Different war, different generation
By: Chris Hokanson
Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Opinion
Despite popular belief at the time, Sept. 11 has not become our generation's Pearl Harbor.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001, are etched America's collective memory, there's no doubt about that. Most anyone can recall where they were and what they were doing when they found out that the World Trade Center and Pentagon had been attacked. We've had two major motion pictures and countless books recounting the tragedy. The emotion attached to the date runs deep.
Since 2001, our armed forces have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans are often reminded that "We're at war" and that our children will have grown up knowing nothing but war. But from the beginning we've been told this is a different kind of war. The rules are different; the playing field is different. America has known since that September day that the entire world would never be the same.
But for the majority of Americans, the world is exactly the same. Emotionally, many people still feel the fear brought by Sept. 11. Images of colored safety charts and foiled terror plots run across our television screens every other week, the President reminds the people that the U.S. must stay on his vague, undefined course in Iraq, and death tolls continue to rise. But as we move, day-by-day, ever farther from Sept. 11, the fear is lessened.
World War II showed America's "greatest generation" knew what it meant for a country to be at war. Our grandparents and great-grandparents faced rations for many of items we take for granted: gasoline, wheat and steel. Most of our nation's young men went off to war, virtually every person in America said goodbye to a father, son, brother, husband or boyfriend. The country's women stepped up and filled the myriad of jobs left vacant by departing soldiers. Our entire nation was focused on winning the wars in Europe and the Pacific.
Even the1960s, which brought us a war very similar to today's war in Iraq, many Americans were affected. Nearly 60,000 Americans were killed, 305,000 were injured and 2,000 are still considered missing. But unlike Vietnam, where stories of the My Lai massacre and the deaths of many drafted Americans led to nation-wide protests, events like Abu Ghraib have done little to spark the kind reaction we saw from our parent's generation.
For many Americans, life in 2007 is no different than in 2000. They might know that the brother of their neighbor's wife is fighting in Iraq right now, but they don't have any personal relationship with someone in Iraq. That's not to say that some Americans aren't affected by the war, because the loss of each and every soldier is a tragic event that should never be understated.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001, are etched America's collective memory, there's no doubt about that. Most anyone can recall where they were and what they were doing when they found out that the World Trade Center and Pentagon had been attacked. We've had two major motion pictures and countless books recounting the tragedy. The emotion attached to the date runs deep.
Since 2001, our armed forces have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans are often reminded that "We're at war" and that our children will have grown up knowing nothing but war. But from the beginning we've been told this is a different kind of war. The rules are different; the playing field is different. America has known since that September day that the entire world would never be the same.
But for the majority of Americans, the world is exactly the same. Emotionally, many people still feel the fear brought by Sept. 11. Images of colored safety charts and foiled terror plots run across our television screens every other week, the President reminds the people that the U.S. must stay on his vague, undefined course in Iraq, and death tolls continue to rise. But as we move, day-by-day, ever farther from Sept. 11, the fear is lessened.
World War II showed America's "greatest generation" knew what it meant for a country to be at war. Our grandparents and great-grandparents faced rations for many of items we take for granted: gasoline, wheat and steel. Most of our nation's young men went off to war, virtually every person in America said goodbye to a father, son, brother, husband or boyfriend. The country's women stepped up and filled the myriad of jobs left vacant by departing soldiers. Our entire nation was focused on winning the wars in Europe and the Pacific.
Even the1960s, which brought us a war very similar to today's war in Iraq, many Americans were affected. Nearly 60,000 Americans were killed, 305,000 were injured and 2,000 are still considered missing. But unlike Vietnam, where stories of the My Lai massacre and the deaths of many drafted Americans led to nation-wide protests, events like Abu Ghraib have done little to spark the kind reaction we saw from our parent's generation.
For many Americans, life in 2007 is no different than in 2000. They might know that the brother of their neighbor's wife is fighting in Iraq right now, but they don't have any personal relationship with someone in Iraq. That's not to say that some Americans aren't affected by the war, because the loss of each and every soldier is a tragic event that should never be understated.
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