The reason we run the Iraq and Afghanistan war tolls on our printed editorial page each week is to remind people that those wars are still raging and taking human lives.

Unfortunately, we don't get enough reminders that these tragic wars are continuing to kill hundreds of people - Iraqis and Afghans, as well as Americans - every week. And while hundreds more lose limbs or come home disfigured, we go blithely along as if the wars weren't happening. We can't seem to be bothered.

As one of my favorite columnists, Bob Herbert of the New York Times, put it last week:

"America's young fighting men and women have (had) to make multiple tours because the overwhelming majority of the American people want no part of the nation's wars. They don't want to serve, they don't want to make any sacrifices here on the home front - they don't even want to pay the taxes that would be needed to raise the money to pay for the wars. We just add trillions to deficits that stretch as far as the eye can see.

"To the extent that we think about the wars at all, it's just long enough to point our fingers at the volunteers and say: 'Oh yeah, great. You go. And if you come back maimed or dead we'll salute you as a hero.' "

I was thinking of that the other night when the telephone rang. The call was from the College Republicans' national office, asking me if I'd join the campaign to tell President Barack Obama to quit his reckless spending, saddling future generations with trillions of dollars of debt.

When I said "no," but I'd join a campaign to tell the president to bring the troops home from the wars and use the hundreds of billions we're spending there to pay for a national health care plan, the telemarketer hung up.

The country's disconnect is frustrating. College Republicans, old Republicans and a lot of Democrats and independents as well get all lathered up over plans to spend money so that 45 million Americans are at least minimally covered by health insurance, but they can't be bothered to even think about the nearly trillion dollars we've already thrown down the rat hole we've created in the Middle East.

If only we spent half the energy we've wasted shouting each other down at town hall meetings on convincing the president and Congress that the time has come to bring our troops home, we'd be much better off. Perhaps the College Republicans could even concentrate on figuring out which party quadrupled the national debt under a couple of guys known as Reagan and Bush.

Congressman Dave Obey, the dean of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram last week that if our objective in fighting those two wars is to keep American people safe from another terrorist attack, he doubts that an open-ended, prolonged military presence there will achieve that goal.

"I just think we need to be much more realistic in terms of what we can achieve, and if we're not, we could wind up with another 100,000 troops there. Does anybody really think that makes sense?

"How long will the American people tolerate every day having Americans dying? How many allies are we going to have left with us in Iraq and Afghanistan two years from now? Are we going to be the Lone Ranger forever? I don't see it," he added.

But if we don't start making some noise and really want to get a handle on wasteful government spending, it will continue for a long, long time.

Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@madison.com

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