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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Buy War Bonds


No one need be surprised that President Obama is widening the war in Afghanistan. Even before he declared his intention to run for president he never made any secret of his belief that Afghanistan was the war of importance that had largely been forgotten by the Bush Administration’s obsession with Iraq.

So now we are to send 30,000 more Americans to fight for democracy to be instituted in a country with no history of it and purportedly to make the United States safer. It was the Bush Administration’s policy to prosecute war in Iraq and Afghanistan with no inconvenience to the American public. During a recession it is time for Americans to be inconvenienced by the war. I believe that the American government should return to selling war bonds to Americans. If our government feels that keeping the Taliban and Al-Qaida out of Afghanistan will make the United States safer it is time for us to directly support the war with our pocketbooks.

Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee David Obey is leading an effort to impose a tax to pay for the war. According to The Week, Obey’s “Share the Sacrifice Act” would impose a 1% tax on income between $30,000 and $150,000 with wealthier American’s paying higher rates. The Bush policy of hiding what the war was costing in terms of dollars and lives (by not showing returning coffins) put Americans at a distance from the war. A war tax or campaign to buy war bonds would give the public a real sense of the cost of the war and of participating. Maybe it would meet with opposition, but it is time that Americans became aware, on a daily basis, of the cost of war. Only then will they decide to put their full weight behind the war or demand that the United States withdraw.

10 comments:

JosephMcG said...

Thank you, Stephanie. You have given me a lot to think about...
I need to become "aware, on a daily basis, of the cost of war."

Lorraine Hart said...

Could you explain to me a little more about war bonds please Stephanie? Thanks...Lox

Stephanie Frieze said...

War bonds were sold like savings bonds during WWI and WWII. Actually they date back to the Civil War. It's a way for the government to fund a war. If there were posters and ads exhorting people to buy bonds it is possible that war weariness would set in quicker which is probably why it won't happen, but I believe that either we need to throw our entire effort into it or get out and not make another Vietnam.

Lorraine Hart said...

What do the folks who buy the bonds get? Do the bonds stand for a loan...or just a receipt? Sorry if I sound like an idiot...but I'm not familiar, even though everyone has heard the term "Buy Bonds" I never knew what one was 'buying' through the process.

You pose an interesting point, if the bonds are simply a receipt of spending.

Watching Charlie Wilson's War, with Tom Hanks...I wondered why the money wasn't invested then..in schools and rebuilding Kabul, etc. A little more money spent back then could have saved a lot of heartache.

Stephanie Frieze said...

If we hadn't walked away from Afghanistan back in '89 we probably wouldn't be fighting there now. You are very right, Lorraine, when you point out that building infrastructure at that time would have made a difference now.

Bonds are like a loan. War bonds were cashed in after the war with an expectation of receiving interest as did Savings Bonds during the 1950s and '60s. You were investing in the country or the war effort.

JosephMcG said...

Thanks for the exchange Stephanie and Lorraine... you clarified things for me...

Joseph

Lorraine Hart said...

How did that expectation of interest work out for the people?

Thanks for being so patient with me on this Stephanie. I'm getting things clarified also!

Kim Thompson said...

Interesting topic. Slightly off subject of bonds, I look back with an ache and think about what COULD be going on if we had done better/more/different in the 80's. And now? After reading Greg Morentson's, "Three Cups of Tea" I have a new understanding and fresh perspective of this region. I worry for the average citizen/villager.

Mizu Sugimura said...

Quite a bit of food for thought here....

Stephanie Frieze said...

The interesst rate on bonds was not as good as the Stock Market, but less sketchy. You had to hold on to them quite a while before they "matured." Actually, my kids grandparents gave savings bonds as birthday gifts when they were little, but they cashed those in when they hit college age.

Three Cups of Tea is a wonderful book that should be made into a movie! A younger version of Tom Hanks would be my ideal for the role.