SACRIFICE? COUNT ME OUT (Ted Rall)

[deadparrot]

NEW YORK--"If America is truly on a war footing," Thom Shanker asks in the New York Times, "why is so little sacrifice asked of the nation at large?" Military recruiters are coming up short of volunteers, yet neither party is pushing for a draft. No one is proposing a tax increase to cover the $60 billion annual cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars. There are no World War II-style war bond drives, no victory gardens, not even gas rationing. Back here in the fatherland, only "support our troops" car ribbons indicate that we're at war--and they aren't even bumper stickers, they're magnetic. Apparently Americans aren't even willing to sacrifice the finish on their automobiles to promote the cause.

"Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us," the paper quotes an officer who just returned from a year in rose-petal-paved Iraq. " just not enough," grumbles a brigadier general. "There has to be more," he demands. "The absence of a call for broader national sacrifice in a time of war has become a near constant topic of discussion among officers and enlisted personnel," the general claims.

Northwestern University professor Charles Moskos says: "The political leaders are afraid to ask the public for any real sacrifice, which doesn't speak too highly of the citizenry."

To which I say: Screw that. It's not my duty to suffer for this pointless war. I've been against it all along, and you can stick your victory garden where the desert sun can't penetrate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/sacrificecountmeout

[Mikimouse]

1. OK, now where's the HE VOLUNTEERED crowd?

"Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us," the paper quotes an officer who just returned from a year in rose-petal-paved Iraq. " just not enough," grumbles a brigadier general. "There has to be more," he demands. "The absence of a call for broader national sacrifice in a time of war has become a near constant topic of discussion among officers and enlisted personnel," the general claims.

[Kikosexy2]

2. What if...

some dumb-ass Republican president declared a war and nobody showed up....oops! it happened already....I say draft all red-states citizens and Bush supporters.

[sickinohio]

6. How about just saying all bu$h supporters??

I unfortunately live in a "supposed" red state (I still don't believe it) and I certainly didn't vote for bu$hCo (and neither did most of my friends)!!!

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Excellent ... and I couldn't agree more!

[Inland]

4. The war is crafted to keep as many from feeling pinch as possible

Bush says, Go Shopping. No taxes to pay, and all previous cuts go through as scheduled. No draft.

And as Bush shows us, no matter how bad the war is going, nobody is going to have to miss a day of vacation. No, we'll be able to get on with our lives.

Why? Because the second a substantial minority pay even a tiny price, the public would end the war.

So Bush concentrates all the pain in a narrow segment of the military and the families, and let's the rest of us off the hook. Pretty good strategy for a four week war, shitty strategy for a fourteen year occupation.

[MindPilot]

5. "...doesn't speak too highly of the citizenry."

umm, no it doesn't speak too highly of the leaders. The citizenry is fine, especially those who were smart enough not fall for the lies.

The citizenry voted for a democrat both times, the citizenry is sending its sons and daughters to the Iraqi meat-grinder, the citizenry is showing up at work, and doing their jobs everyday to keep what's left of our country and economy moving. The citizenry, professor, has been busting ass for 5 years to free the country from the shackles of fascism so find someone else to blame for the failures of your ideology. Oh, yeah, another thing, professor, I--the citizenry--FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!

[lanlady]

7. right on!

The "citizenry" is already sacrificing -- hundreds of billions of our tax money has gone to the bombing, plundering, and mismanagement of Iraq. That's money that could have been spent here at home. Screeeeeew that indeed!

[Raster]

8. sing it brother Ted

<snip>

David Hendrickson, a scholar at Colorado College, tells the Times: "Bush understands that the support of the public for war--especially the war in Iraq--is conditioned on demanding little of the public." Of course, Bush himself hasn't given up a second of vacation or a single donated dollar, much less one of his hard-partying daughters, to the "war effort." Sacrifice is a hard sell down here among the citizenry when we don't see it starting where it should start, among our leaders.

I'm already sacrificing too much for a war I always believed was stupid and wrong. I'm paying three dollars a gallon for buck-fifty gas and walking through gauntlets of over-armed National Guardboys at airports and bus stations. I'm in greater danger than ever before of getting blown up by a pissed-off fanatic. And I dread the giant tax hike we'll eventually need to pay off Bush's deficit. But these aren't enough sacrifices for Bush and his vainglorious generals, who are planning "a Civilian Reserve, a sort of Peace Corps for professionals...a program to seek commitments from bankers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, electricians, plumbers and solid-waste disposal experts to deploy to conflict zones for months at a time on reconstruction assignments, to relieve pressure on the military."

If you voted for Bush, here's your chance to plant your butt where your ridiculous car magnet is, smack dab in the middle of the Sunni Triangle. Good luck.