The headline of Joshua Foust's March 4 opinion piece "Do we have the staying power?" begs the question, "Should we have the staying power?" Given that the terrorist threat is disseminated, it is hard for most Americans to comprehend the expensive and endless focused military effort, including the recent increment of 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan, in the historically intractable Middle East.
Constantly improved surveillance, intelligence and covert action are required to quell terrorist threats as opposed to overnight nation building in fractious societies. Why should this horse sense elude us?
There are two influences that the president and Congress seem unwilling to discuss. The first was the end of the draft that largely removes most Americans' immediate stake in deciding the fate of military adventures. The second, which Ike presciently warned us of a half century ago, is the military industrial complex that insidiously works its way into our society. One could argue that these Middle Eastern wars cost only several percent of our GDP, but these expenditures come off the top. They are dead-end investments that rob us of underwriting things that truly make us strong: research and development, education, infrastructure maintenance and health care reform.
