How's About a Military Spending Poll?

President Obama seems dead-set on a surge in Afghanistan. This is a disaster for the obvious reasons. One, it will result in more unnecessarily dead people; two, we can't afford it; three, the Afghan government is hopelessly corrupt and not a viable partner; and four, it will not work.

Sending troops in spite of this represents the kind of political weakness that has brought you the bankers bonanza from Geithner and Summers, and the constant attempt to quietly kill the public option from the White House. It is a cave-in to the right and to the Pentagon. It is a boon to generals who have political and or career ambitions. It serves a myriad of special interests, but not the American people in general.

However, Congress does seem to listen to polling pressure from the public, hence the survival of some form of public option (so far). The polling on Afghanistan is mixed: Americans want to defeat Al Queda and/or the Taliban, but don't want to stay a long time in Afghanistan. But the questions missing are along the lines of "does being in Afghanistan keep us safe?" I have heard a lot of people say no.

Even if the answer is to some degree "yes," the next question needs to be "how much do you want to pay for a degree of safety?" Is it worth several billion dollars a month, indefinitely, to keep some terrorists out of Afghanistan? Is it worth an extra million dollars per soldier per year for a troop increase?

I would answer "hell no" if given the option.

In fact, I would like to see military spending in general polled heavily in this time of economic crisis. These are the questions I would like to see polled extensively with the American people:

• Should America cut its military spending to help fix the deficit?
• Should America be spending as much on its military as its top 20 allies combined?
• If we could cut military spending by 50%, and still have the most modern and most powerful military in the world, should we do it?
• If we could pay off our debt to China by cutting military spending, should we?
• Should we leave Iraq and Afghanistan, currently costing 10 billion per month, so that our kids won't have to pay any more of the debt for these conflicts?

Poll these heavily now that a "war tax" is being bandied about in Congress. I think you would find that Americans would be at least open to a real debate about military spending. The idea that we spend more than the G8 countries combined on our military is appalling. Regardless of how patriotic Americans feel, they should be amenable to a conversation about saving real money. Apart from Social Security, or Medicare, the military budget is the place to get those savings.