Afghanistan: How much sleep are you losing over it?

Last night President Obama gave a much anticipated speech on the future of American involvement in Afghanistan. So what’s the verdict? (drumroll please) We need a surge! What else is new? It’s like our new favorite war term.

About 30,000 more lucky winners get to head off to the hot, dusty Middle East bringing the grand total of military personnel (does anyone else wonder what exactly the term “military personnel” means? I mean, are they troops or what?) to about 100,000.

Of course, what’s everyone’s new favorite question? How are we going to pay for this? Funny, you would have thought we would wonder that eight years ago when we actually went to war. It appears that we have two (ugly) choices: one, raise taxes or two, issue war bonds.

First, let me ask, how often do you think about the fact that we are actually at war? That we are in fact involved in two wars?? I’m going to guess that you don’t think about it all that often. So let’s take a look back into the history books shall we?

World War II: The American public was actually put under strict rationing. From food and gas to clothing, Americans consumption was limited so that our resources could be directed to our troops. Recycling was actually born during World War II to help reuse materials that could be useful in war. War bonds were issued and training sessions were held to teach women how to shop wisely to help conserve food. Can you imagine how we would all react if our government put us on rationing today? (Can we say communism?)

Vietnam (speaking of communism): I only have two words for you, the draft.

So I have to ask, given our history, why does asking Americans to sacrifice just a little, for a war that we all wanted to fight so badly, scare our Representatives so much? I, for one, want to know why we think we have to make a choice between raising taxes or issuing war bonds? Heck, let’s do both! Remember when the troops in Iraq didn’t have enough bullet-proof vests?? I certainly do, and I say, by all means, raise my taxes to make sure that my friends overseas (who are fighting my battles) are a little bit safer.