Nine hundred and twenty-two American soldiers dead. Two thousand six-hundred and eighty-eight American soldiers wounded. Tens of thousands of innocent Afghani civilians killed, wounded and maimed, and thousands more displaced from their homes, living as refugees in a constant warzone. About $250 billion spent in Washington on the war in Afghanistan. About $165 million spent on the war per day. The numbers are astronomical.
So why the hell are we still fighting this war? When will it ever end? Who are we even fighting against? What’s the purpose of all this nonsense and what’s this disastrous mission’s long-term aim? No legitimate answers exist for these questions.
Only the famous George Orwell could answer this question honestly: “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. … Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside … this is called ‘pacification.’ … Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable” (“On Politics and the English Language,” 1946).
Enter Operation Enduring Freedom, the Orwellian namesake for an excuse to begin an imperialistic, nation-building, post-9/11 voyage to Afghanistan. We, college students and American citizens at large, have been duped and continue to be duped by doublespeak from the Obama administration regarding the war in Afghanistan’s importance to our country’s future and the “global fight against terrorism.” We are somehow stuck fighting a war against a nationless state in the name of fighting against a global terrorist cell — al-Qaeda — that knows no boundaries. Orwell is rolling in his grave.
Victory can never be gained in this convoluted battle against a nebulous enemy. Yet here we are, mere hours before Mr. Nobel Prize Winner 2009 announces a 30,000-plus troop build-up at West Point. Oh, and how is this all going to be paid for if this nightmare comes to fruition? This is where things get interesting.
An honorable few in our big-money-influenced infested whorehouse known as the United States Congress have stepped up to the plate in opposition to perpetual war and perpetual war financing. The most notable recent opponent: U.S. Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.).
On Nov. 20, Obey proposed the “Share the Sacrifice Act,” which rightfully calls for an end to borrowing against the bloated deficit to pay for the war in Afghanistan. The Act instead proposes taxpayers collectively cover the war’s steep, seemingly endless costs.
It’s a whole hell of lot easier for citizens to wave the yellow “Support Our Troops” ribbon when Congress funds the war with fiat money, or money backed by nothing and created out of thin air that deflates the value of our dollar and puts the responsibility of paying for the war on future generations. It becomes much more difficult for those same war cheerleaders to support the war when they know war funding will be taken out of their own paychecks. It then transforms into a personal issue.
Obey’s proposition is commendable in that it recognizes and seizes on the selfish motives of the average American taxpayer. Few people, particularly those right-leaning “fiscal conservatives” who simultaneously tend to support the expensive misadventure in Afghanistan and yet want their money seized through taxation, regardless of governmental rationale.
The genius lays in the logic of Obey’s act. If Americans truly support the war, they would be willing to pay for it by siphoning away their hard-earned tax dollars. If opposed to doing so, Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, refuses to continue funding the war with fiat money. With the future of the war hanging in the balance, Obey has given the Obama administration a necessary ultimatum: he refuses to fund a troop build-up if Americans don’t support it enough to pay for it out of their own pockets.
U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) accurately stated on July 24 in an interview with The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill that the Obama administration was “whistling past a graveyard” on the issue of mindlessly sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan (“White House is Whistling Past Afghan Graveyard”). Rather than allow the Obama administration to continue their tune as thousands more die and the deficit continues to skyrocket, Obey has taken things into his own hands through the power of the purse, whistling in the face of his fellow Democratic war-mongering president.
One thing’s for certain: Left in Obama’s hands, this war has no end in sight and all signs point to Afghanistan being, as The New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins coins it, “The Forever War.” Obey has proposed a well-crafted solution to end the nightmare sooner rather than later.
Here’s hoping the House obeys Obey, co-sponsors the bill and eventually passes it. Our country’s economic and moral fiber hinges on it, as does the war’s future.
Steve Horn ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and legal studies.
