Military opinions and war experience, page 3

Kidfinger says:

It has come to my attention that a large number of the people who support the war in Iraq and the global policies of Bush have not served during war time. Of course I am strictly referring to members of ATS. Cargo made this astute observation during a thread which turned into the usual mud slinging match.

Kidfinger, I do not understand your point. A large number of people who do not support the war in Iraq and the global policies of Bush have also not served during war time.

Are you saying that any opinion on the war is somehow less relevant if the person holding it is not a veteran?

I would think that veteran status doesn't necessarily correlate to pro- or anti-war views.

Almost every one of my male co-workers is a veteran; those my age are Vietnam-era veterans, as I am. I would say that, based on casual conversations, that the pro-war people here outnumber the anti-war folks by about 90 percent to 10 percent; I don't know whether that is because of their veteran status or because we build the Apache attack helicopter.

My guess is that most people -- at least those who are mature adults – tend to be pragmatic and probably base their support for the war on a series of questions. I'm not saying that everyone has a check list or even if the questions are consciously applied. But I think most reasoning adults, whether pro- or anti-war, probably run a calculus like this.

(1) Did Bush know that there were no Iraqi WMD prior to the war? If so, does it matter?

(2) Have the number of American deaths reached a tipping point in the “is it worth it” calculus for the person?

(3) Have the number of Iraqi deaths reached a tipping point in the “is it worth it” calculus for the person?

(4) Is the money expended in the Iraq war reached the tipping point in the “is it worth it” calculus for the person?

(5) Is access to stable and reasonably price petroleum a valid reason for going to war?

(6) Is nation-building ever worth going to war? If so, is Bush’s geopolitical efforts (i.e., a democratized and westernized Iraq as a destabilizing force to a Ba’athist Syria and a theocratic Iran) a valid reason?

(7) Is the same putative westernized/democratized Iraq as a prod to the neofascist “allies” like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. to democratize themselves a valid reason?

(8) Does the war in Iraq contribute significantly to the safety of Americans in America?

(9) Are we winning the war?

A typical “anti-war” person would tend to answer “yes” to questions 1 through 4 and “no” to questions 5 through 8; a “pro-war’ person would answer the opposite. The answer to question 9 would probably tend to move a fence-sitter into one or the other columns.

Notice that I mentioned that the above calculus applies to thinking adults. There are those who are so “pro-American government” that they would favor the war under any circumstances. On the other hand, there are those who, by their nature are so “anti-American government” that they would be against the war under any circumstances. I personally consider both of those classes of people to be fools, because they don’t seem able to do any reasoning as opposed to emoting.

But hey, that’s me.

In any event, I don’t see much of a correlative between feelings about the “rightness” or “wrongness” of the war and prior military service.