Guest Columnist
The
problems we face as a nation are frightening. But right now, in many
ways, we are like the person in the horror movie who is hiding under a
bed. The thing is though, these problems are
stalking us and will, sooner or later, they are going to drag us out
from cover. It’s far better to face them now, head on, then to wait
until we have almost no options.
Some
of these problems actually look kind of like a horror movie, like ISIL
and Ebola. Some of them are horrifically large numbers, like our current
and future debt.
Muslim
extremists have long wished for a state that they could call their own.
A place where they could operate freely, imposing a sadistic
interpretation of their faith. For a while, Afghanistan
was the site of their dystopia and the leaders went by the name of
Taliban.
Now
ISIL is trying the same grim project in war-torn Syria and Iraq with
the hope that they can spread the borders of their new state across all
Muslim lands. Stonings and beheadings are routine
punishments. When it come to terrorism, the stated ambitions of ISIL
are the same as the Taliban.
There
was a time when oceans and distance would have kept us safe from such
horrors. Now however, the same planes that let us enjoy a vacation in a
distant part of the world, bring us problems
from distant lands.
Despite
whatever rhetoric President Obama may want to use, we are at war with
ISIL. I was an Air Force officer in another war that had limited aims
and limited means—Vietnam. If we intend to
keep ISIL from establishing a terror state, we must not hold back. That
does not mean sending substantial ground forces, but we should have a
force that meets the needs of military commanders, not politicians. Our allies in the region
must hold the ground we help them take.
Ebola,
in many ways, is the disease of our nightmares. It kills the majority
of people who contract it and takes their lives in a particularly
painful and gruesome process. For months, we hoped
that the west African nations from which Ebola sprung would be able to
get things under control. Those hopes were sorely misplaced.
We’re
playing catch-up now. There are some who hope that just placing travel
restrictions will keep us safe. We do need smart travel restrictions
that keep people out of the U.S. until we know
they don’t have the disease, but we also need to get help into these
nations.
Diseases
don’t recognize lines on a map, and the borders in Africa are
particularly porous. While the Ivory Coast has closed its border
crossings, thousands of miles of fields and forests are
open for infected persons to walk across. If Ebola becomes out of
control in neighboring Liberia, it would trigger a refugee problem that
could quickly spiral out of control, infecting another nation.
We
have U.S. troops working to construct some facilities and coordinate
supplies. We may need to do more. We certainly need to do much more to
prepare U.S. medical facilities, including clinics
and doctors offices, to diagnose Ebola and quickly isolate patients.
Our
federal government is plagued with persistent deficits. That does not
have the visceral terror of violence or disease. However, without a
properly functioning government, those horrors
and others would come to our shores.
We
have more than $200 trillion in government obligations that we don’t
have a plan to pay for. Funding programs like Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security will take over all other priorities
unless we strengthen and save these programs. We all want government to
do more than just provide for these programs. We want to be safe from
foreign threats and from pandemics.
We
can’t hide from our budget problems. Just a few years from now, we will
be forced to either raise taxes incredibly high or cuts programs
deeply. Neither of those are good options. Incremental
changes now, done on a bipartisan basis, can prevent a great deal of
pain decades from now.
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