GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Dec. 7, 2003--Vigilance is an expensive necessity.   The total cost of the war so far is about $89 billion, including all interest costs.      
         Monthly, the cost to each of the 290 million American citizens to fund the sustained battle against the Beast of Terror amounts to $18 dollars a month, about the same amount Sally Struthers seeks in her ads to rid the world of poverty.

      Currently, a monthly expenditure of $5.4 billion is being spent to keep America at the helm of Iraqi reconstruction.
       The costs for American troops to wage the war against Terrorism come from what some might onsider "anti-war."    But, the numbers are solid.  They come from the U.S. government and have been fattened to include realistic interest expenses.   You can browse the site and decide for yourself (go to site). 
      The issue boils down to defending the rights of liberty and freedom in Iraq at $18 a month per U.S. Citizen, about sixty cents a day per capita.
      Through April 26 of this year, the cost of the "war" is estimated at $26 billion.   The monthly occupation cost following the "war"--when President Bush declared the end to "major combat"-- is calculated to be $5.46 billion per month including interest.   Donald Rumsfeld  stated the monthly occupation cost to be at least $3.9 billion.  His figure did not include interest.  
         The issue isn't one about just money.  It's about the price a society  is willing to pay to insure the future security of its children through protecting other nations' children.   

        The Vigilance question is:  Would you spend sixty cents a day to fight Terrorism in Iraq?   Would you be willing to invest that sixty cents to protect the future from Terrorism's proliferation?
          There is little doubt that war creates waste or that when a bullet kills or a bomb blows up something, the loss is final.    Sadly, war's ravages reminds us all that that which was is no longer.   War's waste clogs our Vigilance views, for it splatters the blood of the innocent over all we see and hear, often blinding and deafening us to the long-range value of defending the rights of the Children's Children's Children.
          But when it comes to looking at the current expenses in Iraq, we need to wipe our lenses with the cloth of Vigilance and see the benefit to future generations.   We need to hear the cries of the Children's Children's Children.  We need to ask:  "Are we investing in the best possible asset we can (the future of the children)--or, are we grinding our assets down the drain? (our own selfish political and economic goals)"
           Capital expenditures are those which replace something old for something new, intended to last a long time.   When you tear down one structure and rebuild another that is stronger and better, you invest in the future.  You invest in stability versus instability, in security rather than insecurity.
           Despite arguments eschewing the "waste" of U.S. funds in Iraq, a Vigilance View sees the $18 a month ($0.60 per day) as a capital expenditure in Vigilance over Terrorism.   The daily two quarters and a dime  provide a long-range fortress of freedom for some 24 million people, nearly half of whom are under the age of 15.   The old structure of tyranny and oppression is being razed for a new structure, liberty and freedom.    World Complacency on the issue was removed the moment the U.S. and its allies attacked Saddam's regime.

       To some,  the $18 a month per capita investment in occupying Iraq while a new government can be installed is a risky investment.  The Middle East has never in modern history embraced the kind of freedoms the West enjoys, but then neither did the people in Japan or South Korea prior to end of both  World War II and Korea.
          Both societies today are prosperous examples of the value of such capital "war" investments.  Had Americans not funded the liberation of those peoples with their blood and guts, the world would be less safe, less secure.  North Korea's threat of violence upon others is a prime example.
           Europe pages of history spell out the same story.    Had Americans by the thousands not invested their "national capital" against Hitler, Western Europe might still be under some form of tyrannical rulership.
           Communism was also defeated by American capital as part of the Cold War.   Huge investments in both hard and political currency resulted in the smashing of the Berlin Wall, and the capitulation of a way of life that restricted and hobbled the freedom of millions.   The price of Vigilance has reaped countless rewards so far.    Iraq is no different.
            When individuals and groups diminish the cost of freedom by suggesting Americans are wasting their funds that could be used to enhance education, health and reduce poverty in our own country, they overlook the Vigilance Question:
        What is the cost of protecting the Children's Children's Children from the Beast of Terror?

