Who’s Paying for Our Patriotism?
Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt wrote a fantastic article for The Washington Post the other day. Here are some excerpts, but you’d much better read the original full column; it’s well worth it.
President Bush assures us that the ongoing twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth the sacrifices they entail. Editorialists around the nation agree and say that a steadfast American public was willing to stay the course.
Should anyone be surprised by this national resolve, given that these wars visit no sacrifice of any sort — neither blood nor angst nor taxes — on well over 95 percent of the American people?
At most, 500,000 American troops are at risk of being deployed to these war theaters at some time. Assume that for each of them some 20 members of the wider family sweat with fear when they hear that a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan or that X number of soldiers or Marines were killed or seriously wounded in Iraq. It implies that no more than 10 million Americans have any real emotional connection to these wars.
When our son, then a recent Princeton graduate, decided to join the Marine Corps in 2001, I advised him thus: “Do what you must, but be advised that, flourishing rhetoric notwithstanding, this nation will never truly honor your service, and it will condemn you to the bottom of the economic scrap heap should you ever get seriously wounded.” The intervening years have not changed my views; they have reaffirmed them.
Three days after this piece was published in The Washington Post, Mr. Reinhardt’s son was seriously injured in an attack that killed a buddy of his in his unit. He was flown off to Germany; apparently, he’ll be fine.
Read the Full Story in The Washington Post
August 1, 2005
John Blackburn wrote:
Powerfully written–and short too!
Posted 30 Aug 2005 at 6:46 pm ¶