COMMENTARY: The 'Other' Burden for Our Children and Grandchildren
By Joseph J. Honick
The drumbeat cry of conservative politicians almost always refers to
massive out of control government spending, spending that will be a
huge burden on our children and grandchildren. Almost never do these
same social Scrooges want to discuss the wars in Afghanistan and still
really going on in Iraq that have gone beyond the Trillion Dollar mark
with no end in sight. That is the “other” burden on our children and
grandchildren.
Having divided America into two distinct societies, -- military and civilian -- because of the terribly unwise All Volunteer Armed Forces Act signed by the late President Richard Nixon, many politicians of the right have virtually sermonized on the idea that we must wage war wherever and whenever the mongers decide, with or without sufficient evidence. In the case of the current long, long wars without apparent end or indication of what winning looks like, the military and defense contractor sectors(military industrial complex)have been able to operate truly out of control as to the costs involved.
When even Defense Secretary Robert Gates, one of the administration’s finest executives, offered the need to trim Pentagon expenses and other budgetary cleanup, it took only a day or so for the right side of the Congressional aisles in the House and Senate to warn they would not support such financial trimming. It is of course quite obvious by now that defense contractors have been profiting massively from the conflicts and even have contracts that will extend their business well into the next decade at the expense of the American taxpayers and their progeny to come.
If those war promoters who are on the wealthy receiving end of heavily invested defense contractor lobbies would use some public relations encouragement of their own sons and daughters to rush down to the recruitment centers to help fight the battles, there might be some credibility to their politics. Given that Americans have already paid for more than a billion dollars of private PR work, how much would it cost for those selling the war in Congress to promote their own kids to join up?
Moreover, if there is some semblance of reality to these endless combat operations that have found our men and women risking their lives for other nations, why not, as I have urged before in these pages…why not insist that those countries getting the relatively free ride on our investment start paying the bills for all these efforts? Worse, why has not one single television talking head or editorial writer or syndicated columnist even raised this question, among numerous others?
Why is not one single legislator across the land asking how the so called “insurgents” can finance their efforts and where do their arms come from…and of course, why have we failed to stop arms shipments to them?
So, when we hear the shrill cries of the Teabag Party hypocrites that they want the government to spend less, why do they also fail to advance the idea that those numerous nations we are defending cough up some dough to pay the massive spending for those efforts Those who assaulted the administration’s Health Reform legislation asserting it could cost up to nearly a trillion dollars over 10 years have raised not one peep about conflicts that already have run to nearly a Trillion dollars and still rising.
In the end, far from suggesting we should curtail the very best actions to defend against terrorism, more and more knowledgeable folks have come to the conclusion each nation has to shoulder the burden for its own security as we should right here.
There will be those who will suggest we need to fight terrorism around the world. If that is true, and it no doubt is, then why can we not engage all those other nations to send troops and money to help? Why is the newly oil rich Iraq not being required to make the U.S. a partner in those fabulous oil fields now going to the highest bidders among oil companies?
Until and unless more Americans worried about their future generations join in these inquiries and demand answers, what we leave to our children and grandchildren could hardly be called a “burden.” More appropriately, it should be termed a nightmare!
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Honick is president of Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based GMA International Ltd, the consulting and public relations firm he formed in 1975 to help companies broaden their business abroad especially in China and Japan. He also contributes to a variety of publications -- including Huntington News Network -- on public policy issues. This commentary was previously published by O'Dwyer's PR Report and is reprinted by permission.