Quote:
Originally Posted by afchic
Yes we have a nation that is not truly sacrificing anything during this war effort, except for those of us in the military and our families.
Afchic, have to disagree with you on "the not truely sacrificing" part. They / We are. The financial cost odf this war is astronomical! $944 Billion to date (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf). But they don't see it yet. Wanna share the sacrifice? try paying for this thing the old fashioned WWII way -- via War Bonds. OH YEAH! Who's gonna buy those bad boys? (NMAP, that's your cue.)
But given the economic hardships we find ourselves in as a nation, is that a bad thing? I don't know the answer, but could a nation "at war" driven us even further into the economic abyss? Probably. for one thing this is not a "world" war -- we're not fighting it full out everywhere. (Call it Global if you want but, it's not global in the WWII sence). It's not a conventional war either. So we don't have to make as much stuff as in WWII. Lots of WWII materiel fought the Axis from the bottom of the sea. Would the American people give up a new car or a new washing machine or a new computer because those factories had been converted to war production? Wow, that is a high pitched whine I'm not sure we could take.
We as military members know what we are getting into when we join. We know that our families will have to endure the hardships of what we do. I appreciate the thanks I get when someone sees me in the local community in my uniform, but that is not why I do it. Unless the leadership of this great nation decide that the war effort is somewhat akin to what we dealt with in WWII, thanks is all we can and should expect from the nation writ large. |
The reason the American people tolerate the 9th year of this war is: they aren't paying for it now and they aren't wondering when they or their kids will read, "Greetings from the President of the United States. You are hereby inducted . . .
Many think they are doing their part, when they say "thanks". (I hope they aren't also thinking "sucker.")
Starbucks regular Venti is $2.00. But, "Thank you for your service coffee" is free! And, sometimes they throw in the cookie, too.