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Thursday, July 18th, 2019

Most Veterans Say America’s Wars Are a Waste. No One’s Listening to Them.

Author:     ADAM WEINSTEIN
Source:     The New Republic
Publication Date:     July 12, 2019
 Link: Most Veterans Say America’s Wars Are a Waste. No One’s Listening to Them.
Stephan:   When I was a young enlisted corpsman in the Army, it was clear to me that the Viet Nam War was the result of stupidity, ideology, and greed, and that young men and women on both sides, as well as untold numbers of Vietnamese civilians, were being asked to put their lives on the line in service to that incompetence. Now, in an age of endless war, it has become clear that the modern-day veterans see matters much the same. Here is a report on this issue.

A group of American veterans
Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty

In spite of his confused account of U.S. history, his partisan snipes, and his dictatorial posturing, Donald Trump’s parading and speechifying in Washington on July 4 attempted to glom onto one of the last consensus issues in a broken American culture: We love to support our troops. “We celebrate our history, our people, and the heroes who proudly defend our flag—the brave men and women of the United States military,” Trump told a crowd of mostly VIPs at the Lincoln Memorial.

The “Long War” that began on September 11, 2001, added to veterans’ already-outsize role in the American narrative. Worship of military service has become an indispensable cog in every politician’s and corporation’s endearment strategy. But on the actual subject of war, almost no one in mainstream politics is actually listening to “the troops.”

That’s the main takeaway from the Pew Research Center’s latest rolling poll of U.S. veterans, published Thursday, in which solid majorities of former troops said the wars in […]

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3 Comments

  1. mary cummings on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 9:02 am

    Tulsi Gabard is a presidential candidate who truly understands the cost of regime change wars. She talks about it everywhere she goes.

  2. Eric on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 2:39 pm

    As long as there is US-based weapon manufacturers there will be wars. Who else are we going to test the armaments out on?

  3. Rev. Dean on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 7:50 pm

    Votevets.org and VIDOL (Veterans in Defense of Liberty) are both groups of veterans who are trying to make a change to a more democratic form of government and are both against Trump and his followers. I am one of those veterans myself, who believe the wars are all stupid and unnecessary.