http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/04/11/editorial3.htmlI've mentioned it before in this space, but these "Support Our Troops" car magnets make me crazy. Especially on gas guzzlers. Who are these messages meant for? Other motorists? The driver? And how exactly is he supporting our troops? By buying the magnet? Driving an SUV?
Support our troops? Who's doing that? What sacrifices are we making as a country? What are we going without? Nothing that I can see. For those of us lucky enough not to have a loved one in Iraq, this war has exactly zero impact on our lives. Zero. We haven't been asked to sacrifice anything.
Europeans wonder how Americans can so easily support the war in Iraq, and people here can't understand why Europeans are so vocal in their opposition. We see them as soft. But it's all about sacrifice. France had 6 million casualties in World War I. That was 15 percent of its population. Germany had 5.7 million casualties in WWI and another 7 million in World War II. Pretty much, every male in Germany born between 1895 and 1930 was either wounded or died as the result of war. No, Europe's been there, done that.
The more you suffer, the more you sacrifice, the more life means. Would Americans still support the war in Iraq if there was a draft? If we had to stop buying cars and milk, like in WWII? If our taxes went up? I'm not optimistic. To do without has become un-American.