Never Have So Many Done So Little

By William K. Wolfrum

As the U.S. media and most of the political blogosphere bounces from one political atrocity to the next, it’s often easy to forget that the U.S. is a nation at war. In two separate nations. With other hot spots being dealt with simultaneously. The photo here (via Prose Before Hos)  is a distinct reminder that while the majority of the U.S. lives in a world untouched by war, the military is still out there, day after day, death after death.

The U.S. has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly nine years, and at war in Iraq for eight. And in that time, the average American has been asked for nothing to help in these battles. No sacrifice has been too small to not be requested. No tax or donation or act of volunteerism has been requested. Nothing. If 9/11 changed everything, then at least 90 percent of the U.S. population wasn’t included in those changes.

In all these years of war, our response to 9/11 and the “Great Battle of Civilizations” has come down to these accomplishments: A politically unstable and dangerous Iraq, an Afghanistan still fighting the Taliban, a reputation as a nation that tortures, billions and billions of dollars spent, thousands of American lives lost or ruined, and hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern lives lost. And Osama bin Laden still making video tapes in caves.

To make it even more surreal, there are still plenty of American opinion makers that want nothing more than a full-scale war on Iran to top it all off. And these same opinion makers will politicize any attempted attack of Americans, ignoring the fact that when a country is at war, they should expect to be attacked.

And there will be more attacks on U.S. soil. And there will be more deaths throughout the Middle East. And the political situation in the Middle East will remain a mess. New terrorists will be born to replace the ones killed. The U.S. pulls troops from Iraq and puts them in Afghanistan, and the cycle continues. And it’s very likely more of these troops will be sent to Iran at some point. The military-industrial complex is in a feeding frenzy, and President Barack Obama has yet to show a great deal of interest in pulling them from the trough.

But the average American need not worry of these wars, both current and potential. Because in the end, it is the military and their families that are expected to make sacrifices. The rest of us, well, we can just enjoy our day at the mall.

By: William K. Wolfrum

I'm a journalist, columnist, humorist, satirist, Dogist and Husbandist