Wars call for broadly shared sacrifice. During WWII sixteen million Americans served in the armed forces; at maximum troop strength, about eight million served at once. More importantly, everyone on the home front sacrificed as well. That's what a country a war looks like even if that war isn't being fought on home soil. Civilians rationed goods because the military came first while they risked their lives defending everyone else. No one's life was unaffected by the war.
Our wars got smaller after WWII, but the Korean and Vietnam wars still had the draft so families from a broad cross section of America were asked to put their loved ones in harm's way. This is no longer the case. We haven't had a military draft since 1973, but we've sent troops to fight in conflicts large and small in the '80's, 90's, 00's and now 10's. We're increasingly asking a small few to bear what should be borne by the many. I don't want to muddy this discussion with a fiscal policy debate, but bellowing "We're a country at war!" and "Lower my taxes!" in the same breath would have been unthinkable anywhere in the world at any time in history except the United States in the 21st Century. The simultaneous belief that we're at war but shouldn't be inconvenienced by taxes, a draft or anything else betrays a troubling mindset I'll discuss in a moment, but first I want to talk about the heroic men and women who have served our country.
Whether through the old Billy Ray Cyrus song or some other source, you've probably heard the saying, "All gave some; some gave all" in reference to our war veterans. These words remind us that we owe these heroes more than we could ever repay. They have earned our support and our eternal gratitude. However, the quote only refers to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and those who paid a different price but served just as honorably. If we expand the circle to describe our entire "country at war" right now we should say, "Some gave all; most gave none."
Our military personnel put their lives on the line every day without question or hesitation. That's the code of the warrior and they view their incredible selflessness as nothing more that doing their duty. Even those who sustain severe, debilitating injuries often want to go back to their units and continue the fight! Let me repeat, we owe a debt to these heroes that is far too large to ever repay. Since the troops think only of duty and honor without regard to their own safety, we must be unwavering in our commitment to only place them in the mortal danger when absolutely necessary. To do otherwise is to hold this supreme sacrifice cheap, which would be an abomination that defies words.
While we would never deliberately treat our fighting men and women so recklessly, there's a danger to citizens clamoring for war while they have no skin in the game. People love to imperiously say, "off with their heads!" any time someone in the world displeases them, and unless those urges are tempered by the horrific reality of war, it's far too easy to violate our sacred covenant with the military by effectively regarding these precious young lives as cannon fodder.
Last month the nation closely watched the saga of Lindsay Lohan but few noticed that we also lost 65 troops in Afghanistan, which is our worst monthly loss to date. More than half of the fallen will never see a 25th birthday. We've now been in Afghanistan for nearly nine years and it's time to reevaluate the mission and what we can expect to gain in exchange for this loss of life. Supporting our troops means advocating for them because they'll never say no to risking their lives for their country. We owe them our real support, not just the token effort of slapping a $5 ribbon-shaped magnet on a $30,000 SUV.
