WHY ‘WAS THE WAR WORTH IT?’ IS A DUMB QUESTION

Reporters are asking veterans the wrong question about the decades-long war in Afghanistan. The headline “Was it worth it?” is splashed across news outlets around the world. Then the impact felt by a soldier, sailor, Airman or Marine is carefully crafted and articulated into a narrative designed to trigger the readers’ or viewers’ emotions. However, none of it matters.

There is no doubt the scars of war are genuine and permanent. The pain of losing a buddy and of post-traumatic stress syndrome is authentic and resonates for a lifetime, and expressing and documenting that is important. We need to hear those stories.

As a Marine combat veteran, I deeply understand the emotional connection between us and the horrific events experienced during a war. I also understand the desperation many of us feel as we try to explain those experiences to anyone willing to listen and make them grasp what we went through, knowing they will never quite “get it” the way we do. Still, none of that has anything to do with the policies or politics that start or end wars. The media needs to stop trying to make that connection.

The reality is your feelings, as a veteran, about if the war was worth it are irrelevant. The way you felt had no impact when you were on active duty, nor does it now.

As a Marine, not one time did anyone in my chain of command, or anywhere else for that matter, ever ask if I thought the operations assigned mattered or if they were “worth it.” I cannot even tell you how many seemingly pointless tasks we had in Iraq or the number of missions we went on that seemed to serve absolutely no purpose. However, we did what we were told and carried out our duties as we swore to do when we enlisted in the military. That’s just the way it was and still is.

Twice as an active-duty Marine, I had the opportunity to meet and take a photo with President George W. Bush. He shook my hand and even told us what a great job the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan were doing, but he certainly didn’t ask if the wars were worth it to us or how we felt about it. He didn’t care, nor would it have mattered. As troops, we carried out the foreign policy goals assigned by the civilian politicians.

We fight wars for political reasons. Most of the veterans offering commentary on those policies have no more credibility than the

TV talking heads who claim to be experts on everything from COVID-19 to conspiracy theories.

War stories are essential, and I am sad that the media waited until now to ask everyday combat vets to tell theirs. Unless you’ve earned the Medal of Honor or written a book, reporters generally neglect the rank and file who served in any of America’s wars. Now, they are scrambling to find any veteran voice that can offer the slightest bit of validity to the already-established narrative and serve as soundbites over the compelling and tragic video coming out of Afghanistan. It is dirty and exploitative. Veterans need to stop falling prey to it. That does not mean that you don’t share your experiences over a beer with your battle buddies. It just means that there is no linkage between your experiences as a ground-pounder and the stupid question of, “Was it worth it?”

Journalists need to start asking the right questions. Americans need to know about your buddy who was killed by an improvised explosive device. At the same time, his young wife was left with a child, who is now an adult, and never knew their father, or the level of support you received from Veterans Affairs, that denies the rare cancer you had at the age of 25 was caused by some crap you were exposed to while on active duty.

Those are the things, among many others, that matter and need the attention of the public, not the unanswerable, “Was the war in Afghanistan worth it?”