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As conflict drags on, Americans lose interest in Iraq

As conflict drags on, America turns its attention away from Iraq.

Date published: 2/15/2004

LAST MAY, after I wrote a column comparing Iraq to Vietnam, I received an irate letter from one man who said, in effect, that I was crazy, that within a year our boys would be home.

Well, that year will be up in a few weeks and we seem no closer to getting out of Iraq. And our soldiers are still dying at the rate of more than one per day.

Those who don't see Iraq as another Vietnam are right in one respect. During Vietnam, America cared. Now it seems that only a handful of us even acknowledge there is still a war going on.

Every poll I have seen lately places the economy at the top of America's trouble list. In other words, we are more concerned with money than the lives of our soldiers.

I suppose that's understandable. It is our money, but, for most, it is someone else's son or daughter over there getting shot at.

The primary reason for this obvious distance between Americans and their soldiers is conscription--or the lack of it. During Vietnam, there was hardly a household that didn't worry that a son or a grandson would be drafted.

Now we know our kids will be safe, unless they choose to join the military.

The draft--at least the draft during the 1940s, '50s, and most of the '60s--did not discriminate between the rich and the poor. If you were fit, you got drafted. College graduates and high school dropouts bunked together in the same barracks.

Now, for the most part, the fighting element of the military is made up of less-affluent Americans. Let's face it, few recent graduates with master's degrees are going to trade a $50,000-a-year job for Army pay.

It is easy to talk about making war when you know that your son or daughter will not be forced to fight.

But now we don't even talk about the war. We treat Iraq as if it no longer exists. Americans don't like unpleasantries, and Iraq has become an unpleasantry.

Even the media has tired of Iraq. One or two dead soldiers seldom make the front pages any more and there is no daily battle footage on the nightly news. That kind of stuff might be disturbing to children or sensitive viewers.

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Date published: 2/15/2004