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| The only good vet is an anti-war vet. |
In 2002 I was finishing 9th grade, yet I remember the war hysteria. The Bush Administration, and the mass majority of media outlets, whipping the populace into a fervor for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. George W. Bush said, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” I didn't attend any anti-war protest, but I agreed that the war was an injustice, a grave error. These protesters were smeared as naive fools, as cowards, and as anti-American. They were accused of seeking some underhanded benefit, even though the accusers were the ones seeking to bolster their careers as yes men for the White House and foreign policy establishment. With the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 behind us, and the fall of America's Afghanistan to the Taliban, one has to question the judgment of those who believed Bush, Obama, and Trump. The United States injured and displaced millions, left at least five hundred thousand (but possibly as many as a million) dead, and wasted trillions in cash, mostly by handing it to armament companies.
Millions domestically and internationally knew the wars were cruel, knew they were ineffective, knew they were wrong. But millions more signed up to prosecute them, as executioners of innocent civilians.
The most altruistic reason advanced is that they honestly believed Bush. Maybe they still do. A bit of PR by the White House, Operation Iraqi Freedom, convinced the majority of Americans of Bush's noble intentions. He wanted to secure the civil rights of the civilians of Afghanistan and Iraq. Disillusioned veterans may defend themselves in this manner. “I was only trying to help. But Bush lied.” In this way they admit that they were persuaded by the propaganda. Many millions recognized the deception. Should the public entrust public office to those who believed transparently fabricated evidence? Of course not!
Others joined the military because of their patriotic duty. Those people insist that no one can question the Commander in Chief. When the President says jump, these willing sycophants say, “How high?” Such toadying followers are unworthy of leadership. They always follow the orders of someone else. Maybe they are hardcore nationalists, that believe any evil committed in the service of the god country is excusable.
Maybe the veterans of the War on Terror intended to improve the world. They witnessed the suffering of the United States, of its civilians, and thought, “How can I make the world a better place?” They didn't open up a food bank or demand the United States reduce its illegal stockpile of nukes to halt nuclear proliferation. Instead they said, “The agony of the people can only be ameliorated by more violence.” Veterans, who saw force as the first solution, shouldn't be worthy of conducting the policy of the United States. Given a similar situation, these men and women will make the same deliberation and enact the same policy; vengeance, destruction, death.
Except when they don't. In the previous article I mentioned six Democratic candidates. One stands apart. Mike Gravel, the only veteran who joined under compulsion of the draft, clearly and emotionally repudiated military action. He called out the vileness of those who prosecuted the War on Terror. He demanded they face justice. This is the only type of veteran worth voting for.
Like Ojeda, some veterans choose military service because it is a reliable employer, or because it pays for college tuition. But the US government pays starvation wages to its soldiers. It seeks the gullible, the desperate, and the relentlessly patriotic to fill its ranks. It relentlessly preys upon young teenagers, promising them that military service is like popular video games; Call of Duty or Apex Legends.
In the initial chaos of the rush to war the early enlistees can claim nominal excuses; the confusion, the noise, propaganda. They were deceived, but they can't believe their government lied to them. Should the emphasis be on “lied” or “them”? Later enlistees don't deserve this
Very early in the conflict soldiers returned with a common story; the “rebuilding” of Iraq and Afghanistan was doomed. Leaks from generals revealed an unwinnable war, as they publicly spun stories of just another year or two until the American Afghan government could stand on its own. Obama knew the war was lost in 2008, but it continued for another thirteen years, refusing to admit defeat. He knew he'd be blamed by the weapons manufacturers and military officials who dominate the national media. Biden's popularity is still suffering because the merchants of death slandered his withdrawal on every news channel. Yet, he wants to pass the third largest defense budget in the history of the USA.
Though George W. Bush originally messaged the War on Terror as a defensive conflict to protect the United States it lost this spurious shine as the invasion revealed the true horror. Iraq held no weapons of mass destruction. The war in Afghanistan was one of vengeance and retribution, eye for an eye, blood for blood. It was not defensive because there was no imminent threat of another attack.
Those who joined later fought in an unwinnable war. They should have recognized the deceptions perpetrated by the United States. It lied about the eventual viability of the American Afghan government. They exercised poor judgment by enlisting in a war that was no longer just. The War on Terror was unjust at the beginning and became less justified as it spread like a cancer, eating away at the Middle East and the body politic of the United States.
The United States must also admit that a portion of its populace enlists for the worst reasons. Like the United States they embarked on a power trip, glad to enforce their will on foreigners they despised. In August of 2021, Ian Cameron, a former marine officer published his story in The Washington Post (Reprinted in The Week). In describing his job overseeing airstrikes from his base he says, “I killed men for the next eight hours. In nine months, I directed more than 250 airstrikes resulting in 304 Taliban members killed and 54 wounded.” In 270 days he killed 304 people. That's more than one a day. In any reasonable society this man would be considered a mass murderer, a psychopath, a man demented by his actions. He skirts the topic of civilians he killed, distancing himself with a vague handwave about a “gradual tightening in the stomach,” when he murdered a child. He isn't running for office yet, but I'm certain he feels that he has earned a commendation from Uncle Sam for doing his duty. The government is a butcher, and the soldiers who blindlessly, or with eyes open, enlisted into the bloody, foul business, are its multitude of arms. Do not let these people lead the United States, because they will follow their favorite smell into the slaughterhouse of warfare.
I doubt the judgment of people that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were fooled by the propaganda of their government, destabilized countries by the order of the government, interested in their own material gains to the detriment of foreigners, predisposed to force, and unwilling to challenge the status quo.
The media loves veterans for a reason. Powerful, wealthy pundits, politicians, CEOs, and media execs love the status quo. It preserves their power, of the power of their family as they pass on their assets, companies, and connections to their children. The War on Terror was the status quo for the military-industrial complex, the foreign policy complex, and the idea of the United States as the sole global power able to exert itself anywhere, anytime to do whatever it wanted. Veterans accepted this story. So powerful donors line up to fund their House or Senate run.
And the American people, convinced by misguided intent, worship toughness; the ability to persevere through pain, to exert strength, but also to fight, harm others, and favor violence over diplomacy. Americans have been convinced that the good qualities of toughness (being able to withstand adverse conditions) are complemented by the perverse (the ability to derive pleasure from the pain of the self and of others). As long as America insists on harming others with preemptive or vengeful wars it can never be the home of the brave.
But while veterans should be discredited by their choices, those who deserve our singular anger are those who lied to the public, those who propagandized for war, those who ordered atrocities, and those who escaped justice because of their political power. They abused the enlistees who joined because they thought the United States was a nation worth defending. But the United States cares as little for its soldiers as it does for its veterans. It abuses them while they serve, and then abandons them after they complete their term.
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