The Election and the Zero cost Zero loss War

By Paul S. Peete

All rights Reserved

The debate continues as to what we must do about the situation in Iraq; do we redeploy, withdraw, Surge, attack or talk to Iran. The Middle East is in such a state of flux and tinderbox volatile, that the world’s oil spigot is in jeopardy of disruption from a number of causes. Our traditional allies in the area are putting distance between them and us: Saudi Arabia recently calling our presence in Iraq an illegal occupation, while Israel looks to us for action on Iran’s nuclear threat and wonders if our overextended effort in Iraq will leave us so militarily emasculated that we will be unable to mount a response to Ahmadenizhad’s nuclear fueled, regional power grab.

The Soviet’s sense our weakness and the increasing importance of their oil reserves, are seizing every opportunity to challenge and oppose our efforts at reigning in rogue states. China continues to exert its influence on global issues to its advantage holding our dependence on their cheap manufacturing capability and trade imbalances over our head like a sword of Damocles; making inroads into South America and Africa to establish itself as a global economic power. Nations once aligned with us throughout Europe, Asia, and even our own hemisphere are seeing the Bush policies as failures and detrimental to their interests.

This is the backdrop to the 2008 Presidential elections as candidates Republican and Democrat grapple to separate themselves from the pack and find a message that resonates with the electorate. Republicans, with the exception of Ron Paul , in their typical bravado fashion, are committed to a military solution in Iraq; and Democrats, some hoping to tap into the national fatigue with the endless carnage and soaring costs associated with the war are all committed to disengagement. The parallels to our loss in Viet Nam are unavoidable, and though Bush vehemently rejects any conceptual linkage to our plight, there is increasing evidence of a similar ending scenario; as a Democratically controlled Congress is being forced to face the ultimate sole solution of de-funding the war with each veto of less Draconian legislative attempts at disengagement.

The Republican mantra of lowering taxes rings particularly hollow in light of the Bush tax cuts having absolved the nation’s wealthiest of bearing any of the cost of the war, while reaping record profits from the increased energy costs and their investments in the military industrial complex. The all volunteer military has put the burden of fighting the war solely on the shoulders of those poor and middle class Americans who see the military as a way of gaining an economic foothold on the craggy perch of this skewed economy. It is no wonder that as the conflict enters its fifth year, the bribes the military must pay to encourage reenlistment of its officers and soldiers has skyrocketed. The Treasury continues to print money to paper over the shortfall while the Chinese hold the strings to our mounting debt burden racking up trillions of dollars interest alone servicing this debt. Even the Democratic pledges to raise taxes on the wealthiest in the country while providing relief to the poor and middle class falls far short of addressing the underlying issue of a disproportionate burden of the cost of this war.

The poor and middle class, even soldiers who have been wounded, are subjected to substandard medical care, crumbling infrastructure, and inadequate disaster emergency preparedness while we are constantly reminded of the inevitability of another 9-11 type attack. When will the candidates be forced to address the real issues of this election cycle?

Is a draft in our future? Will the wealthiest Americans ever be required to foot some of the expenses of blood and treasure incurred in the protection of their petroleum? Are we going to continue to allow the concentration of the nations wealth to increasingly flow to the wealthiest, while the jobs and livelihoods of ordinary Americans are pushed offshore? Can the divide and conquer tactics of blaming immigrants for the erosion of the middle class continue while Big Business depends on that labor to increase profitability and tamp down the wages of the working class? Can America commit to a “man on the moon mission like” determination to develop alternative energy sources and wean us off the unreliable Middle East oil? Will the electorate finally see beyond the immediacy of their daily needs to focus on the larger issues of national survival, or will they continue to let distractions like stem cell research, abortion, gay marriage, and immigrant’s presence obscure the real internal threats?