I happened to notice an interesting entry over on Winds of Change about sacrifices made in war. The post discusses the World War II tin and rubber drives, which served a dual purpose (not acknowledged in the article, but in the comments to it): first, to collect raw material, and second, to ensure the loyalty of the population at large towards the government.

We saw the exact opposite in Vietnam: rather than being asked to give, instead, the media was flooded with horrific images that made the populace so angry that they protested to end the war in massive numbers, helping to bring an end to our invasion of Vietnam.

Now, in Iraq, we are faced with almost the exact same situation as World War II, except the circumstances are different: the media is still inundated with images and war coverage, except that that coverage is controlled: we don’t see the hundreds of Iraqi civilian casualties, the living conditions caused by Operations Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and Iraqi Freedom, the faces we fight against. We see noble people trying to set up a government, but we don’t see people that government is trying to help. We see U.S. and Japanese troops rebuilding, but we are not told about the extent of that rebuilding. We are told of the lives of governmental officials, but not of the young child who lost a family through bombing.

That Winds of Change article talks about sacrifices, only these sacrifices aren’t really concrete. We are asked to switched to alternative energy and to push for much lower dependencies on Middle Eastern oil; a laudable and commendable goal for our future, certainly. We can do our part by switching to hybrid SUVs and cars, by pushing for wind power instead of oil power in our communities, by using biodiesel instead of normal diesel. Higher taxes on gasoline would certainly achieve a goal of pushing the population away from Middle Eastern oil dependence–and compared to England, it wouldn’t add much more onto our gas costs–but it would leave people wondering what the point of it all was. Why go to war to protect our oil interests only to turn around and say that we no longer need it? This disconnect would be glaring and would make people question the war even more than we already have. That’s why it hasn’t been–and probably won’t be–done. It boils down to loyalty.

If you really want to sacrifice, sacrifice your own comfort; sacrifice your hot food, sacrifice your warm homes for a while and give to those who don’t have anything. Strive to bring a better life to the homeless, fight against AIDS, join a local political campaign, get your voice heard and speak loudly for the rights that you take for granted but that don’t apply to everyone. Fight for the disadvantaged, the repressed minorities. Go out and make a difference in the world; the only thing you have to sacrifice is your own time and your own energy. That is patriotism: not only questioning our leaders, but fighting to make a better nation, a better world.