Musings of a Technonerd

Ever since this war was started by Bu$hco, I've sensed a willingness on the average American's part to just ignore the effects it's had on our country.
I think the average American wants no part if this fiasco, and tries their best to stay aloof.

In WW1 and to a much greater degree, WW2, the American public was involved in a big way, with rationing, scrap drives, war bonds and round the clock war production

Not so much the Korean war, a blip in America's attempt to return to a peacetime economy. That one was ignored, a fact my dad, a veteran of the Chosin Reservoir Battle will tell you. It wasn't even called a war. It was called a "police action."

The American public WAS involved to a greater degree in the Vietnam war, albeit not in the way the war's supporters would have liked, as there was rampant protests and public demonstrations connected with that conflict.

But the Iraqi war? Apathy rules. The average American is conducting his/her life as though nothing was happening at all. As Veteran and author Paul Rieckhoff was quoted in the NY Times, "The president can say we're a country at war all he wants. We're not. The military is at war. And the military families are at war. Everybody else is shopping." I think that nails it to a tee. I mean, where's the effort by the folks at home? Where's the rationing of gas to reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Where's the legislation to force higher MPG requirements out of car makers?

You see, the administration doesn't want the average American getting involved with this in a direct way, because they know that they might actually start raising a ruckus, and force him to start withdrawing troops. They're terrified the American public will wake up to what's going on. They're terrified the American public will demand that they quit throwing vast amounts of money down a bottomless hole.

And therein, I think, lies a possible way to wake up the public, money. NOTHING gets the average American's attention like money. So far, the administration has hidden the true costs of this war by using special appropriations, rather than using the regular pentagon budget to fund Haliburton, err, operations in Iraq.

Here's an interesting website for you. What you do is you enter in your taxable income into the various years availabls since the war started, and you'll see what you've contributed toward this war.

You're NOT going to like what you see. "I haven't paid that much in taxes during those years." you'll say. And you're right. You haven't. So where's the money coming from, you ask? Look at your kids. Bu$hco is slapping them with the bill, in the form of the federal deficit. Something that had been wiped out during the Clinton administration.

Plus, as an added feature, you can look at the top, and see a rolling total that's been spent so far. Look at that figure, and think about what we could have accomplished had we devoted that kind of money toward things like cancer research, mental illness research and treatment, or developing alternative sources of energy so we could end our contributions to terrorist states like Saudi Arabia.

America, do we have your attention yet?

The president may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open.
--Barack Obama, 29 April 2007