The War On (fill in the blank)

Of course, we all know there's been a war on terrorism that's been going on since 9/11. Whatever you might think about it; whether you think Bush was right or wrong in Iraq or Afghanistan or whether you think Obama was right or wrong. The call-ups and body bags prove out that there is a war going on. We've seen the fall of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden getting his ticket punched to eternal damnation.

For as long as I can remember, there's been a war on poverty and a war on drugs. Both are beginning to make Vietnam look like a slam dunk.

But this election season has brought out some new wars. If you listen to the GOP, there's a War on Religion. The Democrats have two wars; the War on Women and the War on Public Employees. And, thanks to folks like Bill O'Reilly, we can't go into December without our War on Christmas.

The War on Religion and the War on Women both center around birth control. One of the tenets of Obamacare is that most private health care plans have to cover contraceptives. Birth control is against the Catholic religion and they understandably object to being required to provide it. Although churches are exempt, other institutions that the Catholic Church runs, such as hospitals and social service organizations, are not. The way church leaders see it, this would be like requiring Islamic schools to serve bacon in their lunchrooms.

It's definitely a point of contention, but it is not a war. We've seen wars on religion throughout the world. We've seen Coptic Christians killed in the middle east. What Hitler did to the Jews was a war on religion. What Obama did was a misguided policy decision. Big difference.

Republicans are now accused of waging a war on women. Why? because they don't want to be forced to pay for someone else's birth control. They also oppose abortion, which, to some pundits, is another salvo in the war on women. If you listen to some of these folks on the cable talk show, you'd think that all women care about is getting free birth control, and if that doesn't work, they all want abortions.

Do you remember Afghanistan under the Taliban? When women were beaten and even killed for such offenses as going to school or wearing jeans.  That, folks, is a war on women. Asking them to use a debit card to pay for contraceptives is not.

Recent budget issues have forced government units from the Federal government down to local library boards to rethink how they compensate public employees. As the private sector found out decades ago, there comes a point where you can't keep giving automatic pay increases every year. You can't keep allowing early retirement with excellent pensions and excellent health care long past the point where there is any money to pay for them. What Scott Walker is doing in Wisconsin is trying to rein in an unsustainable system, not declaring war on public employees. Look at it this way, if you had to take a pay cut at your job ( it may have already happened) wouldn't you have to make cuts in your own spending? Would that be a "war on restaurants" or a "war on lawn service?"

Lastly, is it really a war on Christmas, when people opt to wish each other "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? The biggest "warriors" in that area are retailers, who choose non-denominational decorum (Santas and snowmen as opposed to Baby Jesus and the Three Wisemen) for their stores during the Christmas shopping season.

Please, this isn't a war, it's just that retailers are in the business of making a profit, not promoting any particular faith. If I ran a retail establishment, I would want to extract money from the wallets of Christians and non-Christians alike. Of course, I would want the money of every person who celebrates Christmas by running up their Visa, but I wouldn't want to turn away the Druid who just wants a new pair of boxers.

It's bad enough when an actual war breaks out. We've all seen the tragedies of war. Let's not reduce what war really is by equating it with legitimate public debate. And let's not inflate our policy disagreements to the level of rampant death and destruction.