I read Massachusetts Congressman James McGovern's proposal for a war surtax on all Americans in this morning's Globe, and wanted to wretch.

He argues that it's unfair "to force our children to pay" for the war, which he says "has been this generation's mistake."

First of all, I object vehemently to any such generalization about whose mistake this war is. It is not a generation's mistake, and when we passively accept that characterization of it, we pass up our moral obligation to go after those really responsible.

Let's say a gang of arsonists decided to torch a house in your neighborhood. Do you bear responsibility for the fire, the resultant loss of life of those inside the house and those who showed up to fight the blaze, while the arsonists pumped gasoline into their fire hose?

Do we shrug and say, gee whiz, I guess it's really my fault—it's our fault—it's everybody's fault, and though we know who the arsonists are, let them off scot-free, and what's more, pitch in and pay them to rebuild the house they burned down?

There is very little difference between forcing future generations not responsible for the war and forcing the present generation of citizens who neither wanted the war nor will benefit one whit from it, and who have called repeatedly for an end to it, to pay for it.

In either case, the wrong people are bearing the burden for an elective war embarked on without their consent.

There's a simpler formula than McGovern's "tax on tax liability": those who are profiting from the war should pay for the war. It is, after all, their war, not ours.

If Representative McGovern wishes to make a moral statement, which seems to be at least partly his motive, this is not a case where "shared responsibility" is the lesson. This is a case where those morally responsible for this outrage, for whom war is a form of money laundering, should be held to account for it. And Congressmen who want to appear upright and responsible need to call them to account for it, not obscure the truth with calls for sharing the load—which amounts to little more than helping the looters carry their stolen goods out of the smoldering wreckage.

Speaking of complicated formulas, when I went to write an email to McGovern (though he is not my representative), I had to type in all kinds of information, and then came to the spam guard:

Many organizations are using automated programs to send messages to Congress, many of these automated messages might be considered spam. Your Representative prefers not to receive messages from such automated programs. To prevent this practice we ask that you answer the question below. When you enter the correct response it ensures that the message is not coming from an automated program and helps your Representative respond to you as quickly as possible.

Please solve the following math problem: three x 1?

You will be allowed up to 3 attempts to provide a correct response. Failure to provide a correct response will require you to start over.

I thought, wow. That's something. Usually all you have to do is type in a random alpha-numeric code that pops up on your screen, but to talk to your congressman you have to solve a math problem!

But they're the ones who need to do the math on this one.