Ogaudemar

If there was a draft and Americans had to face the risk of going to war themselves or have to send their sons to Iraq, the US government would never have had so much support to invade Iraq and, more importantly, to stay there for so long. Truth is America is not at war, they watch reality shows on TV, myspace each other and go shopping before catching a comedy at the theatre. The US government and the US Army are at war, not the US people.

I don’t know if there’s a precedent in history of America and the world of such negative impacts of professional armies. Except for the few families whose sons are serving in Iraq, most of the country only perceives war through the prism of media. What should only be an extreme decision made to protect the survival of a nation has become a bureaucratic decision. The government sends a professional army like they contract any other vendor.

The US would never have gone to war either without a budget. The government could find the budget because, for US citizens, a budget is not something tangible. Citizens are only involved remotely, via democratic representation. The US government spent more than $400 billion since the beginning of the Iraq invasion in 2003, approximately $80 billion per year. If the US government had to raise funds specifically for war instead of using tax money and debt, that they would have been able to achieve their goals. Maybe the first year, not for so long.

Many politicians opposed to Universal health Care in the US - they call it socialized health care, claim that they don’t want some a socialized bureaucracy to decide for them what’s good for their health. Based on how wars are decided by the US government, I almost agree with the statement. Is individualism so deeply rooted in the American culture that the US government’s actions are so far away from the sum of actions all US citizens would take as individuals?

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