Another was provided by the International Herald Tribune last winter when reporter David Leonhardt wrote: "For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for. . . a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children's lives. Combined, those programs wouldn't use up even half of our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education. . ." And all live happily ever after.
No disrespect to Leonhardt intended, but anyone who believes those programs would have been the destination for money that wasn't spent on Iraq is living in a dream world. Ensure the continuation of Social Security and Medicare? Forget it. One way or another, much of that money would have found its way to defense.
Billions for fighter planes, nuclear-powered submarines, and ballistic missile components take priority. Not to mention, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) projects like body armor that's made of "metamaterials" and can be seen and fired through on one side, but is invisible and impenetrable on the other.
As for embarrassing subjects like cost-overruns and lack of oversight, only a traitor would bring those up. Meanwhile, God forbid, as Leonhardt conjectures, that the "recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place -- better baggage and cargo screening, stronger anti-proliferation measures" be enacted.
At the heart of the problem is how, when threatened, our interpretation of security tends to narrow. But security is more than bombing or invading another country. Beyond even the comprehensive homeland security program Leonhardt envisions, the road to security lies, of course, in diplomacy.
Realizing genuine security, however, requires disarmament and that means nuclear. A true leader challenges his countrymen to roll back his state's weapon systems in hopes that other countries, instead of interpreting this leap of faith as a sign of weakness, will follow suit. A country could get used to not having to spend a king's ransom on its own defense.
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