Forty years ago, during the Vietnam War, the American public revolted at the conflict’s lack of true direction or moral imperative. The actions by those who fervently advocated for the end of a war that they considered unjust caused a dramatic change in the very nature of the American psyche. Today, we are faced with a similar revulsion towards war, but it is one based on economics rather than morality. On Saturday, The Washington Post published an article which stated that the war in Iraq “has reintroduced us to the ugliness of war.” Although this assertion has a nice sense of historical continuity and provides a hopeful prognostication about the future of U.S. foreign policy, it is nonetheless inaccurate. Our view of war is not one of ugliness, such as it was in 1975, but is instead one of habituation and economic misfortune.

In light of the economic crisis, war has become a drag on the U.S. economy and a funnel whereby valuable money is directed toward issues outside of our everyday lives. For thousands of Americans who see hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on conducting two wars and rebuilding two countries while domestic unemployment remains at roughly 9 percent and political and social trials continue on at home, war is both unnecessary and detrimental to their lives.

One could argue that the American public does have a moral objection to the war that is caused by the ability to see the war through images and news reports. Although the integration of film media sparked an unprecedented ability for the American public to connect with the struggles of our soldiers during the Vietnam War, the same medium has by now desensitized us to violence. Instead of contributing to a moral revulsion, the violent images that fill our news hours have made us unresponsive to such carnage. By being inundated with images of war, the American public has begun to view conflict as just another series of passing images that hold no real emotional impact. We see the names and images of those who have died in the service of our country, but there is a disconnect between their lives and ours, between their sacrifice and our emotional reactions.

It is this disconnect that has made stopping the war in Iraq not a moral objective but rather an economic one. This summer, the American people witnessed a political system unwilling to sacrifice or compromise in order to correct our economy. We continue to see a stagnant unemployment level and rapidly increasing inequality in the distribution of income, and we wonder why so many resources are being devoted to an issue so far away. Although our international involvement is necessary, its relevance is much more distant and therefore much less important to the general public. We can, however, make a strong emotional connection with the plight of people whom we see everyday, and with our fear of falling into the ranks of the unemployed and out-of-luck. The war in Iraq has not made fighting more morally reprehensible than it already was, but it has instead turned the conflict into a largely economic burden, one that can no longer be justified in the minds of the American population. What we have today is not the strong public moral objection to war so prevalent in the 1970s, but an objection based in our desires for material improvement.

Although our current revulsion towards war is a contributing factor in driving the administration towards pulling out of Iraq, it is nonetheless based in economics and therefore can change as quickly as the prospects for our material future. The war in Iraq has not created a permanent taboo towards aggression, just as the moral objections towards the Vietnam War did not forge one. War is horrible, but it is in the nature of men and nations to forget this truth in light of concerns that arise in the moment and drive us towards a similar end. We are creatures driven by both reason and emotion, but in times of great emotion, our reason can be overthrown.