Showtime

--Shooting War, Lappe and Goldman

Make 'em roar. Make 'em scream.
Take a fall, butt a wall, split a seam.
--Make 'em Laugh, Brown and Freed

A house divided against itself cannot stand
--Abraham Lincoln
________

The double entendre of the graphic novel "Shooting War" has it about right.

Don't worry about the Writer's Strike -- for a mere $20,000 a year, you and your family are privy to the best reality show around. That is the cost to you of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according a recent estimate given by the Congress's Joint Economic Committee (JEC), as reported by the Washington Post ("'Hidden Costs' of Two Wars.")

The article cites the new study, which puts the bill for the wars at $1.5 trillion, after taking into account "higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars." This is a more realistic estimate. as it takes into account the inevitable long-term costs of the war, versus the overly optimistic per diem estimate by the White House.

This Congress's report effectively doubles that put forth by the White House, which still cleaves to the paltry $804 billion tab through 2008. But regardless of whose estimate is correct, the wars and their costs are political footballs played along partisan lines, and the following seem irrefutable rules of the political game:

[1] WW II and the Cold War were won through bipartisan coordination, something missing in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT©.) A war -- even a phony one --cannot be won without the total support of the American people and our elected leaders.

[2] The PWOT cannot be a political issue dealt with on a reactive basis. Statesmanship, not brinskmanship, is required. Scanning the new crop of presidential candidates, none of the contenders are world leader-type material. All are politicians or attorneys. America needs a leader.

[3] Regardless of the contentious figures and Enron-style accounting, one fact is unequivocal: "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000." Even if that number were halved, keeping it within the purview of the White House estimates, $10,000 per family of four is still too much.

If we use the $20,000 JEC estimate, each family is paying $355 per month for the war. Broken down further, that means each family is paying $11 per day for its share of the glorious expedition to force democratization.

Eleven dollars a day sounds like a good deal, especially if your sons of daughters don't have to actually fight in the reality show called Iraq and Afghanistan. One could even view the $11 as a pay-per-view of the wildly entertaining news stories and visuals flowing over our the t.v and radio waves.

Think: for a crummy $11 bucks we get to see people blown up, decapitated, burned, sandbagged, flex-cuffed and forced on their knees and sexually humiliated, and see neighborhoods and societies destroyed. All for $11 a day.

Really, $2.75 a person, broken down further. Much less than a ticket at the local multiplex. Less than the cost of a gallon of gas or milk. Incredible the deals offered to a grateful America through the largesse of GWB. Noblesse oblige.

The entertainment value is inestimable. While there have been no cost analyses or comparisons, this PWOT must be cheaper than the Roman circuses sponsored by the Roman government. Not only am I guessing the entertainment is bought cheaper, but the show is more widely accessible to a pre-brain-numbed public.

The Roman viewed their warlike gladiatorial battles in a blood-soaked arena; the citizens of America do so on their plasma t.v.'s rented from Chinese communists. Seems cleaner that way.