2007 Articles Index
America Can Be Better
Wednesday March 7, 2007
Are We a Nation at War?
Not Exactly
Thomas Friedman Says It Well
As Usual
These quotes come from Don't Ask, Don't Know, Don't Help, his excellent piece in the New York Times on March 7, 2007. The remarks come in the wake of disclosures of the awful conditions at Walter Reed Hospital, but they point to an overarching problem of attitude or understanding or something I can't even guess at.
"Mr. Bush summoned the country to D-Day and prepared the Army, the military health system, military industries and the American people for the invasion of Grenada.
"From the start, the Bush team has tried to keep the Iraq war off the books both financially and emotionally. As Larry Diamond of Stanford's Hoover Institution said to me: America is not at war. The U.S. Army is at war. The rest of us are just watching, or just ignoring, while the whole fight is carried on by 150,000 soldiers and their families.
"In an interview last Jan. 16, Jim Lehrer asked President Bush why, if the war on terrorism was so overwhelmingly important, he had never asked more Americans to sacrifice something. Mr. Bush gave the most unbelievable answer: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.
"Sacrifice peace of mind watching TV? What kind of crazy thing is that to say? Leadership is about enabling and inspiring people to contribute in time of war so the enemy has to fight all of us” not insulating the public so the enemy has to fight only a few of us."
