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Strange DaydreamMarch 11, 2010 You know that song that begins "Last night I had the strangest dream"? I learned it back in the Pleistocene and haven't forgotten the words. The dancing in the streets part is easy to imagine. The putting an end to war part -- well, that's the dream. For a while now I've been pondering this conundrum: Why are our congresscritters so obsessed with cost when it comes to health care reform when they didn't give a good goddamn about it when they voted to invade Afghanistan or Iraq? In a sane society it would be the other way round, right? In a sane society, legislators would be generous when it came to healing people and stingy when it came to killing them. I just figured it out. When it comes to health care reform, the legislators are up against the insurance industry, which is making a killing (so to speak) on the current "system" and might not do so well when the system gets reformed. When it comes to war, all that stands in the way are good sense, a grasp of certain historical lessons, and compassion. None of these have powerful lobbies behind them, so they are easy to blow off. "We the people" are pathetically disorganized, so we are easy to blow off too. What we need to do is give the insurance industry a powerful incentive to lobby against war. Here it is: require them to insure all members of the armed services at fixed rates, and with no exclusions, statutes of limitations, or caps on benefits. Soldier is wounded in a land mine explosion? She's covered. Sailor is killed by friendly fire? He's covered. One MP is raped by another? S/he's covered. Troopers experience severe PTSD after returning home? They're all covered. This insurance would not be compulsory, of course. Members of the armed forces are already covered by their employer, i.e., the U.S. government. This insurance might be purchased by troops when they find out they're about to be assigned to a combat zone. Voilà! A powerful lobby dedicated to make sure war doesn't happen. Maybe war would happen anyway, but the endless delays and political machinations would give legislators and the media time to come to their senses. Couldn't hurt, eh?
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