Does the average American feel the cost of this war?

[TrailerParkJawa]

I'm watching Band of Brothers on tv which brought something to mind.
In the last week 2 Marines from the Bay Area were brought home after having been killed in Iraq. I don't know either Marine but they were both from towns that I have ties too.

This leads me to wonder, does the average American feel this war? Most of us go about our lives without losing a friend, without paying the taxes really required to pay for the war, no rationing, etc.

What do you think?

[Howedar]

I'm a normal college student as far as I know. A couple of my friends got called up and are now sucking sand in Iraq.

They're not dead, but sure as hell they're in my thoughts.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I lost a cousin on the 9th day of the offensive, taking a small town or something. I'm not exactly sure where, because they're not.

Yeah, we all feel it.

[TrailerParkJawa]

I'm a normal college student as far as I know. A couple of my friends got called up and are now sucking sand in Iraq.

They're not dead, but sure as hell they're in my thoughts.

Thats what is different for this Gulf War. For me the first Gulf War was my generations war. I knew many people from high school that were there.
Now, anyone there is a friend of a friend sort of thing.

[Thinkmarble]

This leads me to wonder, does the average American feel this war? Most of us go about our lives without losing a friend, without paying the taxes really required to pay for the war, no rationing, etc.

What do you think?

You will pay the taxes for this enterprise, it just will be under a different president.
Can I hear a hooray for state debt !

[Captain tycho]

My neighbor's friend's cousin was killed a few weeks ago in a gunfight in Falujah. Never met him, but said neighbor's friend is pretty upset.

[Master of Ossus]

One of the most recent KIA's was from my hometown. He even went to my HS.

[Darth Raptor]

I had two friends over there. One was injured in a mortar attack and was sent home just the other day. The other is still there. Also, a physician I see regularly was called up. Other than that, no. Unless you know people in the military, it's just news.

[Robert Treder]

Most people I know don't feel the war. Sure, every once in a while they bring back the body of some 18 year-old, and plenty more are over there waiting to be brought back in a pine box, but apart from the very few who actually know the dead guys, everybody else is just living life as usual.

I have a cousin in the Air Force who was in Qatar, but he came back all right.
Some guys I knew in high school joined the military, and it would suck if they died, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. Although I didn't personally have any problems with them, they were jerks to a lot of people. The fondest memories I have of those guys is winning ten bucks on a bet that I could rip up an American flag and eat the whole thing before English class ended.

So I'm not saying that nobody is feeling the effects of the war, but the majority of Americans aren't. I mean, there are only a few hundred thousand Americans in Iraq, and even if each of them profoundly affected 15 people, that would leave the vast majority of Americans only seeing the war as an abstraction.

[irishmick79]

my fiance's best friend Heidi is dating an Air Force mechanic who just got back from Baghdad not too long ago. He's been stationed in Delaware, and Heidi is moving from Wisconsin to Delaware so she can be with him, despite the fact that the Air Force has pretty much told him that he would soon be deployed to Baghdad again. It's really tough on my fiance, because she worries that Heidi won't have any kind of support after he gets deployed. And she's worried about how tough it would make planning for our wedding, since my fiance has made Heidi her Maid of Honor. So yeah, we're all experiencing the Iraq war, in some way or another.

[KrauserKrauser]

Mt dad decided in January to go over to Baghdad to be an accountant for the Ministry of Justice. Let's just say whenever I see the little text scrolling across the news channels I always cringe when I see the words killed and Baghdad. He better get his ass home in one piece.