The images of U.S. troops leaving Iraq after a senseless, tragic waste of lives and money that left America nearly bankrupt is a blunt and brutal lesson for HispanicLatinos.  Except for the families who suffered the direct loss of loved ones, few individuals should walk away more sobered than HispanicLatino men and women in charge of businesses.  Business owners intuitively understand the impact of an $800-billion war debt to a struggling economy.

The $800-billion figure is more likely $1.5 trillion in additional costs through the years to take care of the wounded and maimed and to pay for a host of other collateral costs, such as interest on the debt.  The disaster engineered by George W. Bush was a colossal mistake, made possible by an electorate that perhaps might have taken more time to educate itself about the failings of a man so ill-prepared to be President.  Neither did enough HispanicLatinos know that an interventionist wing of the foreign policy establishment was waiting in the wings to give flight to their distorted dream that squandered American power abroad.  Had we intervened domestically instead and provided10 million HispanicLatino kids with a college education, we would have spent only $500 billion – an investment that would have paid off in a generation of economic and social growth for the country.

Instead, though sharing in the glee of the men and women returning home at Christmas, all of us will be paying joylessly for this fiasco for decades to come in silent and cruel ways.

Because the HispanicLatino population has emerged into a political and demographic reality, so has its obligation to shape its own future and the foreign policy of the country.  Decisions being made today will affect HispanicLatinos for decades to come.  It is a sad to see confused parents grieve over their sons and daughters who perished for no good, evident reason.  By comparison, the rest of us did little.  Perhaps we should now endeavor to know more about what might lurk around the corner and to think more clearly about what motivates our political behavior and the behavior of others.

If HispanicLatinos engaged in business stunt their intellectual exploration of the future by restricting their political involvement to efforts to limit spending and taxes, then we are all lost.  As I have written in this space, HispanicLatinos who own businesses by default bear a greater obligation to the nation.  More often than not they are more educated and thus must be more involved in leading. But what is the level of their participation in the forums and organizations that can educate the mind about foreign affairs?  How deeply do HispanicLatino businessmen and businesswomen understand the relationship between the consumption of illegal drugs in this country and the rising danger looming next door in Mexico?  Are they keen to what Hugo Chávez is up to with the Chinese in Venezuela?  Shouldn’t HispanicLatinos have a say how the country handles a nuclear-armed Iran?  Isn’t this the time to strengthen HispanicLatino organizations that do specialize in foreign affairs?

Rising above rhetoric and searching for answers are difficult propositions in our politicized age.  But for those of us who did not don the military green or the camouflage brown, is being better and more widely informed the least we can do – in addition, of course, to paying higher taxes for the unforgiveable Iraqi imbroglio?

Feel free to forward these blogs that deal with business topics on Mondays, politics on Wednesdays and social and personal and professional development on Fridays.  Additional thoughts are published invariably on Tuesdays or Thursdays.