During the 1960's the generation who won WWII ran the country. To them "war" meant the decisive defeat of a great evil. Therefore, we got the War On Cancer (some progress but no final victory in site), the War On Poverty (which the poor lost) and of course the War On Drugs which it is starting to look like the constitution lost.
The problem that the WWII generation didn't recognize in the 1960s when all these "wars" were started, is that in the era of nation states "wars" have typically not ended the way WWII did. More often they end in exhaustion of or bloody, indecisive stalemate - like Vietnam or Korea.
No matter how anyone feels about the legalization of drugs I think we can all agree that at very least we need a better metaphor.
By the 1960's the generation that had led the WWII campaign had been pushed aside. Indeed, they had been mostly pushed aside in the late 40's and 1950's.
While Tom Brokaw has declared my parents generation the greatest, I feel strongly that it was my grandparents generation that went unheralded and the true champions.
Look at the sacrifices my grandparents generation endured. They fought on the battlefields of WWI, watched helplessly as an estimated 675,000 Americans aged 20 to 40 died due to the flu epidemic within a matter of a few months, endured Prohibition that gave organized crime a solid footing in the USA, suffered the Great Depression while providing for their families, sent their sons and daughters off to serve and die during WWII, planned every element of the war and production necessary to win the war, and insisted on nothing less than unconditional victory.
If the generation Tom Brokaw declared the greatest is due that status, then the generation before should be declared the generation of life because they faced death like no American before or since, and fought with great determination for life. If indeed Brokaw is correct in bestowing the label greatest upon the generation he choose, someone needs to enlighten me as to the captains of industry of that generation, along with the generals and admires that delivered our WWII victories that were of my parents generation.
It was Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" that sought to fight in Korea and Vietnam to less than unconditional surrender.
Now, it's just my hunch predicated upon the history of my grandparents generation, but I believe they would be dumbfounded by the War on Drugs having lived through the crime, corruption and grief that was Prohibition. They would be most unsettled by the tens of thousands of deaths and carnage Americans have suffered due to the War on Drugs and how anyone not profiting from the failed effort could think it worthy to continue. The FBI estimates over 200,000 American youths are now in gangs affiliated with the foreign drug cartels and foreign paramilitary organizations, and their ranks are swelling.