Where is the sacrifice that right-wing commentators say the left is unwilling to make?
"Wars, after all, demand broad sacrifice; but the president has been reluctant to call upon an America coddled by affluenza to make any sacrifices. Indeed, a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the president suggested patriotic Americans return to their routines -- starting with a trip to the nearest shopping mall.
Instead of raising taxes to pay for soldiers and materiel, Bush pushed through a set of tax cuts that heavily favored the wealthy, meanwhile producing a budget deficit that threatens to make America the next Argentina. Instead of insisting that Americans reduce their dependence on foreign oil, the Bush administration went along with granting a tax exemption to small-business owners who buy the biggest and costliest SUVs. Instead of emphasizing the hardships that would accompany an invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), et. al., made absurd predictions about American soldiers being greeted as liberators and an oil-rich nation that would pay for its own reconstruction.
And didn't they tell us we were safer with the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)?
The simple truth is that the United States should be engaged in a grueling, long-term campaign against Islamist fanatics. But that sort of war would likely have entailed an invasion of Pakistan instead of the distraction of Iraq. Pakistan has done everything that Bush falsely claimed Iraq had done: It sheltered al-Qaida, and its scientists sold secrets and parts for making the mother of all WMD -- the nuclear bomb -- to North Korea (news - web sites), Libya and Iran. But a war against a nuclear power like Pakistan may have involved thousands of U.S. casualties. It would have been a real war.
Instead, Bush told us we'd stroll into Iraq, overthrow Saddam, implant democracy and watch it bloom throughout the region -- ultimately bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In fact, the president still says that. (Yet, he continues to fertilize the soil with American blood.)
If there's a war on, shopping malls and SUV dealerships seem unlikely battle fronts."
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