Shared sacrifice still missing

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, March 31, 2008

Mark Shields, a former Marine who provides weekly political analysis on the public television program, “The NewsHour,” continues to shake his head about who does and who doesn’t bear the sacrifice for the war in Iraq.

Now entering its sixth year, the war in Iraq has resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 Americans and thousands of injuries, as well as thousands of civilian casualties. The dollar cost in Iraq is estimated at $255 million per day, or a little less than $1.8 billion a week.

“All the sacrifice in this war has been borne by the one percent of Americans who are in uniform and their families,” Shields said. “The rest of us sit quietly by. We haven't protested the fact that this is a war that our children and grandchildren will pay for.”

Compared to previous wars, more injured soldiers are surviving the war in Iraq. Because of the terrible force of IED explosions, more are surviving with brain injury.

Most injured vets, however, are able to return to private life, but about 10 percent end up in nursing homes or other long-term assisted living facilities on a permanent basis. In some cases, the cost per person — for brain injury survivors — can run upward to $250,000 annually.

Much less paying for the war, similar to what was done during World War II, Shields points out that Americans have, in his words, “blithely (happily) accepted tax cuts.”

The news analyst said there’s no Iraq War burden for the average American.

“We’ve paid no price and have accepted (political) leadership that’s demanded nothing of us, and we've demanded nothing of them,” Shields said. “We’ve been moral defectors and have repealed one of the great American values. In wartime, war demands equality of sacrifice.”

Shields and others point out that unlike present-day tax cuts, Americans during World War II saw tax increases. This was in addition to food, clothing and gasoline rations. Americans, in those days, also purchased war bonds to help support the troops overseas.

According to the non partisan Congressional Budgeting Office (CBO), the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost taxpayers a total of $2.4 trillion dollars by 2017. That’s because, in part, the war is being financed with borrowed money.

The CBO estimates that of the $2.4 trillion long-term price tag for the wars, about $1.9 trillion of that would be spent on Iraq. This would put the expense at over $25,000 for an average family of four.

For his part, ex-Marine Shields pledges to continue to remind Americans about the lack of shared sacrifice for the war in Iraq, a conflict that President Bush calls “a noble effort” and one that is worth the sacrifice.

If you want to get the true picture about Iraq and other topics, tune in to the “The NewsHour” on public television anytime between 6 and 7 p.m. each weekday evening. Joining Shields for the analysis is news columnist David Brooks.

No matter what one’s opinion is about the war in Iraq, we’ll have a presence there for a long time. Whether more of us throughout American society will share in the sacrifice is a bigger question mark.

Tom Hintgen is a reporter with The Daily Journal. His column runs Mondays.