WW II, Sacrifice and The War Against Terror

As I was growing up, I listened to the stories my parents and grand-parents had about the Great Depression and WWII. What struck me at the time was how big the history seemed that I read in my history books, and how personal their stories were. The history books were all about the grand sweep of events, whereas the stories from my family were about folks just trying to survive. 

Yesterday, I read Thomas Friedman's article Real Men Tax Gas. It struck a chord.

How is it that the U.S., and indeed, the West as a whole, can be in a war that is at year number 8 and counting, and other than the casualties, we don't see the level of sacrifice by the country as a whole that we saw in WWII?

To remind, here are a few bits from WWII:

• Gas rationing
• Tire rationing
• Collecting pots & pans to create munitions
• Draft (yeah, I said it)
• Women went to work! 

For me, I don't get it. When you go to war, you go all in. You hit your enemy as hard as possible and as fast as possible, in part because shock and awe yield submission by the enemy, and in part because war is both expensive and horrible. 

So why is it that we continue to fund their activities through the purchase of oil?

It's War. Tax Gas. Now. End the War sooner.

Comments

[Chris]

Don't forget victory gardens. If you wanted to eat you had to grow some of your own food during WWII.