Do you support a war tax then? I'm not being facetious. The war is piling up a mountain of debt for us. A country can only deficit spend on a war on a temporary basis. Piling up debt year after year will end up bankrupting us if we sustain to for too long. The war has already lasted longer than World War II. If we had a war tax, we could at least make the war stop piling up debt for us. It would not be painless. It would not be easy. But if a war is important enough, people just have to sacrifice to win it. Is that the case here? Is this one of those essential wars like World War II or is it one we were foolish to get into?
Again, these are not sarcastic questions. They're tough ones, real ones that must be answered. If we enacted a 20 cent per gallon tax, for example, to pay for the war, I don't know that Americans would support that. I think they would be disgusted with it and demand that we get out. I could be wrong. If it took us 20 years to stabilize that country, we simply could not deficit spend at the rate we are over that period of time without it ruining our economy. Then again, a war tax wouldn't be so great for the economy either.
Would it even be stabilized after 20 years of occupation and a war tax? Another tough question.
I don't know that the American public views this war as an essential one that they're willing to sacrifice for like they were for the defeat of Hitler and Imperial Japan. Up to this point, it's been almost exclusively our military families who have done all the sacrificing. It can't remain like that. The nation as a whole has to be willing to sacrifice to win this or we have to simply get out.
Is this one where we have to simply admit we screwed up and get out? Another really tough question. If the answer is yes, then we simply must get the hell out. Not an easy thing to do. But it still would be easier than kidding ourselves until it bankrupts us and we're finally willing to admit we f###ed up and get out.