disrupt the lives of 100's of thousands of personnel and reservists, and cost the lives of thousands of them, where is the extraordinary tax to pay for it? where is the Long term financial cost put in front of the taxpayers. I actually think there would be more support and thoughts of a better outcome if right away in 2003 the adminisitration had said - lets put a 5% surtax on for the war. We are just sliding it into the debt. Not responsible behavior, regardless of how you view the war.
Markk -
Simple; ever since Bush Senior did an about-turn on the 'no new taxes' pledge, the Republicans have turned even more against any form of fiscal conservatism.
But for Iraq to have been a success, not only an extra tax would have been needed, but almost certainly a draft to get the 500,000 or so troops required.
Whaddaya mean, "no sacrifice"?
Didn't you hear George Deux? In the aftermath of the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, he asked America to Go Shopping. He asked you to sacrifice your credit rating to fund his war.
So get out there and be patriotic, dammit! Buy $#!7. Lotsa $#!7. More $#!7 than you want, need, or can afford--and do it right away!
Because if you're not $9,200 in the hole, and if America doesn't plunge even deeper than the current $11 trillion into debt, then the terrorists have already won.
Of course, some soldier-type people may be asked to give their lives to enable you to drive to the mall, but that's a small sacrifice to ask when there's a blue-light sale on and gas is $3 a gallon.