Expert: Military went to war; country didn't

Question: It seems that even though we’re at war, most of us go about our daily lives as if it is not happening. Is the “disconnect” between military families and the general population as extreme as it appears?

Answer: Yes. The big difference is the American military has gone to war and the country has not. In past wars everyone was asked to sacrifice, whether it was through taxes, bonds, rationing — even bringing in peach pits and rendering fat — and most importantly, sacrificing sons through conscription. Now, the sacrifice has been placed solely on military families.

Q: How has this affected the public perception of the war?   

A: If you think back to Vietnam, there was a tendency to be against the military. But that is no longer happening. In a way, the public is more sophisticated now. The public knows the Army does not decide what wars to fight. Americans have not abandoned their people in uniform.

Q: In your research, have you found that men and women in uniform feel they have support, or do they feel like they are on their own? 

A: They feel alone to some degree. … I’m afraid they feel victimized by the American government. The feeling is well placed. The government has abandoned our veterans.

Q: How so?

A: The men and women in uniform swear to support the Constitution and they take an oath to do what the government sends them to do without making judgments of rightness or wrongness. What is first and foremost on the military’s mind is keeping alive.

However, the men and women in uniform feel their contract with the government should require that they get what they need to prosecute the war it sends them to fight and help them when they come home.

When soldiers got to Iraq, many felt they weren’t given what they needed and asked their own families to do what they could. There wasn’t enough body armor. Soldiers were writing home to their wives and asking for flak jackets. Families shouldn’t have to do that.

Take all the IED attacks on Humvees that were not built to withstand this. IEDs are not new.  The Vietcong used IEDs in Vietnam; they have been around for decades. They are made from unexploded ordnance. We should have anticipated that (they) would be used against us and we should have had vehicles that were equipped for them. 

Q: It seems the American public as a whole is pretty quiet about this war. Is that an accurate perception?

A: Yes, and quite frankly, an interesting aspect of this war is that there is not a huge anti-war movement among the general public. During Vietnam, for example, there were huge protests in college campuses. Now, there is no draft and college students are not at risk. ... The families that are risking the most are the families of servicemen. And the anti-war Web sites are now military families’ Web sites.

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