PUT UP OR SHUT UP TIME

As we approach another 9/11 anniversary, public discourse is once again returning to an all-too-familiar theme: Supporting Our Troops. It's a noble pursuit, but one I feel is frequently treated with little more than lip service. Here's why: The costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already exceeded 2.5 trillion dollars and American taxpayers have not paid a single dollar on this war debt.

How can that be, you ask? Well, every appropriation for war expenses since 2001 for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been approved as a supplemental appropriation, which means that the appropriation was not part of the government’s regular budget or paid for by budgeted tax revenues. Instead, the government has continuously sold treasury bills (government IOU’s) to foreign countries like China, Japan and Saudi Arabia to secure funds to finance the wars. The interest on those treasury bills compounds daily, and will continue to do so until the debt, with interest, is repaid.

This begs the question: When do troop supporters plan to pay for the troops?

Millions of American eagerly display “We Support Our Troops” bumper stickers and flags on their vehicles, but if that display represents the total extent of support folks are willing to provide to our troops, one has to question the sincerity of their gesture.

It seems to me that it’s time for every troop supporter to open their wallets and checkbooks, to take out second or third mortgages, if necessary, and to dip into savings to pay off this war debt, which is really what it means to support the troops. And, if folks are not willing to pony-up for the troops and the war they wanted, well then, its time to shut up on the claim of supporting our troops, pack up the military and bring them home.

When a country goes to war it requests its soldiers and military personnel to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. If the citizenry isn’t willing to make a corresponding sacrifice and pay for the war, it should never be fought in the first place.

The Bush Administration was wrong in refusing to ask the American people to make the financial sacrifice necessary to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was wrong to refuse to increase taxes to pay for a war or to continue conducting such an endeavor if the citizenry refused financial support. The same goes for the current administration. It’s put up or shut up time – and bumper stickers don’t count!