         Vigilance is defined as the battle against Terrorism.   It is about the commitment a person, a neighborhood, a community, a state, a nation and a world makes to secure freedom from the Beast of Terror's wrath against the Children's Children's Children.
            There is no more precious or important capital investment than in the children's future, whether they be our own children or the children of the world.   
            In the madding moments of political agenda, we tend to justify our particular viewpoints by finding fault with someone who doesn't agree with our position.    The Democrats hurl invectives at the Republicans for misusing funds, for mismanaging the war.   The United Nations berates America for virtually unilaterally attacking Saddam Hussein's regime.   Anti-war protestors rail against America's "imperialistic" stance, likening the current Administration to that of Hitler, or portraying them to be "Guns For Oil" capitalistic monsters eager to gobble up rich real estate to feather their beds.       

            Senator Hillary Clinton goes to Iraq and attacks President Bush's policies in front of combat troops, seeking to gain popularity for her own obvious Presidential bids either in the up-and-coming election or the following one.
              But, where is the sanity of parenthood?
              Parents invest in their children's future without blinking.   It is estimated that the cost to raise a child in America is $190,528.  Data from the US. Department of Agriculture provides a calculator to measure the cost of raising a child.  You can look these annual expenses in detail at this site (Go To Cost Of Child Site).
             What is the cost of freedom for an Iraqi child?   Do our children's freedoms have any link to the freedom of the rest of the world?
              American children, like children in any free society, have access to information about the world.   They look at other children as brothers and sisters, cousins, nephews and nieces.    They don't look at them as Iraqis or North Koreans or Ethiopians.  They see children--innocent siblings--suffering from a variety of pestilences ranging from poor education to poverty, sickness and lack of freedom to evolve into who they can be.         

          They are linked to the world.   The future of all children means as much to them as the future of their lives do to their parents.    

         This means that the capital investment we are making in Iraq at the rate of sixty cents a day has a value far beyond what critics of that expenditure may believe is worthy.
              The Beast of Terror that threatens the children of Iraq will not go away easily.   He has loomed over them for at least 23 years, the length of time that Saddam Hussein was in power.   But it isn't just Saddam's shadow that is being reconstructed in Iraq.
               The real expense is retooling and reengineering a way of thinking that provides children with rights unequaled in the Middle East.    Those same rights were successfully given to the children of Japan and North Korea, and returned to the children of Europe and communist states once the Beast of Terror was defeated in those lands

              Over three generations--the length of the Children's Children's Children progeny--the cost of $18 a month is spread over 100 years.   The capital investment to rebuilding Iraq's children's future becomes far less startling when it is viewed as a tool to bring the children of one land together with the children of other lands.   It translates into "we get back what we give."
               If freedom and liberty take hold in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East over the next hundred years, will the investment of sixty cents a day be worth it?
             If we look at the "cost of war" as the "cost of Vigilance," we see it from a different viewpoint.   If the "price of Vigilance" is about protecting and preserving the rights of other children to be free and to evolve at parity with other children, then is the "cost of Vigilance" an asset or a deficit?  
             I like history's answer.
             If Americans had pulled the plug on its defense of liberty and freedom based on the cost of war, we would have long ago tucked our head in the turtle's shell and skulked around our own country in hopes no one would notice we existed.
            History, however, has placed a destiny on the shoulders of Americans to be the Parents of Vigilance, and to encourage the world to be the same.   We are a Nation of Vigilance, a country of diversity that wants all others to enjoy the same gifts we have because they benefit the future generations, the children of tomorrow.

          We invest heavily in our own children.  Now, we are investing heavily in the children of another land.    Who will benefit from such an investment?   Our children, of course.
            If less Terrorism exists tomorrow because of what we do today, then the price of Vigilance over Terrorism has been a worthy expense.   
           But, if we start to look at our expenditures in terms of robbing our children of their future instead of investing in it, we miss the Big Picture.
           We forget our duty as true Parents of Vigilance, and that is to keep the world safe for all the Children's Children's Children, even if that costs us $84 a month.
           Be a stockholder in the future of not only your children, and grandchildren, but to the children of the world.   Take the Pledge of Vigilance today.   It is your stock certificate in the equity of your Children's Children's Children.
             
       

Dec. 7--Pearl Harbor: A Lesson In Parental Vigilance

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