The millennial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most blatant abuses of governmental power in history. With estimates for the cost of the wars hovering around 2 trillion dollars, and a national debt to dwarf that, it is time we started asking very hard questions: what caused these wars, who is responsible, and who is paying for it? The simple answers: war mongering, the US government, and you.
Our foreign policy has a fever and the only prescription is non-interventionism. The wars in the Middle East, and consequently a free-falling economy, are the direct consequence of our commitment to ignore this debate. The wars with Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Korea, and a host of others, could have been avoided if we had minded our own damn business. Communist coups are not our problem. Islamic regimes are not our problem. Our problem is an inept government living in an Imperialistic fantasy world where we, the people, pay and die for wars they decide to wage. The Middle Eastern wars are estimated to cost you, the taxpayer, two trillion dollars. Our bases in over 130 countries will cost you even more in the coming years. In a time when our education system is failing, our markets are crashing, our infrastructures are crumbling, and our families are losing their homes, is it not more wise and prudent to direct our gaze homeward? We forget that the government works for us. We must take a stand. I, for one, will not pay for the musings of the imperial glory-hungry.
At this point, one may assert that we are bringing freedom and democracy to that region. Before the invasion of 2003, Iraq had never reported a suicide bombing. We are the cause of the unrest in the Middle East. Terrorist leaders cannot recruit on a religious platform alone. Potential devotees are persuaded by their common hatred of American foreign policy. Osama Bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 attacks because of American feet on Saudi soil. Previously Bin Laden had even offered to fight Saddam in the Gulf War. Nothing unifies like a common enemy.
Political ties will tempt us to argue at this stage. No matter what one’s convictions, we can all agree, hopefully, that peace is intrinsically better than war. American foreign policy began these wars without our, or Congress’ for that matter, approval and it is time we demanded an end to it. The de facto reason the Middle Eastern wars wage is American presence in the region. If we withdraw, the war is over. The war could be over in the morning if you said so. So, what do you say?
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