Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SUN EDITORIAL:

Lack of shared sacrifice

Too many Americans are indifferent to the burden troops, families carry

For nearly a decade, America has been engaged in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the overall fight against terrorism. The cost of the wars has been immense. More than 5,800 Americans have been killed, and more than 32,000 have been wounded. Hundreds of thousands of troops have been deployed overseas, and the country has spent more than $1 trillion.

Yet for many Americans, the war is far removed from their lives. In a speech in November, Marine Lt. Gen. John Kelly argued that relatively few people bear the burden of waging the war, noting that less than 1 percent of the population serves in the military.

“It is a fact that our country today is in a life-and-death struggle against an evil enemy, but America as a whole is certainly not at war,” he said. “Not as a country. Not as a people. Today, only a tiny fraction — less than a percent — shoulder the burden of fear and sacrifice, and they shoulder it for the rest of us.”

Kelly, who was recently nominated to be Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ senior military aide, knows the burden of the sacrifice quite well. He and his two sons, both Marine officers, have served in combat. The Washington Post reported recently that Kelly’s speech came four days after his younger son, Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan.

Kelly has said he didn’t want to make his son’s death bigger than the sacrifice of others and didn’t tell the audience about it in his speech. But Kelly expressed frustration about the indifference that he says many people have shown toward the troops and the war effort.

“As a democracy — ‘We the People’ — and that by definition is every one of us, sent them away from home and hearth to fight our enemies,” he said. “We are all responsible.”

Kelly is correct. America has waged these recent wars without a widespread sense of sacrifice or responsibility. Former President George W. Bush sent the troops but never asked Americans to make any sacrifice, as previous generations made during times of war. There hasn’t been a draft nor has there been a tax or levy to pay for the war. Instead, the war has been fought with volunteers and paid for on credit — a debt that future generations will have to pay.

Pentagon leaders have expressed concern over what they see as a growing disconnect between the military and the public. In January, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted the small fraction of people involved in the military and the consolidation of bases in America that has left fewer communities with direct ties to the military. That leaves people out of touch with the reality of the wars.

“I worry that we could wake up one day and that the American people will no longer know us, and we won’t know them,” Mullen wrote on a Pentagon website.

The comments of Kelly and Mullen should be a wake-up call for Americans. Kelly said the fight against terrorism will last years, if not decades, and Americans need to realize this is the nation’s war.

Americans need to be engaged, whether they support or oppose the country’s policies. At the least, people should be informed, find ways to support the troops and make sure their views are represented in Congress. Too many soldiers and families have sacrificed heavily to protect the nation and fight terrorism. Americans can’t let them bear that sacrifice alone.

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