War spending hurts health care

By:

Posted: 3/22/07

As of March 10, Peachcare for Kids, Georgia's health insurance program for children of low-income families, will stop accepting new applicants.

President Bush, in an effort to reign in the looming federal budget deficit, has submitted to Congress a budget that cuts the funding of programs such as Peachcare. It is precisely because of this uncertainty that the directors of Peachcare have decided to stop accepting new applicants, thereby denying health insurance to thousands of Georgia children.

I am the father of a strapping four-year-old boy. He has always been on a private health insurance plan, but the plan is very expensive and provides inadequate coverage.

The time has come for his first visit to the dentist, however such things are not covered by his private insurance plan. Because of this, we are seeking to put him on Peachcare. Whether his application will have been processed by the March 10 deadline is anybody's guess.

My situation is an example of the growing and pervasive costs of the War in Iraq. Already thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars have been sacrificed for nothing. Any benefits have yet to materialize.

The war has only proven detrimental thus far. We have squandered the moral support of Sept. 11, emboldened our enemies (e.g. Iran) and created a terrorist haven in Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq did not stop some horrible humanitarian crisis - there wasn't such - but instead succeeded in starting one.

All of this was sacrificed for a completely elective and unnecessary war. Saddam Hussein was weaponless and isolated. In any case, the question of Saddam having weapons of mass destruction was insufficient in deciding whether he should be overthrown. Needed too was evidence of his intention to use them, but proof of this was utterly lacking.

The history of Saddam shows him to be a man who loved only himself and his power. He actually headed the only secular government in the Middle East, fully equipped with a western-style court system. His government was secular because Islam was the only force strong enough to unite the people of Iraq against him.

A man so self-absorbed and ever suspicious of Islam would never be as gutsy as to give a highly prized commodity, such as a weapon of mass destruction, to a radical Islamic terrorist group - especially not for use against a country that threatened to wipe him off the face of the earth a few years before.

Freedom and democracy are high ideals, but without such things as basic security, jobs, clean water and food, they are meaningless.

Iraq has yet to be truly free and democratic. We have failed in providing it the means for such.

Granted, the Bush administration has continually made plans and earmarked funds for restoring basic services. However, none of this has mattered because of its incompetence in establishing law and order.

After fours years and nine failed plans for reconstruction, I believe it's time we support our troops and oppose Bush's latest exercise in futility.

- Chris Breault is a graduate student from Columbus majoring in philosophy