The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Supporting our troops must mean honoring their lives. We must support troops in training and deployment, and elected officials cannot be careless about what we are asking our families and friends to risk their lives for.
On all counts, recent events prove that the U.S. is failing our troops.
In April, intelligence officials announced that Russia had paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American troops in Afghanistan. President Trump knew this was happening as early as March 2019, when told by former national security adviser John Bolton. Trump was given a range of options to respond, but according to multiple reports, did nothing. He never even called Putin to say “stop.”
Our president is unwilling to protect our troops against Russia. That should disqualify him as commander in chief. But U.S. troops aren’t just at risk in conflict. Some face mortal danger before ever leaving the United States.
Vanessa Guillen enlisted in the army after graduating high school in Houston. She reminds me of my classmates at Tucson High. While serving at Fort Hood, she was sexually harassed and ultimately murdered and dismembered by fellow soldier Aaron Robinson. The Army failed to thoroughly investigate Vanessa’s disappearance until media and civil society pressure hit the base. Fort Hood also failed to address numerous previous claims of sexual harassment that threatened Guillen’s safety. According to Protect Our Defenders, 24.2% of active-duty women were sexually harassed in fiscal year 2018, and 20% of those women were also sexually assaulted.
Vanessa Guillen’s life could have been saved, but the Army failed her.
However, the biggest failure to support our troops comes in the form of the unending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Congress’ failure to regularly or honestly evaluate the U.S. troop presence there. The Afghanistan Papers, released in December 2019, proved that the U.S. government has lied to the public, including people who would later enlist, about the Afghanistan war for years. Army colonel Bob Crowley shares that “every data point was altered to present the best picture possible ... surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right.”
The war in Afghanistan alone has taken more than 157,000 lives and cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 trillion, leading retired Navy SEAL Jeffrey Eggers to ask, “Was it worth $1 trillion?”
Despite staggering costs, the daunting findings of the Afghanistan Papers, and the treacherous actions of Russia in Afghanistan to further endanger U.S. lives, there is still no end in sight.
I know the military is an economic lifeline for many Arizona families. But if you have to serve because of economics, that’s just another way you’ve been robbed by government inaction and poor investment in our state by numerous actors.
This year marks the 19th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, so we’re now sending people to fight in a war that has not been authorized in their lifetime. Congress has traded the lives of U.S. troops to avoid a hard vote and an honest election. That’s not governing: it’s ducking responsibility.
It’s time to elect leaders who will support our troops by working to make sure that they are protected at home, that their sacrifices are not in vain, and that our military strategies are honest and effective. For Congress to ask for mortal courage, while displaying total cowardice, should offend us all.
