Hey, It Worked for the Romans
The Bush administration's foreign policy is centered around fighting a highly expensive counterinsurgency in Iraq. The administration's domestic policy is centered around driving federal tax revenues to ever-lower levels.
Some observers say there's an unsolvable contradiction here. I say those people just aren't thinking creatively enough. There's a simple, logical way to reconcile President Bush's foreign and domestic policies: Start demanding tribute from foreign countries.
In the old days, before the rise of fuzzy-minded liberal internationalists, it was considered utterly normal for powerful states to force their weaker neighbors to hand over money or material goods as a price for avoiding military punishment. Although unfair, it was a reasonably effective method for preventing wars.
Rather than go through the full invade-kill-burn-plunder cycle, which took a lot out of invader and invadee alike, both sides found it easier and more humane to simply skip straight ahead to the last stage. It worked for the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans and the various peoples fortunate enough to share borders with them.
Implementing the policy would be quite simple. We would inform heads of militarily vulnerable states that if they did not wish to have their regime changed -- or, at least, to have large chunks of it blown to smithereens -- they had better make an annual contribution to the U.S. Treasury. I envision receiving sums more than sufficient to cover our budget deficit.
Sure, this may strain diplomatic relations. But most of the world hates us anyway. How much worse can it get? If we're going to be an international pariah, we might as well enjoy some benefit from it.
Some might object that demanding tribute is a hoary, barbaric practice long ago repudiated by civilized countries. Well, sure, but so is torturing enemy combatants, or those suspected of being enemy combatants, or those merely living in the same general vicinity as enemy combatants. The administration understands that, if we're going to win the war on terror, we can't allow our hands to be tied by the quaint and obsolete requirements of the so-called civilized world. The war isn't going to pay for itself, you know.
Yes, you say, but shouldn't we American taxpayers have to bear the burden of paying for our own wars? That sentiment would seem at first blush to have a certain earnest pre-Sept. 11 logic to it. But it has proved decisively unable to penetrate the brains of our governing party or its intellectual courtiers.
