We are at war. The president tells us so – again, and again, and again. Why does he have to tell us? Could it be because the war doesn’t touch most of us, doesn’t inconvenience most of us, doesn’t cost us anything tangible?
Sure the costs of the war are staggering (especially to the people who are actually fighting it and their families) but for most of us the costs are kind of “out there.” Yes, our prestige has fallen around the world. Yes, we are less safe than when this mess started. Yes, the deficit has soared — but who knows how many a trillion is anyway?
Last week ABC News visited Kent State University to ask today’s crop of students how they felt about today’s war. While most of them seemed to oppose it, none seemed too worked up about it. How different from the Viet Nam era! Of course the crack MSM analysts speculated on the reasons why this might be. The one thing the oafs never thought to mention was there was a draft during the Viet Nam era. That made the war damn personal for many, many of us.
Continued…
We are now at a point where over half of polled Americans oppose the war. Most aren’t doing a damn thing about that opposition. But what if it was personal? What if there was a draft? What if there was a special tax to fund the costs of the war? What if we all had to work six and a half days a week to produce material? What if we were all required to give four hours a week to the cause – in VA hospitals? What if, at the very least, our dinners were interrupted by the sight of flag-draped coffins or a real accounting of civilian casualties over there?
What would the over 50 per cent do then? What would the other per cent do? The Bush administration has been brilliant in whipping up a feeling of patriotism and a sense of vague anxiety. Perhaps its most brilliant/evil strategy has been reducing the experience of this war to nothing more than a pretend game for the vast majority of Americans.
So what is the cost for most of us? $1.99 for our magnetic ribbon and a large piece of our soul.
