Who pays the price of this war?

It's ironic that an election being debated chiefly on the issue of foreign policy draws me squarely back to West Virginia.

When my absentee ballot arrived last week I immediately ripped it open, excited to finally have a hand in directing the destiny of my country. Would it look any different from the other local ballots I had filled out before? I skimmed over the usual names vying for county and state offices, vowing to do research before filling in those bubbles. Then the very last section of the ballot caught my eye, a proposed amendment to the state constitution whose purpose was summarized thus: to "permit the Legislature to. . . sell state bonds for the payment of bonuses and death benefits to veterans of the conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq or to their relatives, and to impose or increase a tax to pay for the bonds." For or against the amendment?

My initial response was in favor. As patriots, we all respect and appreciate the sacrifices of Americans serving in the military and agree with both presidential candidates on the importance of supporting the troops. Even those who call the intervention in Iraq the "wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time" separate the decisions of the leaders from those whose duty it is to follow them. Those overseas protect us at great personal cost, and it's right that they be well compensated. But where does this compensation come from? Ultimately, who is paying the price of this war?

West Virginia is perhaps the poorest state in the nation. West Virginia is also the only state in the nation to meet its National Guard recruiting goal for the year. One of the least populous states, West Virginia has always had a disproportionately large percentage of the population enlisted in the military. These two trends are highly correlated. Because the military is viewed as a provider of opportunities, poorer regions – especially in the South and Midwest – traditionally boast higher enlistment numbers. Perhaps for this reason, African Americans, a less prosperous group, constitute 25.1 percent of the active army and 25.8 percent of the reserves but make up only 12.3 percent of the general population.

What this proposed amendment suggests is the equivalent of taxing the poor to pay the poor to defend the decisions of the rich. Under our system, students debating politics in the classrooms of liberal, liberally-funded prestigious universities are children of privilege, and it's these students who graduate to dictating policy in the Oval Office. Many of those who can reject military service out of hand; only rarely do those with means choose to serve.

While thousands of West Virginians are currently enlisted in the armed forces, only one member of Congress has a child serving, and this week Rep. Charles Rangel's bill to reinstate the draft was voted down. Also tellingly, last year Congress considered a $1,500 bonus to all military personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. This amendment to the military appropriations bill HR-3289 failed for lack of a majority, with 211 Republicans voting nay. Besides West Virginia, only Minnesota has taken up the project.

In his 1795 essay "Toward Perpetual Peace," Immanuel Kant proposed that peace is possible if all countries become republics. In a republic, the citizens, who bear all the costs of conflict, would make the decisions about going to war, and so be less likely to favor such a step. But it seems that in our own republic, there exists a divide between those who decide and those who pay, both with their taxes and their lives.

Moral outrage, though perhaps appropriate, doesn't change the fact that this country is at war. Decrying a fait accompli will not change American standing abroad or make us safer at home, and debating this war's legitimacy cannot excuse us from our responsibilities as citizens. Regardless of our attitude toward this war, we must limit the burden of those who are fighting it. The privileged must bear some of the cost of American security, at least economically. It's not right to ask the poorest segment of the population to both supply and outfit the manpower, paying the price in both bonds and body bags. Emily Stolzenberg is a sophomore from Morgantown, W. Va. She can be reached at estolzen@princeton.edu.