A Country at War?
In passing comments with Tommi recently, I spoke from a certainty that the “average” American is little aware (if at all) that this country is “at war” in Iraq. Oh, I see plenty of yellow-ribbon magnetic appliqués printed to read “Support Our Troops” decorating the tails of pick-up trucks and mid-size cars; I see news reports and headlines each time a significant loss of life is attributed to the next suicide bomber, but there nonetheless seems a disconnect between the (real)ization of our country at WAR and the all’s-well life of Jo(e) American getting ready of summer celebrations, holidays, the latest fashions, and baseball season.
Don’t get me wrong – this is not a rant against anything or anybody, and it’s not another impassioned call for a more interested or invested citizenry. It was merely an expression in conversation with my daughter of a conviction that the average American citizen doesn’t know (remember) this country is actually at war with another nation-state – and if remembered, would almost certainly not know why. Fascinating.
Well, Tommi passed my comment on to Pat (on duty with her at the gate), who disagreed with my contention, believing instead that Americans were diligently aware of the war in which their country was engaged – citizen soldiers killed daily, $4.7 billion American tax dollars allocated monthly, insufficient supplies and soldiers to get the job done, and no current plan for withdrawal. His counter to my position dogged me for a week or so, and then an interesting opportunity came to the fore: a stroll through the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota provided the chance for a bit of an informal survey. Ok… ok… I know the drawbacks and limitations of my method – it was the Mall of America after all, but I made bold to ask anyway, and the results surprised even me.
After politely interrupting, explaining that I was taking an informal poll for a article I was writing on “the current American political scene,” I asked first, “Would you be able to say whether or not our country was currently at war?” and secondly, if they answering to the affirmative, “Would you be able to say why?” Of the roughly fifty people with whom I spoke, no more than half knew the country was currently at war, some believing the war was over and the occupation all that was left, others not sure at all “what was happening over there.” When I questioned further those who seemed to know the country was at war, there were none among them who expressed with any confidence a sense of knowing why. “To free the Iraqis, right?” Free them from what? I asked. “I don’t know. From their terrorists, right?”
My casual survey at the Mall of America made clear the idea that being “aware” is slippery (at best) and difficult to pin down with a certain meaning, but I still left the experience more certain than I'd been before of the general disconnect between the fact of war in Iraq and the sense of knowing that the general American population has of that action. As I write this post, however, I am anxious for your response to these questions: Would you be able to say whether or not our country was currently at war? Perhaps more importantly, would you be able to say why?
posted by Mary Godwin @ Thursday, May 12, 2005
1 comments
1 Comments:
OK, so maybe it's not fair for me to answer this question, because I know that my Family and Friends are very aware that we are at war. To be honest, I don't expect the average American to know we are at war, though. When I was deployed to both Bosna and Kosovo, within the first MONTHS of our involvement in the Balkans, I had people say to me "We still have troops there?" Let's face it, most Americans have very short attention spans, and they have a right to that ignorance, as frustrating as it is.
I do not have a satisfactory answer to the more important question you posed, Why are we at war. There never is a satisfactory answer. In Bosnia, the bombed out stadium I lived had a commanding view of the Bare cemetary in Sarajevo, which contained over 100,000 fresh graves. Why were they dead? Because they were Muslims, and Christians decided to slaughter them. In Kosovo, I ran MEDCAP (medical civil assistance program) missions to Serb villages that had been nearly wiped out by Muslim Albanians seeking revenge for Serb ethnic cleansing. They were dead because Muslims decided to massacre Christians. In Iraq, a couple of weeks ago, Tommi and I saw an innocent boy, whose brother used him as cover while he tried to kill Americans, laying in an American hospital. I don't know why these wars happen. This one in particular. As Colin Powell said prior to this war, "You break it, You own it". Well, we broke it. We'll come home when it's fixed. Whether we should have broken it is a whole different issue, and I am too busy doing the fixing to cry over the broken pieces now. That's the best answer I can give you.
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