Bush and FDR on Sacrifice
Earlier today, I described President Bush's cynical and shameless plan to use the banner of "sacrifice" to market his coming call for a surge of U.S. forces in Iraq. Americans of all political stripes should view this clarion call for sacrifice as nothing less than an obscenity. Not just because the President's escalation supports no strategic military objective or because the vast majority of Americans oppose it, but because Bush's call for sacrifice comes five years too late. A quick comparison to FDR, an earlier president facing wartime crisis, shows why.
As I wrote over a year ago, Franklin Roosevelt in the devastating aftermath of Pearl Harbor understood the absolute necessity of and moral imperative for the complete mobilization of American society. But sacrifice, save for the men and women of our all-volunteer military, has been utterly absent from the vocabulary of George W. Bush. Until now.
Reprinted in full below is "Dishonoring Pearl Harbor."
President Bush used this 64th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to continue his faltering effort to drum up support for his Iraq policy. Only days after unveiling his supposed "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" to an incredulous American public, Bush sought once again to draw parallels with a different, "good war" against fascism:
The strike on Pearl Harbor was the start of a long war for America -- a massive struggle against those who attacked us, and those who shared their destructive ambitions. Fortunately for all of us, a great generation of Americans was more than equal to the challenge. Our nation pulled together -- and despite setbacks and battlefield defeats, we did not waver in freedom's cause. With courage and determination, we won a war on two fronts: we liberated millions, we aided the rise of democracy in Europe and Asia we watched enemies become allies, and we laid the foundation of peace for generations.
On September the 11th, 2001, our nation awoke to another sudden attack. In the space of just 102 minutes, more Americans were killed than we lost at Pearl Harbor. Like generations before us, we accepted new responsibilities, and we confronted new dangers with firm resolve. Like generations before us, we're taking the fight to those who attacked us -- and those who share their murderous vision for future attacks. Like generations before us, we've faced setbacks on the path to victory -- yet we will fight this war without wavering. And like the generations before us, we will prevail.
Sadly, the President's false analogies to World War II only serve to highlight his own shortcomings as a wartime leader. Bush is no FDR, to be sure. More shameful still is his call for national sacrifice, a concept utterly absent from the Bush presidency before September 11th and since.
As I wrote on September 11th in a piece titled "9/11 and the Culture of Grief":
[...]The Japanese attack on US forces in Hawaii was not only launched the United States into World War II, it was a tectonic change, a historical marker seared into the consciousness of all Americans. Americans surely felt the same sense of loss and violation on December 7, 1941 as they did on September 11, 2001. But they also understood that their world had changed forever and that a monumental effort by all Americans would be needed not only to defeat the threats from Japan and Nazi Germany, but to ensure, in FDR's words, "that this form of treachery shall never we will endanger us again."
Following Pearl Harbor, Americans more than anything else realized that shared sacrifice would be required if the United States were to prevail. If there was any question about the American sacrifice that was both called for and expected, President Franklin Roosevelt ended the discussion in his fireside chat of December 9, 1941:
On the road ahead there lies hard work-grueling work-day and night, every hour and every minute.
I was about to add that ahead there lies sacrifice for all of us.
But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does not consider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one's best to our Nation when the Nation is fighting for its existence and its future life.
It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army or the Navy of the United States. Rather is it a privilege.
It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage earner, the farmer or the shopkeeper, the trainman or the doctor, to pay more taxes, to buy more bonds, to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder at the task for which he is best fitted. Rather is it a privilege.
It is not a sacrifice to do without many things to which we are accustomed if the national defense calls for doing without.
One needs only a moment's reflection on FDR's words to realize why President Bush's words on this Pearl Harbor anniversary are an obscenity, an affront to traditional American values of shared sacrifice and common defense.
In World War II, 15,000,000 American men and women served in the nation�s armed forces. In George W. Bush's America, there is no call for national service, leaving our volunteer military badly - and unnecessarily - overstretched around the world. Our security abroad and safety at home is threatened as a result. Yet Americans of both parties and all walks of life are largely silent.
During World War II, the "Greatest Generation" willingly paid more taxes, with the top rate reaching 91%. In George W. Bush�s America, the United States government for the first time in its history cut taxes during wartime. And with our troops in harm�s way and America facing massive budget deficits, President Bush and the Republican Party want to cut them further, in a massive transfer of wealth to the richest among us. Yet Americans of both parties and all walks of life are largely silent.
During World War II, all Americans steadfastly endured privations at home, including gasoline rationing, limitations on travel, and shortages of commodities of all kind. In George W. Bush�s America, there is no call for conservation and sacrifice at home. Americans howl in protest at $3 a gallon gas and rising heating oil and natural gas prices. There is no strategy for national energy independence, no mandates for greater fuel efficiency or conservation, no penalties for consumption or incentives to save. Yet Americans of both parties and all walks of life are largely silent.
On this Pearl Harbor Day, we would do well to recall more of FDR's wartime leadership now so dearly missing in Washington:
We are now in this war. We are all in it-all the way. Every single man, woman, and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history. We must share together the bad news and the good news, the defeats and the victories-the changing fortunes of war.
The Greatest Generation heard FDR's call. Have we?
I am a Libertarian against the War on Iraq AND sacrifice.
I did not vote for Bush because he is not an isolationist — since he believes in the War on Iraq rather than actually finding Osama bin Laden — and because his policies have created massive federal debt while failing to end the recession, and because he is for religious conservatism. I did not vote for Kerry because he is pro-draft and pro-sacrifice, as well as anti-abortion and Roman Catholic.
I would also like to criticize sacrifice and the draft, because liberal Democrats believe in both, particularly the hypocrite FDR. FDR never sacrificed in his life. He was a rich liberal scion when he was draft age, and avoided WW1 by entering Democratic politics. Then he arrogantly drafted millions of other males to fight in WW2, even though he never went. The term “chicken hawk” certainly applies to FDR, as well as “hypocrite” and “sexist”.
Many young people, particularly Generation X, are also learning to question the mandatory Allied propaganda from WW2 that we are still taught in the mandatory high schools by our arrogant Democratic teachers. The Allies committed similar atrocities to the Axis, which includes censorship, slavery, mass murder, concentration camps, and nuclear genocide — supported by FDR and Truman.
They are not the Greatest Generation either.