Via Matt Y., a video on the “hidden” cost of our wars.

I was curious, in the first presidential debate, to hear John McCain say he’d freeze all federal spending - except military. We never think to take a hard look at military spending, do we? And here I thought Obama missed a golden chance. The cost of the war in Iraq has dwarfed what even the pessimists predicted; yet here we have Sen. McCain singing “bomb bomb Iran” - joking about the possibility of another war that might well be as costly, even more costly.

The military option needs to remain on the table when it comes to Iran; but can the United States of America, especially now, afford to “spread democracy” throughout the Middle East, by fighting another “preventative” war?

Sure, we know why Obama didn’t say it - conservatives would immediately begin howling about Neville Chamberlain. Good metaphor - because it was the cost of war that ultimately resulted in the fall of the British Empire, no?