Ashley Gyer
History Blog
October 5, 2009
The war in Afghanistan and Iraq are unique in that unlike World War I and World War II there is no specific country we are fighting against. It is difficult to think that if we made sacrifices like rationing that it would make any difference. Our resources are so much different now than in those wars, there is no shortage of anything. To institute sacrifices would only serve to make people angrier about the war and would probably have the opposite effect of creating an anti-war sentiment. What is needed is some way to increase patriotism and decrease the negative attitude that is associated with the war.
An interesting response to the prompt, Ashley. We are in a different era when it comes to warfare today--the kinds of challenges we face as a nation are not like those we faced 50 years ago. Yet at the same time, the burden of maintaining security in this country falls disproportionately on the shoulders of few Americans. There have been proposals to reinstate the draft--that's not going to happen. As you point out, it would ignite a huge political controversy and no politician (who has read Chris Matthews) is going to support such a proposal given the experience we had during the Vietnam War. Yet at the same time, you have to wonder if the American public would allow these wars to continue if we had more at stake in them? Thanks for your thoughtful response.
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