The Pendragon's Hall

This month's "Foreign Policy" magazine features a photo of Bush on its cover with the superimposed caption: "Iraq Isn't His Fault. (It's Yours.)" Intrigued, the Pendragon read the cover article and even more surprisingly, found himself in agreement. The article suggested that the commitment to a bungled war on terror has deep roots in the American psyche. The reason that the war is not going according to plan has less to do with a vast neocon conspiracy than with the American philosophy of government. Time out of mind, Americans have feared the intervention of the "nanny-state" and hated paying high taxes. Bush and Reagan were both elected and re-elected on a commitment to keep taxes low. Yet at least since the days of FDR, Americans have also believed that the government should shoulder the burden of the entire country--paying for programs and protecting our interests abroad. The flaw is that Americans want to have their cake and eat it too. They want government aid without having to foot the bill. But there's no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody has to pay. If Americans want social programs like Europe and Canada, then they have to be prepared to pay taxes like those countries. If they want the low taxes, they're going to have to get used to not having these kinds of programs. The article rightly tags Bush with perpetuating the misguided belief that it's possible to pay low taxes and have a welfare state, but also notes that no Democrat dares suggest anything different. The same logic can be applied to the war on terror--John McCain is right to urge sacrifice on the part of the population to support the war effort. That is what got us through two World Wars and will get us through today.