Analyzing the Price of War

Ronald Brownstein is right that President Bush is passing the buck on the Iraq debacle (“Bush Sending the Wrong Message as Chaos Smolders in Iraq,” Dec. 27). But I take exception to his contention that we Americans who do not have someone directly involved in the Iraqi conflict are suffering “no discernible consequences.”

At the least, those of us with a conscience that embraces all of humanity are suffering with the loss of each soldier and each Iraqi civilian in this immoral war. Americans are paying as steep an emotional and spiritual price for having allowed this illegal action as Saddam Hussein has paid for his hideous actions.

It would be heartening if Bush could admit his badly mistaken judgments and wrongdoings and work toward correcting them. But, somehow I do not think such admissions are in his soul. After all, with God on his side how could Bush be wrong?

Robert C. Lutes

Temple City

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Brownstein summed up perfectly where this administration has erred. I remember the day when it was considered quite usual for people to pay taxes to cover wars and those things necessary for the public good.

One only needs to travel abroad to appreciate what we have in the U.S. Being patriotic is not waving the flag and speaking of “values”; it is paying our bills and taking care of one another.

Nan Lewis

Los Angeles

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Brownstein correctly observes that Bush’s policies “are sending the unfortunate message that no one apart from the soldiers on the ground and their families should pay any price for this war.” But precisely why is that message unfortunate? So what if the war is financed through deficit spending?

Here’s the “so what”: Those policies have “underpriced” the war. Because the public hasn’t borne the war’s true cost, the public’s policy choices have been skewed by that artificially low price.

If the war had been financed on a “pay-as-you-go” basis (rather than passing the buck to our children via deficit spending), the public would have been fully aware of the cost. If the administration had imposed a draft, the public could have made a more well-informed choice during the recent elections.

Dan Schechter

Los Alamitos