December 30
A U.S. soldier is shown in this April 2014 file photo walking next to the razor wire-topped fence at the abandoned “Camp X-Ray” detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. AFP PHOTO/MLADEN ANTONOVMLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images
The Atlantic magazine has unveiled a new cover story bluntly titled “The Tragedy of the American Military.” Written by James Fallows, it explores the problems and culture of the U.S. military after more than 13 years of war, and what it might take to fix them.
In particular, Fallows targets the “chickenhawk nation” that has sent its troops into combat without clear strategies, weapons acquisition programs that are expensive and politically connected, and an American public that is largely disconnected from the wars. Fallows also reports on the findings of a commission that President Obama requested in 2011 to examine how the Pentagon could best be reformed.
The commission, headed by former Sen. Gary Hart (D.-Colo.), made a series of recommendations that will be familiar to those following defense policy in Washington. It sought the creation of another panel to assess the lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, a separate effort to determine how the decision-making process for the use of military force should work in the future, and for the president himself to help bridge the gap between those who have served and the rest of American society.
“Barack Obama, busy on other fronts, had no time for this,” wrote Fallows, who served in the Carter administration. “The rest of us should make time, if we hope to choose our wars more wisely, and win them.”
The piece has created buzz on social media, in part because of the senior officials and famous academics quoted in it. But it’s the latest in a long line of journalism this year that grapples with how the military should reassess and reinvent itself following wars that have cost billions of dollars and thousands of American lives, without many clear victories.
In one recent example, the Military Times newspapers published a series of stories relying heavily on a poll of 2,300 active-duty troops. The articles described a military in turmoil as it adjusts to changes like the end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that banned gay men and women from serving openly in the military and the integration of women in more ground combat units.
The Military Times stories also highlighted plummeting optimism among those surveyed in the future of Afghanistan and significant drops in morale and satisfaction with serving. Contributing factors: There are now fewer opportunities to prove oneself while deployed and a variety of cuts to special-duty pay and other financial incentives to which troops had grown accustomed.
Earlier this year, The Washington Post also published a series of stories titled “After the Wars.” Relying in part on a poll conducted along with the Kaiser Family Foundation, it found that 87 percent of the 2.6 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans feel proud of what they did during the wars, although more than half struggle with physical or mental issues and feel disconnected from civilians.
All of these pieces expose the same basic issues: There will be no easy fixes for the military adjusting to life after a generation of intense sacrifice. The military is now shrinking and coping with budget cuts that would have been unheard of five or 10 years ago, increasing anxiety for many who want to serve at least 20 years and retire from the military honorably.
Marine Maj. Carl Forsling, a MV-22B Osprey aircraft pilot, wrote Monday in a piece on the military blog Task and Purpose that senior leaders have to combat the perception among rank-and-file troops that they are viewed as expendable.
That feeling may not be universal, but it’s a powerful one that will be difficult to overcome.
Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.
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