WAR ECONOMY: Growing Number of Vets View Iraq/Afghanistan as MISTAKES

by Robert L. Hanafin

My apologies if someone beat me to the punch on posting this latest Pew Research Poll showing that 1 out of 3 Post-911 Veterans now view Iraq & Afghanistan as MISTAKES and a WASTE OF MONEY AND LIVES.

The ratio appears to only differ slightly from how a growing number of civilians are now able to connect the dots between over a trillion dollars wasted on wars and the melt down of the US Economy and growing UNEMPLOYMENT.

ROBERT L. HANAFIN, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, U.S. Civil Service-Retired, Veterans Issues Editor, VT News

Poll: 1 in 3 vets sees Iraq, Afghan wars as wastes

By ROBERT BURNS – AP National Security Writer 

One in three U.S. veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think that after 10 years of combat America should be focusing less on foreign affairs and more on its own problems, according to an opinion survey released last Wednesday.

The findings highlight a dilemma for the Obama administration and Congress as they struggle to shrink the government’s huge budget deficits and reconsider defense priorities while trying to keep public support for remaining involved in Iraq and Afghanistan for the longer term.

Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops have died in Iraq and about 1,700 in Afghanistan. Combined war costs since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have topped $1 trillion.

I believe it has been recognized that the U.S. Economy remains a Casualty of War since at least 17 July 2005 that’s over six years ago. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan already cost U.S. taxpayers, directly or indirectly on loan, $314 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projected additional expenses of perhaps $450 billion by 2015. That could make the combined campaigns, especially the war in Iraq, the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years, causing even some conservative experts to criticize the open-ended commitment to an elusive goal.

The concern is that the soaring costs, given little weight before now, could play a growing role in U.S. strategic decisions because of the fiscal impact. Before Osama bin Laden was assassinated, Michael Scheuer, a former counter-terrorism official at the CIA who led the pursuit of bin Laden and retired in 2005 after writing two books critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations said that:  “Osama (bin Laden) doesn’t have to win; he will just bleed us to death. Bin Laden was…well on his way to doing [that]” six years before his death.

The current poll results presented by the Pew Research Center portray post-9/11 veterans as proud of their work, scarred by warfare and convinced that the American public has little understanding of the problems that wartime service has created for military members and their families.

The survey also showed that post-9/11 veterans are more likely than Americans as a whole to disapprove of President Barack Obama’s performance as commander in chief. They also are more likely than earlier generations of veterans to have no religious affiliation.

I believe it is questionable how this, or any other poll, determined how Post 911 Vets call themselves Republicans. Simple criticism of Obama continuing the Pentagon policies of George W. Bush does not mean younger Vets are registered Republicans. In fact, as the homecoming experience of our Viet Nam War generation reflects the vast number of Vets returning from Viet Nam were if anything apolitical not trusting in either religion or any political party.

I believe political awareness or even caring and paying attention came as our generation aged. Yes, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans groups who have formed since 911 tend to be more politically minded than past generations, however playing politics crosses ideological positions. However, I do believe that our military officer corps tends to be more conservative than the NCO, and especially the lower enlisted. That said, it is difficult to ascertain the political affiliation or leanings of our NCOs or lower enlisted due to Hatch Act, and privacy issues.

Our military tends to also be overall a conservative leaning institution by necessity but that does not mean Vets of any generation are going to immediately be politically active once they are no longer under control of the Pentagon. I still believe that the political activism or action of younger Vets will be more a factor of age and maturity rather than their veteran status.

The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan organization that studies attitudes and trends, called the study the first of its kind. The results were based on two surveys conducted between late July and mid-September. One polled 1,853 veterans, including 712 who had served in the military after 9/11 but are no longer on active duty. Of the 712 post-9/11 veterans, 336 served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The other polled 2,003 adults who had not served in the military.

Nearly half of post-9/11 veterans said [multiple] deployments strained their relationship with their spouses, and a similar share reported problems with their children. On the other hand, 60 percent said they and their families benefited financially from having served abroad in a combat zone. Asked for a single word to describe their experiences, the war veterans offered a mixed picture: “rewarding,” ”nightmare,” ”eye opening,” ”lousy” according to the Pew Research.

There are about 98,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, where the conflict began with a U.S.-led invasion on Oct. 7, 2001. Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 on getting out of Iraq and curtailing the military campaign in Afghanistan. He is on track to have all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of this year, and in July he announced that he would pull 10,000 troops out of Afghanistan this year and 23,000 more by next September.

I believe that with the exception of young Vet groups like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) that fielded primarily Democrat candidates (via their PAC VoteVets) has until recently had closer ties with the Democrat Party.

IAVA took point in endorsing the Obama buildup in Afghanistan while Peace Vets and Military Families that were part of the liberal base of the Democrat Party cautiously criticized any escalation in Afghanistan.

Once realization set in that love ones would simply end up deploying from one war zone to another  the focus of opposition and questioning shifted away from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Despite US troops continuing to deploy to Iraq. We at VT believe that unless Obama does something significant like pulling most US troops out of Afghanistan now, Obama can write off much of the liberal base of the Democrat party. The same reasons the Democrats lost Congress will return to haunt Obama in 2012 as those opposed to wasting more money on Iraq and Afghanistan sit the 2012 election out.

The Pew survey found that veterans are ambivalent about the net value of the wars, although they generally were more positive about Afghanistan, which has been a more protracted but less deadly conflict for U.S. forces. One-third of post-9/11 veterans said neither war was worth the sacrifices; that was the view of 45 percent in the separate poll of members of the general public.

Fifty percent of veterans said Afghanistan was worth it, whereas the poll of civilians put it at 41 percent. Among veterans, 44 percent said Iraq was worth it. That compares with 36 percent in the poll of civilians.

Of the surveyed former service members who were seriously wounded or knew someone who was killed or seriously wounded, 48 percent said the war in Iraq was worth fighting, compared with 36 percent of those veterans who had no personal exposure to casualties.

Exposure to casualties had an even larger impact on attitudes toward the war in Afghanistan. Fifty-five percent of those exposed to casualties said Afghanistan has been worth the cost to the U.S., whereas 40 percent of those who were not exposed to casualties held that same view.

The Pew survey results found “isolationist inclinations” among post-9/11 war veterans. About 6-in-10 said the United States should pay less attention to problems overseas and instead concentrate on problems at home. In a Pew survey conducted earlier this year, a similar share of the general public agreed.

The survey also reflected what many view as a troublesome cultural gap between the military and the general public. Although numerous polls have shown that Americans hold the military in high regard, the respondents in the Pew research acknowledged a lack of understanding of what military life entails.

I believe it is this very cultural gap created by the All Volunteer Force that has given not only children of the elite, but upper and lower middle class American youth in general a get out of the wars free card simply by choosing to not volunteer.

Using the same VOLUNTEERS over and over and over is not holding our military in high regard but patronizing and exploiting those who VOLUNTEER for multiple deployments. In the future, if the number of VOLUNTEERS shrink to the point where the draft would be given serious consideration the cultural gap between those who refuse to serve and those who volunteer to defend those who refuse to serve will widen to the point that our All Volunteer Force will be permanently broken and isolated from the rest of American society even more than they have been.

Only 27 percent of adult civilians said the public understands the problems facing those in uniform, and the share of veterans who said so is even lower — 21 percent.

I think the wrong question is being asked. What percentage of adult civilians really have a desire to relate to, let alone understand, those who volunteer for military service.

What is most important is finding out the real reasons why the American public does not understand the problems facing those in uniform.

RELATED MEDIA COVERAGE

Robert L. Hanafin

Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.

My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.

I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.

I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.