THE FORGOTTEN WAR

I was watching the news this morning and was struck by an extremely important segment on Morning Joe. I was struck by it because the topic has become unfortunately scarce in the discussions of Americans. I read and watch stories about the election, the economy, abortion and rape, global warming, Syria, and whatnot. All of these are important issues, but how many in this country realize we’re still at war? Not just that, but we’re still in the midst of the longest war in this country’s history. Is everybody still aware that people are fighting and dying in Afghanistan?

I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college in the middle of an organic chemistry class on September 11, 2001 when the attacks happened. There are people fighting this war now who were seven years old and starting 2^nd grade, just learning how to add and subtract three digit numbers on September 11^th. They were too young, probably, to truly even understand the magnitude of what was happening in real time, too young for it to have been a JFK moment for them.

I’m not writing about this subject in the usual bleeding-heart, support the troops sort of way. This may be hard for some people to read, but today, going into the military is still a choice in America. It’s an honorable choice, but a choice all the same. Soldiers go to war, it’s what they do.  As the saying goes, there’s a time for war and a time for peace, but I don’t believe in hero worship. It’s duty that sends soldiers to war. It’s hero worship that perpetuates war and keeps them there.

The troops deserve everything promised to them and it’s saddens me that our country often fails the people who risk their lives for us. Politicians sicken me when they offer speeches that preach “support our heroes” and then turn around and vote to cut VA benefits. It’s all empty rhetoric and the people who sacrifice the most for this country are the ones most hurt by it.

This country deserves to know why we’re still at war after almost 11 years. Our troops deserve to know why they’re fighting a war that our citizenry has all but forgotten. Almost 11 years of war in Afghanistan, over 2000 soldiers dead, and billions of dollars spent. Why are we still there? We deserve to know why we continue to spend billions of dollars and sacrifice lives in a war in which, according to Barack Obama, we have largely achieved our goals.

We deserve to know why, but instead the American people are satisfied with ignorance.

It’s hero worship that has allowed perpetual war. It’s hero worship that has created a society that won’t question unfettered military spending, while at the same time allowing cuts to veterans benefits. War isn’t something that we should glorify. It’s something that should be accepted as an unfortunate and rare necessity. But the glorification of war has created a society of people willing to avert their eyes when we continue to fight long after the war has become unnecessary. And this allows politicians to send other peoples’ children off to war without question.

We’ve fallen prey to the very thing General Eisenhower warned us against, except he had it right in the primary draft of his speech: the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex. We go to war, contracts go to private companies, and congress people bring home the bacon to their states. There’s too much money to be made on war. For every soldier on the field there are hundreds out there in support positions within these private companies that profit from war.

The end result of hero worship plus greed is a country far too willing to fight. War should be seen as a last resort, not an opportunity to turn a profit. Couple private financial interest with American apathy and ignorance and this is what we get—the longest war in American history that has since become an afterthought in our minds.