By Eric Margolis
(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)
"American would not have won independence from Great Britain without generous military and financial support from France and its monarch, Louis XVI. But France spent itself into bankruptcy supporting the American colonists. France’s financial ruin was a major cause of the ensuing French Revolution that cost the unfortunate Louis his head.
Wars are hugely expensive. Money plays as great a role in them as soldiers and weapons.
US Congressman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has come up with a novel idea: Americans should pay for the wars they are currently waging.
Obey’s proposal, which is backed by other congressmen of both parties, sounds startling – until one realizes that both the Bush and Obama administrations have never properly financed their foreign wars by forcing Americans to pay for them through higher taxes.
Instead, Washington has deferred the $1 trillion to date costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars by simply adding them to the national debt, and paying interest on the balance owing. President Lyndon Johnson conducted similar financial slight of hand with the Vietnam War, inflicting serious injury and instability on the US economy......
Even America’s mighty economy cannot for long support waging wars across the Muslim world. Unaffordable wars have been the ruin of many an empire, and the American Raj seems headed in the same direction as Noble Peace Prize winner Barack Obama plunges ever deeper into the Afghan quagmire. "
(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)
"American would not have won independence from Great Britain without generous military and financial support from France and its monarch, Louis XVI. But France spent itself into bankruptcy supporting the American colonists. France’s financial ruin was a major cause of the ensuing French Revolution that cost the unfortunate Louis his head.
Wars are hugely expensive. Money plays as great a role in them as soldiers and weapons.
US Congressman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has come up with a novel idea: Americans should pay for the wars they are currently waging.
Obey’s proposal, which is backed by other congressmen of both parties, sounds startling – until one realizes that both the Bush and Obama administrations have never properly financed their foreign wars by forcing Americans to pay for them through higher taxes.
Instead, Washington has deferred the $1 trillion to date costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars by simply adding them to the national debt, and paying interest on the balance owing. President Lyndon Johnson conducted similar financial slight of hand with the Vietnam War, inflicting serious injury and instability on the US economy......
Even America’s mighty economy cannot for long support waging wars across the Muslim world. Unaffordable wars have been the ruin of many an empire, and the American Raj seems headed in the same direction as Noble Peace Prize winner Barack Obama plunges ever deeper into the Afghan quagmire. "
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