I see where the Associated Press conducted a confidential survey of 2,253 college students and found some of them feeling a lot of stress because of spring break -- many can't afford to go to the beaches, and some are out of shape and not sufficiently tanned. And then there's the whole business of grades and finding a job and falling in love; some college students reported feeling too frazzled to sleep.
Some don't eat, or eat too much. Many feel lonely, depressed or anxious.
I'm sure some freak when they can't get decent cell service, too.
Life is rough for the 20-somethings of America. What kind of world have we baby boomers left our children?
It did not appear in AP's report of the survey, so I'm going to imagine that this question was not posed:
"Do you worry that your legs or arms might be blown off by an IED?"
Or this one: "Have you experienced any nightmares because of all the carnage you saw during your tour of duty?"
Or this: "Do you feel that mainstream American society does not appreciate your service and sacrifice in Iraq?"
Of course, I'm being ridiculous. These questions would have been irrelevant to most college students.
We do not have a draft, and recruiters in the age of the all-volunteer military target a certain segment of our society. Only a small segment steps forward to serve -- and it's not, by and large, the educated and affluent segment. The elites have sat this one out.
So, little wonder the kids on college campuses might be more stressed over the prospect of spring break than the prospect of 18 months in Basra.
The fifth anniversary of the Bush administration's war in Iraq falls upon us, ironically, during spring break 2008, just as the launch of the war did in 2003.
This long and bankrupting war might have disrupted the lives of thousands of Americans in active or reserve military duty, ordered to multiple tours. But it didn't really cause a blip among the college kids or their families; neither George Bush nor the Congress has even considered inconveniencing the middle and upper classes. Mention the draft to most Americans -- the idea that no war should be undertaken by this nation without shared sacrifice -- and they think you're nuts.
My kid? The military? Are you crazy?
And many of those who respond this way voted for George Bush -- twice.
On the last day of 2007, Stuart Aiken's son, Army Lt. Andrew B. Aiken (West Point 2005), returned home to Maryland after a 15-month deployment in Baghdad.
"He was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts in November 2007," his father tells me. "All's well, and this summer he should be promoted to captain.
"I still concern myself with all of the other young men and women who remain in harm's way, though, truly, there is nothing more noble than to protect and defend the United States of America. However, it still seems that there are too few [Americans] performing this sworn duty for our nation."
They're not even being asked to.
Last January, in a televised interview, Jim Lehrer asked Bush an on-target question:
"Why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and 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." "Well, you know," Bush said, "I think a lot of people are in this fight. They sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV each night."
Earlier, in August 2006, Bush had said that the Iraq war is "straining the psyche of our country."
Strain?
Again, it was hard to tell what country Bush was speaking of -- the one that sacrifices through military service in Iraq, or the one affronted by such a concept; the one that sees Anbar through the windows of a Humvee, or the one that sees the Beltway through the windows of a Humvee.
I've said it before: We have a great divide in this country very few even talk about -- the one between the military culture and the civilian culture. It has never been more pronounced than during the past five years of our history, and it might be wider now than the gap in race or gender.
No president or presidential candidate has the nerve to discuss it.
So wide is this divide -- primarily because of the lack of a draft since 1973 -- that we don't even hear of protests on college campuses.
During the Vietnam era, universities were a hotbed of anti-war activity and students played a major role in speeding up the end of the war -- in part because, had the war had gone on, their college deferments would have expired. (For a fair and egalitarian draft to be reinstituted today, it would have to be done with no lame deferments or exemptions.)
There are other aspects of the war that should have inspired college students to raise hell.
But there's barely a peep of concern over the estimates of civilian Iraqi deaths -- placed in the hundreds of thousands by two Bloomberg School surveys and analyses.
And then there's the cost to the nation -- put in the trillions by some experts, a bill we'll be paying for years to come.
If college students are stressed and worried, you'd think it would have been over those things. Then again, if their parents haven't lost sleep over this war, why should they?