War Fatigue

Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
--Don Henley

Governments wanting to engage in war with foreign entities must win consent of the citizenry to do so. If they view the war as illegitimate, the people have capacity to shut the war down via several avenues, including voting officials out of office, withholding funds for military resources, or even overthrowing the regime prosecuting illegitimate war.

Consequently, governments must convince people that their war is just. They must do so at the outset of the conflict, and then continue to do so. Because war requires ongoing sacrifice in order to fund the war effort, it is possible that enthusiasm for war will wane as people increasingly regret what they must forfeit as conflict drags on.

It appears that support for US involvement in the Ukraine conflict is already waning. Surveys suggest that the American public is increasingly wary of US efforts to harm Russia in manners that hurt the domestic economy.

That, of course, is precisely what sanctions do. Any effort to restrict production and trade with entities abroad damages standard of living at home.

As more Americans realize that sanctions are not unilateral, this administration loses its public grant of legitimacy for engaging the country in war.