The United States, 1965: college students all over the country banded together in protest. They stormed city streets and demanded an end to the Vietnam War. As the war progressed into the 1970s, their efforts only grew in strength. They watched their relatives, friends and fellow students die on television. Images of the war, including its casualties, filled newspapers. The draft was in full effect. The war was on everyone’s mind.

Now pan to the past decade. The country has been engaged in two separate wars each spanning the majority of the decade. Thousands have been killed in combat, including civilians, and it hasn’t been cheap. While these wars didn’t cause the financial crisis, adding trillions of dollars to the national deficit certainly didn’t help the situation.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly caused their fair share of problems for the United States. But does anyone care?

Compared to the Vietnam era, today’s American public may as well have been asleep for the past 10 years. The wars were simply something you heard about every now and again – a quick side note on the nightly news. Images of the wars included shots of the desert and troops moving around. Rarely were any images of combat actually shown.

The troops themselves were thought of on a number of patriotic holidays throughout the year; but on a typical day they did not occupy the thoughts of their peers at home.

The American public was going about its daily business as if there was no war at all. The lack of images made the wars cease to exist in most people’s minds. To many people, they were nothing more than a reason for high gas prices.

And now there is a possibility of intervention in Syria. Once again, a government is slaughtering its own people. As usual, the rest of the world just throws up its hands and says “Well, I don’t know.” The United Nations dilly-dallies and proposes peace-talks to no avail until finally, as we have seen, everyone looks to the US.

It’s for good reason. The US has always stood for defending the weak and the oppressed and opposing the corrupt. The US has made somewhat of a habit out of protecting those outside of our borders who cannot protect themselves.

Even within its borders, the US population has adopted the mentality of this global role. But outside of historical references, this generation of young people has not actually seen the reality of war. It’s easy to demand intervention in Syria when the biggest trials you have to deal with are paying rent and passing your classes.

The lack of proximity to the two most recent conflicts in the Middle East has made the American public numb to harsh realities of war. The detachment makes it easy to send our troops around the world to promote “freedom.” The fact that each pair of boots is filled with a young adult is too commonly forgotten.

It is becoming much too easy for the government to wage war. As citizens, we have a basic responsibility to ask questions – to keep the government accountable and protect our interests and values.

The Vietnam era was a terrible period in US history. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives overseas, civilians were often caught in the crossfire and in the end, not much had changed.

However, it was also an enlightened period. The American public was exposed to the realities of war in such a way that provoked men and women of all ages to take action against it.

There has not been war coverage like this since Vietnam. Today, war is processed and sold as glossy images of clean battlefields, smiling troops and American flags. War is never front-page news. Not only is this not right, but it’s deceptive.

So do yourself and your country a favor: ask questions.