The Bill Arrives for a Free War

Watching the troubles of the economy, some observers don't want a bailout for either Wall St. or stressed homeowners who find themselves in over their heads. The phrase "moral hazard" is being tossed around as shorthand for "You took the risk, now take your lumps." It would seem that the ground is littered with moral hazards. The reckless borrowing by huge investment banks on a margin of 30 to 1 may turn out to be the greatest moral hazard since the Great Depression. Even the massive rise in gas prices with no end in sight is connected with reckless risk-taking by the Bush administration as they plunged into the maelstrom of the Middle East.

On the fifth anniversary of the shock and awe campaign, many politicians in both parties are trying to hide behind the "success" of the surge. But despite a drop in U.S. casualties to 2005 levels, the moral price keeps coming back. The Sunnis and Shia are nowhere near reconciliation and want to keep exacting revenge. The U.S. has seen its influence wane in the Middle East while Hezbollah and Iran rise. The deterioration of the dollar, which is directly connected with the rise of oil prices, has a root cause in lack of confidence in the U.S. and a not-so-secret desire on OPEC's part to stick it to us.

How ironic that Iraq was originally sold as basically a free war -- fast, clean, and cheap. Only 1% of the American population has borne the burden of fighting and dying. Everyone else could turn away and flip real estate as the booming housing market brought unprecedented added value to the average American's net worth. Pres. Bush continues to act as if the war is a noble cause on the brink of success, the economy basically sound, the world our friend. In other words, he wants a total bailout for the multiple disasters inflicted by ring-wing ideology.

Nobody likes pain, and yet paying for this "free" war -- which could take an entire generation -- is better than amnesia. The American public clearly wishes that amnesia was possible. Sen. McCain has taken the position that blaming those who took us into an unjust war is crying over spilt milk. The point is to do the best with where we are. But in the end the moral backlash of the war can't be denied, either by amnesia or wishful thinking. The U.S. no longer controls its destiny, for the first time since WWII. A tiny fraction of the fear felt every day by Iraqis, Palestinians, Kenyans, and Sudanese has crept into American homes, and the greatest Wall St. institutions find themselves at the mercy of foreign lenders.

How do we regain control over our destiny? By standing up to our mistakes and reviving our lost idealism. The success of Sen. Obama shows that the latter is possible, but the former is harder. It won't be easy to prevent Iraq from collapsing into anarchy, but it's America's duty to do so. It won't be easy to stop squandering national wealth on military buildups and an endless appetite for oil. Citizens who have been passively accepting tax cuts while leaving the bills for war to their children and grandchildren will have to wake up from Bush's reactionary dreams. This is probably the most distressing post I've written in several years, but Iraq turned out to be a subprime war with a massive balloon payment.

Click: www.intentblog.com

www.deepakchopra.com

Comments

[TexasDem0]

Do you mean the war that BushCo promised us would be paid for entirely by Iraqi oil revenues?

[Shaddup]

HuffPost's Pick

Unfortunately, to get to where we want, we have to recognize where we are. At least half the country is still in some form of denial, and the media keeps feeding it either unable or unwilling to recognize the truth. A lot op people are going to have to hit bottom before they realize what kind of mess we're in. If the real statistics got out instead of "Bushes" statistics that would help. There have been more than four thousand US soldiers dead for a while now, but they just airlifted them into Germany to die if they could get them off the ground in time. The unemployment figures are fixed, as are the rates of inflation, the GDP figures, and just about every other dept. you can think of. The media needs to wake people up before it's too late. It's their responsibility and they're failing miserably.

[HeevenSteven]

"they're failing miserably."

[HeevenSteven]

Seems to be a problem with the comments here. I was tying to write Correction, past tense = failed miserably. It got cut off for some reason.

[Guitarsandmore]

"How do we regain control over our destiny?"

[nerakami]

We MUST face the consequences of our actions. WE elected Bush for 8 years and his judgment led us into this war. None of Bush's reasons for the war were true.... there were no WMD, there were no AlQaeda in Iraq. We literally broke the country in two and we cannot pick up and leave without some semblance of order within their Government. America will be (even more so) the most despised country on this planet if we allow anarchy and civil war to reign in Iraq. WE Must do the right thing, as we invaded their country and made a complete mess of the situation.

[WASanford]

It is not our duty to prevent Iraq from collapsing into anarchy. That is the duty of the Iraqi people inasmuch as they are the only ones who can truly do so. We were wrong to attack that nation and we are wrong to stay. We should leave Iraq immediately.
Our soldiers are stationed in other countries all around the world. Can this be anything but intimidation? Bring them all home now!

[ORSunshine]

Thank you Dr. Chopra,
This war is costing us so much, and it really is going to be left to the next generation (who played no role in electing the leaders that made such decisions) to pay. I hope that because of this, the next generation really learns the lessons of history and votes, in numbers, for change.

[Gibbons]

I don't think we should bail out anybody who paid more than $100 thousand for a home because people who paid two or three million were speculators and as you say make the risk take the loss.

[Dap]

Dear Dr. Chopra,

Well said Sir, it's not only depressing it is heart-breaking. Agape.

[paixa3]

ditto. Gawd, never give us another bush or neocons, EVER....PLEASE !

[JoeBlough]

We will ALWAYS get the Government we deserve. ALWAYS!