Sugar, Butter, Burlap and Rubber

I have too often mocked our American sacrifices we've made for Afghanistan and Iraq. I am facetious...but only in my presentation.


We presumably don't have war material supply issues or lack war making capability, but we don't seem to have a whole hell of a lot of money or the will to be waging two simultaneous wars ad infinitum, do we?


What I continue to ask is "what have Merikans done, in the name of sacrifice, to support our war efforts?"
The answer is that we haven't done dick. I am of the opinion that if we are to wage war, we should do so with as much prejudice as possible. Yet we don't prosecute wars that way anymore. So I spin the argument around and suggest that its our Merikan non-negotiable way of life that causes wars...that if we changed our behaviors at home we would never have to wage wars to begin with.


This is an extremely polarizing position to take. Likewise polarizing, I will not hide the fact that I view our nation with extreme disregard, that I think it's a paved over cesspool overpopulated by perpetually motoring, overweight, over-entitled consumers. There is nothing wrong with my opinion. Indeed, it's an opinion shared by a shitload of non-Americans. But holding this opinion automatically means that I am pissing on the graves of the 4,000+ who've died to defend my freedoms?


Please. Like my personal disgust with certain aspects of our culture has anything to do with condoning troop deaths or that I'm un-American.


In 1994 this nation did precisely dick to stem Rwandan genocide. We would find a way to categorize it as a non-genocidal internal political struggle. But we never, not once, considered Hussein's gassing of Kurds as an internal non-genocidal act -- it's what we used to sentence him. The point is, we clearly view middle eastern resources as fundamentally ours, or perhaps not so boldly stated, as "resources necessary for the continuation of our way of life." We now have an AFRICOM because we will soon view West African oil and gas as a global resource that's a vital interest to our hyper consumptive "way of life." Did you know that by 2015, 15% of our oil will be coming from Nigeria? You betch'a, more than Alaska will supply.


So...did Merikans do anything, anything, between 2003 and present, to reduce our dependence on foreign energy? Remember: Energy Independence IS National Security. We would have never gotten involved in Middle Eastern power struggles, never inflamed radical hatreds, never have spent a chunk of our nation's wealth on "nation building" if we never tore them down to begin with, never have spent another chunk of wealth to build floating Dubai hotels or to quietly support other non-Western governments. Did we do anything?

No, we didn't. The extent of Elk Grovian sacrifice was to place a small plastic 'support our troops' ribbon on the back of our SUVs and minivans. Then we quickly took them off because they were starting to damage the paint jobs and resale values on our precious rigs. It was the least we could do. And if that weren't enough, with heavy hearts in April of 2003, the people of Elk Grove climbed into their cars and drove to the mall to do a little extra shopping. That was our contribution. That was our sacrifice.

Changing our behavior is sacrifice. It's about using less sugar and butter, burlap and rubber...important in 1943, and in my view, just as important 65 years later.