8 votes

War without end - The Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another

Posted by dubteedub
Tags: war, usa, afghanistan, iraq, military, afghanistan war, iraq war, soldiers, pentagon, warfare, policy.defence, author.c j chivers, long read, paywall.soft
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/magazine/war-afghanistan-iraq-soldiers.html

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Title
War Without End
Published
Aug 8 2018
Word count
11 182 words

2 comments

  1. [2]
    dubteedub
    Link
    This is a long read, but a good one. It tells a story of the United State's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the late 2000's through the lens of US Army Specialist Robert Soto on his...

    This is a long read, but a good one. It tells a story of the United State's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the late 2000's through the lens of US Army Specialist Robert Soto on his deployment to a remote outpost in Afghanistan.

    I find it pretty distributing how disconnected we are as citizens of the United States from the on-going wars in the Middle East that we have been involved in for the last 17 years. As pointed out in the story, a child born after the attack on September 11th, 2001 can now enlist in our military to fight the war created as a response to those attacks.

    2 votes
    1. 39hp
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      It's just Vietnam again. Also, I don't think it's a disconnect so much as it is acquiescence. Some number of us are just going to go and die in Afghanistan and Iraq forever so that the ones who...

      “Don’t let your people be the last soldiers killed in this war.”

      It's just Vietnam again.

      Also, I don't think it's a disconnect so much as it is acquiescence. Some number of us are just going to go and die in Afghanistan and Iraq forever so that the ones who have already died won't have, "died for nothing."

      He tread as if a balance might exist between respecting the sacrifice and pain of others and speaking forthrightly about the fatal misjudgments of those who managed America’s wars. “I try to be respectful; I don’t want to say that people died for nothing,” he said. “I could never make the families who lost someone think their loved one died in vain.”

      I think we need to admit that we let people die in a war for a mistake -- again, and that we dragged the world into this mistake and made their people die too. I feel like we just keep running from that admission, and the longer we run the bloodier the mistake becomes -- and the harder it becomes to admit it.

      Edit: Didn't know about this website until today that tracks casualties in Afghanistan. (I cross referenced some of the names to make sure it was legit.) Three Czechs died four days ago and I never heard about it. Another American died last month, three in total this year. I think I'm right when I say we as a country, and to some extent other countries as well, have just acquiesced to sending people to die in Afghanistan. Nobody cares.

      1 vote