I knew that was way too flippant after I posted it- as soon as you said teabagging I was ashamed.
Quote:
our country is so apathetic is because we haven't had a major conflict on our own soil.
Exactly, and because we are so unlikely to ever have large-scale combat in the homeland, our wars will continue to be "over there" fought mostly by folks who know next to nothing about the people/culture they are killing/protecting. which feeds into Quote:
another huge contribution to complacency and apathy we exhibit is due to the 'if it doesn't effect me, i don't care' clause.
After the casualties on all sides, the biggest thing I hate about our current conflicts is how painless (massive cost aside) the Bush administration was able to make it for average Americans. Our troops and their families are shouldering nearly the entire burden while we didn't even see a tax increase to cover the war's cost. This is frightening to me because the more the government is able to manipulate public opinion to be favorable towards pre-emptive war as a foreign policy option, while simultaneously making sure that it won't impact us noticeably (in the short term) the more likely we are to find ourselves in "wars of choice"that have little to do with real national security.
