War On Everything

How many wars are we fighting right now? Do you know? I don't. Let's see if I can count them all. There's the War on Poverty. That has been a great failure. There's the War on Drugs. No significant changes in drug sales or usage since its inception. It has cost quite a bit of money though. What else? There's a War on AIDS and a War on Cancer. Both of these diseases are still incurable. Contrary to popular belief, we're still at war in Kuwait. How do I know that? I recently discussed it with a soldier who had just returned from there. For all technical purposes we're just holding a presence there (a defensive presence).

There's also the big one, the War on Terror, or as it has recently been named, the “Global Struggle Against Extremism”. This one actually can be split up into a series of wars that we're actually involved in. To list those that the public knows about, the war in Afghanistan (we're just a defensive presence there as well), the war in Iraq (defensive presence), the USA PATRIOT ACT (for our safety), the TIPS program (using US Citizens to spy on US Citizens), the No-Fly List (has resulted in 4 year olds and journalists being unable to take flights), and listening to our phone conversations (who needs the Fourth Amendment?).

Additionally, the War on Drugs can easily be divided up into a series of different methods we are executing. First, domestically, we are creating drug specific units and paying police departments extra when they shut down drug rings. This creates, essentially, a war at home that goes from house to house hitting everything from Marijuana to Cocaine. Then, we're going into other countries (Columbia etc.) and dropping chemicals on their crops to kill them. We're at war with every drug dealer in existence, legal or not! These are the only ones I could find. I wonder if there are more?



In any case, when you put it all together, it is a lot of wars. How do we keep up with it all? Well, it seems like most Americans don't. At least the government keeps up on it for us. I mean, when they're risking soldier's lives for it, it's good that, at least, they know what's going on. But the question is, is that enough wars? Do you think we should jump into another one? How about North Korea? Well, if you don't think we need more wars, too bad.

President Bush recently declared war on Internet annoyances. No, I'm not referring to the Bloggers that are going to jail for posting things that the Bush Administration doesn't like. Instead, they've actually signed into law legislation that makes it, essentially, illegal to flame (an Internet term for saying nasty things to other people; generally on a discussion board). However, it only makes it illegal to flame anonymously. Logical? That's never the question the government asks.

So, if my count is correct, we are currently fighting at least 13 different wars. This doesn't address the peacekeeping forces we have in Bosnia or our presence in Korea and Vietnam. We have troops in countries all over the world. Is it possible we're spreading ourselves just a little thin? OK, so the War on Poverty doesn't actually use troops. But, like every other government program, it is failing miserably. Maybe we could limit our government to 5 wars at a time? Is that a reasonable request? I'd like to see us keep it to one, or even none. Perhaps 5 is a good start though. What do you think?