When was the last time you remember the United States not being in a war? Although the war in Iraq is officially over, the war in Afghanistan isn't.
It's been more than ten years since Oct. 7, 2001, when the war began. All this talk about Iran - for instance, President Barack Obama saying that "all options are on the table" and Romney being "ready to engage our military might" - has me looking back to before our current military engagements.
Not that I remember that much. I was 11 when the war in Afghanistan began. During that year, Microsoft replaced its old Windows 2000 operating with Windows XP, the first Lord of the Rings movie came out and The DePauw reported on the opening of a new Wal-mart Superstore that would feature a fully-stocked grocery section.
It's been a long time, hasn't it? Windows XP was replaced by Windows Vista, which was in turn replaced by Windows 7. The second and third Lord of the Rings movies are now classics, and the Walmart is a Greencastle mainstay.
Now, according to the Associated Press, America "will not hesitate to attack Iran with military force to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon." Somewhat surprising rhetoric coming from someone who's won a Nobel Peace Prize, but at least the President acknowledged that "already, there is too much loose talk of war." So maybe it won't come to that.
Of course, candidates like Rick Santorum think Obama's being too soft on Iran. According to his website, he "would work with Israel to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat immediately; and develop a potential plan for military action if needed."
Is it not scary when the likes of Barack Obama and Rick Santorum seem to agree on a topic this important?
After a decade of war in Afghanistan and eight years in Iraq, the Washington Post reports that 6,365 American service members have been killed. Sources disagree on the number of noncombatants and civilians killed, but it's likely in the hundreds of thousands by now.
Our national debt is some $15.5 trillion now. Can we afford to spend even more? Can we afford to lose more international goodwill? That we're even talking about a conflict of this magnitude again - a war - is hard to believe.
The end of the war in Iraq was a cause for celebration. It should have been. While everybody agreed that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, no one in the Bush administration seemed to think that the war would last for as long as it did.
After so many casualties and such high expenditures, it was a relief to hear that the combat mission was ending. Now, we seem to be considering something similar with Iran. Is there any reason to think a war with Iran would be different from the war in Iraq?
Imagine your life ten years from now. Imagine that everything that will have occurred - who knows? Graduation? Careers? Families? - happening in the shadow of a war with Iran. Imagine reading every day about the casualties, the bickering between politicians, and the ever-present troop deployments.
We're the ones who will be paying for this war, literally and figuratively, so it's up to us to learn the lessons from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They weren't good for America in 2001 or 2003, and they won't be any better in 2012.
- Holley-Kline is a senior from Anchorage, Alaska majoring in Spanish and anthropology.
opinion@thedepauw.com