Sacrificing Our Peace of Mind

From The Wall Street Journal's Morning Brief, a snippet of conversation between PBS anchor Jim Lehrer and the President on the meaning of sacrifice:

Later, Mr. Lehrer asked the president if Iraq is indeed part of a struggle for the future of America, "why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something? The people who are now sacrificing are, you know, the volunteer military - the Army and the U.S. Marines and their families. They're the only people who are actually sacrificing anything at this point."

President Bush: "Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night. I mean, we've got a fantastic economy here in the United States, but yet, when you think about the psychology of the country, it is somewhat down because of this war. Now, here in Washington when I say, 'What do you mean by that?,' they say, 'Well, why don't you raise their taxes; that'll cause there to be a sacrifice.' I strongly oppose that. If that's the kind of sacrifice people are talking about, I'm not for it because raising taxes will hurt this growing economy. And one thing we want during this war on terror is for people to feel like their life's moving on, that they're able to make a living and send their kids to college and put more money on the table."

This is the thinking of a man born with silver spoon in his mouth and handed job after job for which he wasn't qualified and, at least until this moment, bailed out of trouble every time he screwed up. Sacrifice involves having a troubled peace of mind from watching the news; but real sacrifice would involve paying higher taxes.