Last week Attorney General Eric Holder stirred up controversy by saying Americans are cowards when it comes to discussing race relations. I contend another issue exists we are even more fearful of talking about.

My reticular cortex has been vibrating with an inter-related series of news events. These events illustrate an underlying issue we have difficulty discussing. I’ll start by naming the events and then talk about the points they illustrate.

I saw the author of Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Society, Jared Diamond, say part of our solution to getting out of the mess we are in is the upper level of our society must not be exempt from suffering the consequences of their decisions.

During hearings with the heads of the major banks, Congressman Barney Frank said Wall Street has created a way of doing business whereby Heads I win, Tails I break even, but somebody else loses. Regardless of how you feel about Barney Frank, the reading I’ve been doing says his is an accurate assessment.

The next day a new program is announced allowing immigrants to obtain citizenship in an accelerated program via military service. Other stories say we intend to increase our troop levels in Afghanistan by 17,000 and we are widening the involvement of CIA led unmanned air strikes and bombings in Pakistan.

I listened to an interview with Congressman Ron Paul. Paul asserted again a way to get control of our spending is to stop maintaining our empire and bring our troops home.

Finally, I watched the docudrama Taking Chance about a Marine officer’s experience escorting a soldier killed in Iraq home to Wyoming.

Here is the link I see between all those events. Our approach to fighting our wars is just another form of Heads I win, Tails I break even and somebody else loses.

We have long had a policy of immigrants earning citizenship through military service. The fact we re-emphasize it now illustrates the reality and difficulty of satisfying our military manpower requirements.

We will always have those who will volunteer to fight for our country. Some will do so because, like religious leaders, they feel a calling to the profession. Others will serve briefly because of pure patriotism. Still others will serve for other reasons such as the chance to earn citizenship or funding for education.

The dirty little secret we are too cowardly to talk about is. . .

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