Divisions

David Lipsky wrote a book called "Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point" about the Class of 2002 at West Point. One of my classmates was in that class. I had some friends over the other day, including him, and he pulled that book off of my bookshelf. He was thumbing through it and showed us a couple of the pictures in it. "This guy was one of the first people to be killed in Iraq," he said, pointing to one photo, "he was my math partner." In another picture he pointed out another guy "this guy was my chemistry lab partner, I just heard that he was killed a couple of days ago."

It dawned on me that I am completely unaffected by the war (police action, invasion, whatever you want to call it) in Iraq. I'm not saying that I don't care, or that I don't find it tragic and infuriating, just that it does not, and has never, really impacted my life.

I can probably count on one hand the number of people I know who have been in Iraq. No one I know has been hurt or killed. None of us have to ration anything, gas prices are high, but not because of the war. I even got a tax cut, and am getting another refund later this year as a result of congress's attempt to stimulate the economy. In my last job working for the government, I never saw my budget decrease either. I don't have anyone to worry about "over there" and I don't make decisions in my life based on the war.

There is this complete disconnect between the people who are fighting this war and the rest of American society. I think that is why I always find myself incensed when I hear politicians say things like "we're at war" or "... in a time of war". We're not at war, a small subset of our population is.