Originally posted by Planogirl
No one is answering the question of who will pay for this war. I thought that conservatives hated massive amounts of government spending. It surprises me that the cost of the war and some of the other spending issues never come up in these discussions.
War is the one legitimate reason for going into debt that nobody can argue with.
The answer is obvious - WE will pay for it - meaning us - our children - our grandchildren, etc.
Of course, we could use the OLD method of paying for wars - demanding tribute from the defeated enemy. However this has been proven by history to ensure that the hostilities that prompted the war continue to fester and grow and become the cause for ANOTHER war that the grandchildren of the original warriors have to fight - and pay for - and the cycle continues.
We last learned that lesson in WWI - in WWII we went MORE into debt after the victory to make sure the defeated nations survived and prospered. Look at what was created - the defeated nations are now leaders in the world economy and no longer a direct threat to our grandchildren.
In this war, we are going one step further. We are trying to rebuid the "enemy's" nation while the war is still going on. We could of course have chosen to completely destroy Iraq and all its infra-structure and allowed famine and disease to do most of the dirty work = thereby saving a lot of OUR lives and fortune.
I don't advocate that and I am sure you would not either - but it is essentially what we did in Germany - and were threatening to do in Japan unless they surrendered immediately.
Instead, we have chosen to try to fight this war by only concentrating on the enemy PERSONNEL, thereby sparing the innocent inhabitants of the battlefield.
WHY??
If this military had been built by the draft - I would oppose the strategy of sparing THEIR innocents by putting more of OUR innocent draftees into harms way.
But, this is a volunteer force - and God bless them for that - I thank God every day that we have such willing patriots who will CHOOSE to put their lives on the line to defend the better principles of this nation. These volunteers know the current military doctrine - they know what they are doing.
I think that they only ask to not be used by vainglorious politicians - either in victory or defeat - either in heroics or mistakes - either in survival or death. They don't even want much acclaim.
They fight for honor.
Don't ever take that from them.
You have to decide whether it is "worth it" or not.