Brett and Kate McKay at the Art of Manliness blog ask, What happened to wartime sacrifice?

Of all the manly virtues, sacrifice can arguably be said to be the greatest. Yet today it is also the virtue in shortest supply. Where men once saw great honor in being asked to sacrifice for a worthy cause, today they spend their time thinking how they might obtain something for nothing. Nowhere is this more manifest than in the sacrifice related to war.

One of the most interesting things in the post is the reference to the wartime sacrifice during World War II. Five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the U.S. and asked it to prepare for the grueling months ahead:

Here at home everyone will have the privilege of making whatever self-denial is necessary, not only to supply our fighting men, but to keep the economic structure of our country fortified and secure during the war and after the war.

This will require, of course, the abandonment not only of luxuries but of many other creature comforts…

Every loyal American is aware of his individual responsibility. Whenever I hear anyone saying, “The American people are complacent-they need to be aroused,” I feel like asking him to come to Washington to read the mail…The one question that recurs through all these thousands of letters and messages is, “What more can I do to help my country in winning this war?”…

Yesterday I submitted to the Congress of the United States a seven-point program, a program of general principles…

• First, we must, through heavier taxes, keep personal and corporate profits at a low reasonable rate.
• Second, we must fix ceilings on prices and rents.
• Third, we must stabilize wages.
• Fourth, we must stabilize farm prices.
• Fifth, we must put more billions into war bonds.
• Sixth, we must ration all essential commodities which are scarce…
• And seventh, we must discourage installment buying, and encourage paying off debts and mortgages.

The blunt fact is that every single person in the United States is going to be affected by this program. … Are you a businessman, or do you own stock in a business corporation? Well, your profits are going to be cut down to a reasonably low level by taxation. Your income will be subject to higher taxes. Indeed in these days, when every available dollar should go to the war effort, I do not think that any American citizen should have a net income in excess of $25,000 per year after payment of taxes.

All of us are used to spending money for things that we want, things, however, which are not absolutely essential. We will all have to forgo that kind of spending. Because we must put every dime and every dollar we can possibly spare out of our earnings into war bonds and stamps….

As I told the Congress yesterday, “sacrifice” is not exactly the proper word with which to describe this program of self-denial. When, at the end of this great struggle, we shall have saved our free way of life, we shall have made no “sacrifice.”

The price for civilization must be paid in hard work and sorrow and blood.

The article asks why the difference between WWII and the War on Terror (which includes Afghanistan, Iraq and the Homeland Security effort). It also explains why sacrifice is necessary during wartime and lists specific ones that should be undertaken today. Read the full article here.