Conservatives tend to rally around war mongering without requiring the slightest bit of justification.  There were no WMDs after all in Iraq.  Qasam Soleimani was assassinated because as rumor has it, he was planning to plot against us.  No evidence of these assumptions ever seems to be required.  Cost, both human and financial, be damned.

When the Iraq war was waged by George W. Bush in 2003, cable viewers could watch bombs explode on targets on CNN every day.  I think most people thought it was a really cool display of our technology.  Entertainment even.  Lets gather around and watch some more brown people die.   It’s 6,000 miles away and looks like a well designed video game on TV.

This is where the problem lies now.  It’s easy to be entertained by war when it’s other people’s children doing the dying.  It’s also easy to be entertained by war when it seemingly doesn’t cost us anything.   Free entertainment.  And we alway seem to win.  What a cool country we live in.

To the average American, a real test of whether or not it’s cool would be if everyone had an equal chance of participating in the war games.  Hmm, hold on a minute.  I just like to watch.  That’s what I thought.

This is why I’m thinking the only solution that will force people to get real about whether or not they really support a movement towards war, is if we reverted back to the mandator draft.  I believe it would nip this kind of thinking in the bud. Oh it’s my kid who might have to be on the front line?  Wait just a minute now.

Another test would be if we had to use pay-go for the war costs.  If everyone’s tax bill went up $5,000 / year to pay for the ongoing war, can you imagine the push-back?  Well, I think we should do it but I’m not going to be the one paying for it.  Indeed.  You don’t have to worry about that because it’s on the credit card.  You’ll be dead when the bill comes due, but your kids won’t be too happy.

Lloyd Bentsen, in the 1988 Vice Presidential debate said it best.

You know, if you let me write $200 billion worth of hot checks every year, I could give you an illusion of prosperity, too.