A Nation At War ?

I have spoken here in the past of the conflicted experience of being a mother of an active-duty soldier while moving through my day-to-day life in a nation that forgets it is at war. Really, stop reading for just this moment and ask yourself, “Do I know on a daily basis that we are at war?”

Thom Shanker writes for the NYTimes, “All Quiet on the Home Front, and Some Soldiers Are Asking Why,” reporting a sense of frustration among soldiers, many of who spoke under condition of anonymity, saying that America wasn’t a nation at war: America wasn’t a nation at war, but a nation with only its military at war.

Recruiting shortages reported today explain the 35,000 shortfall with references to a strong economy, resistant parents, and increasing dangers in Iraq. Age limits for enlistment have been raised again – this time to age 42 for the Army, and bonuses are now being extended to cover home and education loans, increased pay, and enlistment perks totaling more than $100,000 for the more difficult to fill positions as infantry, medics, and MPs. Still, according to NYT Shanker, the ranks of active duty soldiers are thinning, and support is evaporating save for the glossy surface of Fourth of July sentiments … “patriotism lite,” according to George Moskos, military sociologist at Northwestern University.

"Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us," said one officer just back from a yearlong tour in Iraq. While officers and enlisted personnel say they enjoy symbolic signs of support, and the high ratings the military now enjoys in public opinion polls, "that's just not enough," said a one-star officer who served in Iraq. "There has to be more," he added, saying that the absence of a call for broader national sacrifice in a time of war has become a near constant topic of discussion among officers and enlisted personnel.

Conversations with Pat at “Six More Months” help me to find a perspective more respectful of the work and hope of the soldiers doing their job on the ground in Iraq. He encourages me that he sees hundreds of Iraqi citizens pass through his area of operations on a daily basis and from them knows the appreciation of a people for the hope of a new life, but Pat acknowledges, too, the anxious concern among them for renewed colonial occupation. “They want to know we’re going to leave,” Pat might say, “but they want us to fix what we broke before we do.”

The metaphors mix and become confusing for me: are we a nation at war or a nation that sent its military to fix what is essentially a political problem? In the meantime, an administration that maintains support for a war in Iraq by celebrating normalcy for those of us left at home in the United States does so at the cost of leaving military men, women, and families isolated and alone in carrying the burden of that war while the rest of us enjoy a summer day.

technorati tags: Iraq, War, Soldiers