America is at war.
Sometimes I fear that my generation has forgotten that.
More disturbingly, I wonder if my generation even remembers a time when America hasn’t been at war.
I was a freshman in high school when Sept. 11 happened, but not even that really made me politically aware.
It wasn’t until the invasion of Iraq that I started to notice the global picture. At that time I had family abroad, so I was naturally concerned about the situation.
Something had changed. America was suddenly at war, and the outside world had become more dangerous for people I cared about.
This fear made me aware that a president’s foreign policy can easily affect me personally.
Although my family made it back to the states fine, I refused to return to being blind and content about what’s happening on the international scale.
I wonder — how many have experienced a situation like mine, or even worse, have dealt directly with the consequences of war?
Even with all the Americans affected by that day and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I still don’t think my generation is really aware of war.
It’s so easy to forget. With all the reporting on Britney Spears, what newscaster has time to report on the war?
What viewer has time to care?
It’s too easy to become detached from the war issue.
Even during this election season, the war is seen as another issue on the table that can be discussed or forgotten at the discretion of political pundits.
The whole situation is ridiculous. We shouldn’t be surprised that the economy is stagnating when so much capital is being poured abroad.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the definition of torture has become ambiguous when we let leaders with no military experience take us to war.
And we shouldn’t be surprised that foreign diplomacy is failing when we entered a war with a small coalition that grows smaller by the day.
So many of the nation’s problems can be traced to the war that I really wonder why it always seems to fall forgotten into the background.
If we truly want to address the sustainability of health care, Social Security or even the dollar, we need to address what’s causing problems in the short-term.
Maybe I expect too much out of my generation, to actually care. After all, it was the draft that caused the mass rejection of the Vietnam War.
Even though the war in Iraq has proven to be just as unfounded as the one in Vietnam, so long as this generation is not forced to confront the consequences of war head on, what reason is there not to be content?
That’s the most frightening aspect of this situation. Too many have grown up with war, and their lives have carried on just the same.
It doesn’t take an English major to find a parallel of this attitude in the sheer apathy found in Orwellian dystopias.
While I’m not arguing that we need to worry about Big Brother and the Thought Police just yet, I don’t want my generation to grow up subconsciously accepting the idea of America constantly being at war.
If we insist on continuing to drink our tea contently while the house is on fire, there is only so long before we are burned.
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“We shouldn’t be surprised that the economy is stagnating when so much capital is being poured abroad.”
The economy isn’t stagnating. But, even if it were, the supposed stagnation would not necessarily be a result of war, or of “pouring capital abroad.” After all, it was a war that actually lifted the U.S. out of the great depression.
“We shouldn’t be surprised that the definition of torture has become ambiguous when we let leaders with no military experience take us to war.”
Franklin Roosevelt didn’t have any direct “military experience”. I don’t think we should require Presidents to have military experience, do you?
“And we shouldn’t be surprised that foreign diplomacy is failing when we entered a war with a small coalition that grows smaller by the day.”
This is rather vague. How exactly is “foreign” diplomacy “failing”?
Your article seems to be suggesting that the opposite of apathy toward the war would be active opposition to the war. But, not only are many members of your generation supporters of the war, many of them are actually fighting it. It’s difficult to be apathetic about a war that you are fighting on the ground.
In any case, you haven’t really made a case that any widespread “apathy” exists, nor have you made a compelling statement against the war. Nor have you convinced me that we are living in a dystopia. If you want to know what a dystopia is like, there are a number of excellent documentaries available online about life in North Korea. Or, you could read a book about life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein if you really want to know what living in a dystopia might be like.
The economy is stagnating. The Federal Reserve has been forced to slash the Federal Funds rate numerous times within the last few months, which is a tell tale sign of a slowing economy. In addition, the situation now isn’t comparable to the industrial growth during World War II. The Government was issuing war bonds and the like that flowed directly into U.S. industry and the like causing a boom. There is no such return of capital with the current situation in Iraq. It’s reckless deficit spending that does nothing to promote domestic jobs.
You misrepresent my argument by suggesting I said Presidents need military experience. I said leaders with no military experience, that means Bush and his entire neoconservative posse—those war-hawks with no experience in war. I would never suggest that we should only have Presidents with military experience, but they should surround themselves with such people if they’re about to take the country to war.
My statement about foreign diplomacy failing was vague, but the sentence includes an example of foreign diplomacy failure: the inability to retain allies on the ground in Iraq.
While it is obvious that I don’t support the war, I never demanded that the readers be actively against it, but rather consciously aware of its effects on them personally and the psyche of the generation in general, the majority of which are not involved in the war. Even of those who are involved, I wonder how many actually support it. Not that such a thing even really matters, I’d rather have people actively supporting the war than supporting it nominally.
Unfortunately, that’s all I really see. People divorce themselves from the issue whenever they please and take it back up like some sort of fad. This isn’t WWII, where the consequences of not fighting are obvious. Nor is this Vietnam, when the draft and high body counts kept the younger generation of realities of war. All in all, it’s forgettable and I find that bizarrely dystopian. People have their “two minutes of hate” and go on with their lives even though there’s a war going on. If you don’t understand the allusion here, I’d just refer you to a literature professor.
America isn’t North Korea or Ba’athist Iraq, and I reject the notion that dystopiae can only be such regimes, especially in the sense I used.
I support the war in iraq. I don’t necessarily like the idea of fellow Americans dieing in the desert just for a psychopath that is in power, but I believe that 9/11 showed enough that sitting back and doing not fighting would kill many. It is easy to say that Iraq did not attack us on 9/11, and that it was Bin Laden. Yet, most of the middle east supports Bin Laden in some way, whether its behind closed doors or not. The most powerful military in the world has not been able to find this one man, who just happens to be on dialisis (sp). Iraq and I believe Iran as well are constant threats if left alone. Diplomacy is always preferrable, but there is a point in diplomacy when nothing can be done with words. I am currently in the military and would gladly go anywhere in the world to fight an enemy that would willingly harm anyone I care about. On the domestic issues, i must agree with Justin on this one. The problems related to our economy are not caused by the war. Wars tend to boost the economy. The reason you don’t see large scale federal grants for equipment and such for the war is because we are not fighting the Nazi’s. This war is minute in comparison to WW2 and Vietnam. People don’t pay much attention to this war because it doesn’t affect us very much. I personally sleep much better at night knowing that there is one less psychopath dictator in power.
I must apologize for my horrible grammer and spelling. I am not an english major but engineering. But I have suffered more losses in my life than most ever dream of. Think of this, put someone who lost a loved one in the war face to face with someone who lost a loved one in iraq. What do you think would happen?
that last part was supposed to be, one who lost a loved one in the war and someone who losted a loved one on 9/11…
i invite you all (justin, brandon, & the anonymous) to join me for a free screening of a film that will challenge your awareness of the world and events unfolding around us. will you join me and other seekers of truth at the student union little theatre on monday, march 10th at 7:27pm?
Even if I wasn’t in another country, I would not join you to watch a left-wing film.