Photo by Stijn Swinnen on Unsplash
Being born in the year 2000 gives me an interesting, warped perspective on U.S. foreign occupancy and the concept of “war” in general.
Without a doubt, both the World Wars and the Vietnam War seem like some of the most hellish, gut-wrenching low points in human history. It’s really hard to overstate how disturbing it was learning about the conditions of these conflicts. Operation Wandering Soul was infamously used by the U.S. as a tactic of psychological warfare; content warning, listening to the “ghost tapes” can be genuinely disturbing. If you’ve got the time, here’s a captivating clip of a Vietnam vet recounting his experience oversees, and specifically how it differed from the narrative Americans were being fed back home:
In my mind, it’s quite understandable that such conflicts were met with passionate anti-war movements. When I look around now, however, there’s nearly no discussion of the concept. How did we get here? Where did all that intensity go?
My most immediate guess: there’s no draft. The “lottery” system was always far from popular, primarily because it brought the messiness of war to the doorstep of every average American and their son. When an issue starts to personally affect people (especially Americans), that’s when they tend to start paying attention.
Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash
Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, folks around 20 and younger have essentially only existed in a world where, for some reason, the U.S. has simply always had a presence in the Middle East. Perhaps at the turn of the century, the “War on Terror” might’ve held more water for the American public – 20 years later, I doubt many of us are still sure what exactly we’re doing over there, and I’m not sure my generation ever had a clue! If we were there to kill Bin Laden and “help out” the locals, it seems like we’ve rather overstayed our welcome. On the other hand, if there was an escalation in conflicts with North Korea, for example, it would dominate the news for as long as it could. Headlines can’t remain shiny and novel forever, though, and eventually, the public becomes numb to old talking points (especially with so many other pressing issues to address).
As a final, slightly unrelated note: I had a bit of a shift in heart researching this post. I wouldn’t say I was anti-military before, but I did tend to conflate the will of government elites with the that of a soldier just doing what they’re told. It’s a complicated topic with a lot of nuanced questions, but I walked away from the various veterans’ accounts with a much deeper understanding of the kind of support we could (and should) be providing them with, both from the government and as citizens. Of all sources, LADbible has a pretty stellar conversation between veterans on their YouTube channel. It gave me considerable pause for reflection:
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