WAR AND APATHY: The Shameful indifference many Americans feel about The Iraq War

During the last week in Sept., millions of Americans began watching the PBS presentation of the new Ken Burns documentary about World War Two, “THE WAR.”

It requires a major commitment of time and attention to watch the entire multi - hour, spaced over a two-week period, but it has been worth it. As always, Ken Burns employs his trademark skills with still photography, newsreels, music, interviews, and voice-over narration to make the war come alive. His documentaries draw you in to their world because his commitment to detail and accuracy, and especially the human element, never falters.

In “THE WAR,” Burns has framed the vast composition of the war around the families who gave up their son and daughters to the conflict. He has given us an intimate portrait of four American families that were turned upside down by the wars raging over two opposite horizons – against the Japanese in the Pacific to the far west, and against Nazi Germany in Europe, to the far East.

In so doing, Ken Burns has not only told the story of this great and terrible world war, but he has shown us the cost of that war at home – and this is the greatest service it could have provided.

As World War Two ranged across continents and great oceans, at home, the American people came together with a single focus, a shared commitment, and a sense of community that has never been equaled since then.

The war was fought by Americans from all walks of life – city kids and farm boys, the educated and the illiterate, the rich and privileged as well as the working class. On the field of battle, they were all Americans, equals among equals.

The war galvanized the public behind a common goal of brutal simplicity – total victory on both fronts. For that to happen, Burns shows us that American citizens were engaged, involved, focused, resolute, patient, and willing to make the sacrifices needed in their personal lives so that the war effort could be properly supported.

The soldiers who brought us victory in World War Two have been called “The Greatest Generation.” But that honor equally belongs to the families and communities back home, for all the sacrifices they were willing to endure in support of the war effort.

They were “The Greatest Generation of Citizens” because they put aside their private lives – their dreams and ambitions – and dedicated their lives to the common purpose of winning the war.

Unfortunately, we cannot feel that same sense of pride in our country at the moment. The war in Iraq has gone on longer than World War Two, but many Americans can’t be bothered to notice!

Being an informed and active citizen has become an endangered way of life in many of our communities. Many of our neighbors have little or no serious understanding of the Iraq war and how we got into it, And worse, many of them aren’t even ashamed of their apathy, ignorance and indifference, even though the war towers over all other issues facing our country.

In this sense, many of the sons and daughters of “The Greatest Generation,” and their children as well, have dishonored all of our fallen and wounded soldiers. Their apathy is an embarrassment that sullies the reputation of all Americans.

Far too many Americans go about their daily lives and pursue their ambitions, entertainments and routines with little or no interest or serious understanding of the war, or of Middle East history in general.

Many Americans are far too content to let the government tell them what to think and how to feel about the war.

Part of this shame is explained by the fact that we have a voluntary military instead of a draft. A draft would have drawn service men and women from a wider pool of citizens, especially from the complacent middle class.

If large numbers of young men and women from the comfortable suburbs were drafted into the war - like they were during the Vietnam War - their parents would awaken from their private lives and quickly take notice.

If the sons and daughters of affluent suburbia were going to be driving the deadly roads of Iraq and patrolling the dangerous streets, their parents would discard their apathy and become active and agitated citizens over night – and that’s shameful in and of itself.

Have we become so selfish and self-involved that something as horrible as war only engages our attention and passions if it comes to our own doorstep, or somehow disturbs our comfortable routines?

Do so many of our fellow citizens remain blissfully ignorant of the war simply because it affects other people from other communities?

Do so many middle class families ignore the war because most of the soldiers who are dying, or suffering catastrophic injuries, come from rural America or working class neighborhoods - communities that our comfortable suburbs are more and more insulated from?

Have we become so fragmented as a country that the sufferings of one community don’t engage the sympathies of others?

If this is the simple explanation, then shame on all of us. And shame on our leaders, who still seem unable or unwilling to call on all Americans to share the sacrifices that are being suffered daily for this misbegotten war and occupation.

Our government refuses to consider reinstating the draft, even though the war is straining our military to the breaking point. And the government refuses to raise taxes to pay for the war, instead relying on an irresponsible borrow-and-spend policy that is producing a runaway national debt that future generations will have to pay off.

During World War Two, as “THE WAR” thoroughly documents, our government called on all Americans to share the burden and the pain.

Today, our government tries to keep this war as painless and invisible as possible for middle class America, right down to refusing permission for the media to show flag-draped coffins coming back from Iraq.

Unless we wake up as a nation and become responsible citizens once again, historians will not be charitable about this war generation.

We will have earned the scorn they will bestow on us all.

September 27, 2007 | Filed Under GFA