This “War” on Terror Doesn’t Feel Very Global…

“Hope the members of Congress enjoy their holiday break. I intend to enjoy mine.”

So said the President during his “year-end” press conference on the 20th of December.

Well, that is what I read he said. I was not able to actually watch the press conference, so I read the transcript.

And then I read it again.

President Bush spoke of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan briefly, saying that “[t]hese brave men and women are risking their lives to protect us and they deserve the full support of the U.S. government.”

He followed that with two other statements expressing that he was grateful and/or “glad” that Congress funded OIF/OEF (without artificial timetables for withdrawals). Apparently, everything the President had to say about our troops at the end of 2007 could be said in 3 very short and—technically—redundant sentences.

Then the President proceeded to go into his priorities for 2008: “not raising taxes.” In fact, he talked about not raising taxes nine times, using the word “tax” (or some variation thereof) 29 times.

“You know, the argument that you've got to raise taxes make sure your children
don't pay debt only works if the government doesn't follow suit and spend
that money you raise on new programs. My view is that, given more money the
government will find new ways to spend it…”

With all due respect, Mr. President, that’s the idea behind taxation: the government spends the money it collects from the citizens for their collective benefit.

For example, we could use those tax dollars to fund our troops in theater, to care for our wounded warriors, or to recruit and train new troops for future needs. These are not unreasonable expenditures by our government, especially if Americans want to continue to rely upon an all volunteer force for our military, defense, and natural disaster needs. Essentially, what appears to be “taking care” of a small segment of Americans in the short term is really taking care of all Americans in the long term.

Yet, these are the first wars our country has entered into and maintained without raising taxes. Instead, we have accumulated several hundred billion dollars of debt and we shown no interest in cutting up the nation’s ‘credit card’ anytime soon... probably because that would mean we would have to resort to raising taxes. Raising taxes would require a little sacrifice by most Americans, instead of the current situation, which is defined by the tremendous sacrifice of a few Americans.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense freely admits the need for a significant increase in mental health care providers for service members and wounded warriors. Physicians for Social Responsibility estimate the cost of care for our wounded warriors from OEF/OIF will equal or surpass the cost of the wars themselves. And as long as we embrace the VA system, we will need to improve and expand our VA health care facilities to accommodate the 700,000 OEF/OIF veterans expected to seek care at them.

Nonetheless, at the year-end press conference, President Bush said he hoped that Congress would enjoy their holiday break as he planned to enjoy his (before returning to the business of ensuring that no taxes were raised, although those taxes could fund essential programs to care for our troops; troops who evidently did not warrant a call to action on the part of the American public for whom they have sacrificed their families, their holidays, their safety, and in some cases, their sanity and/or their lives).

In fact, of the 4,351 fatalities to date, 320 died during a December month. For every fatality, there are 8 to 16 wounded (the latter figure encompasses mental and physical injuries that develop or occur in the combat theater but were not necessarily the direct result of “hostile” action). This means that, on average, two service members a day are killed and anywhere from 16 to 32 service members are physically and/or psychologically injured.

Personally, my holiday thoughts and prayers are with our service men and women. I don’t just want them to “enjoy” the holidays in Iraq and Afghanistan, I want them to survive the holidays.

Statistically speaking, however, not all of them will. And while I understand the political reasons that elected officials (from both partied) have for wanting to "spare" civilians (i.e. 95% of Americans) from the "burdens" of war, I neither agree with nor respect doing it:

Supporting our troops is not just something you say, it is something you DO.