Today, however, we agonize over collateral damage and we handcuff ourselves in waging war against militant Mohammedism. Instead of bombing the environs of located terrorists and assuming that "collateral damage" is the price the locals owe for harboring terrorists in their midst, we shift war making to a different method. As a result, other people die, often innocent victims, our soldiers die, and we squander trillions of dollars.
What we see in Greece is an attempt to evade the costs of the political decisions made by the Greeks. They are simply going to repudiate the debt in the long run but they will, nonetheless, suffer and pay the price for their imprudence in acquiring the debt and putting in place regimes that countenanced the debt. The present regime will not alleviate the pain the Greeks are suffering, it will merely change its nature and inflict it on others. It will make a political decision.
Equally, the governments of Europe, especially Germany, have sought to alleviate the pain banks would sustain if the Greeks default on the debt by transferring the pain to taxpayers. They rationalize this decision with the argument that every citizen would suffer much more if such a default brought on a generalized depression. They have made and will continue to make political decisions.
At some point this chain must be broken and plain must be inflicted.
Do you suppose there is an economic as well as a moral lesson here for the United States?
