Tag Archives: Iraq War

Patriot Tax?

 

How about a Patriot Tax to pay off the war debt which the United States accumulated as a result of the Afghan and Iraq wars? Those who favor tax increases to lower our debt and those who favor spending cuts might cease their constant paralyzing disagreements by considering this tax.

Those who wish to raise revenue through taxes could recognize a Patriot Tax as a way to pay off debts without cutting Social Security or Medicare. Those who wish to cut spending could nevertheless see the Patriot Tax as justified, since this tax would pay only for the debt from two wars voted by Congress, in which our troops risked their lives.

Normally, when the country fights a major war, Congress and the President raise taxes to pay for it. We did not do this for the Afghan and Iraq wars. Thus, a Patriot tax seems fitting, even if a bit late.

Iraq, Ten Years Out, and Almost Forty for Vietnam

 

The late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas wrote a book in 1966 called The Arrogance of Power. Fulbright was the longtime chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was respected for his knowledge of foreign relations and was strongly anti-Communist. However, he spoke out against America’s growing involvement in Southeast Asia that eventually led to the Vietnamese conflict.

He did not fear, he said, that the United States would seek to dominate in the manner of a Hitler or a Napoleon. He feared rather that we would drift into commitments that were beyond our capacity to honor. We should, he suggested, confine ourselves to doing only those things that truly matter to us.

Like another senator known for his foreign policy expertise, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Fulbright was eventually defeated in his party’s primary. Politicians risk losing their constituency when they emphasize global concerns. “All politics is local,” U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill once said.

Are we concerned only for our, admittedly important, domestic concerns?

Perhaps we would never have committed so much blood and treasure to Viet Nam, now a byword for a failed U.S. foreign policy, if we, the people, took more time to understand the rest of the world. And what about Iraq, ten years out? Was it worth it?