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U.S. Soldiers at Forward Operating Base in Baylough, Afghanistan, June 16, 2010. (Photo: DoD/Public Domain)
The Best Way to Honor Our Vets and Protect Americans? End the Wars
Soldiers, civilians, and the 140 million Americans who are poor or low-income pay the price for our never-ending wars
May 28, 2018
Millions of Americans will spend Memorial Day at community picnics, family barbecues, or local parades. "Thank you for your service" will be a ubiquitous phrase.
Despite that annual refrain, we're very far from honoring our veterans. Though drone strikes and bombing campaigns have reduced casualty figures (in fact, more people have died in school shootings this year than in the military), too many of our young women and men still come home from our wars destroyed physically and devastated emotionally.
In addition to grievous bodily injuries, many come home suffering from trauma, addiction and moral injury--the sense, as Veterans for Peace Director Michael McPhearson explains, that "you're not really standing on stable moral ground" after you've been ordered to kill people. At home they confront an overburdened veterans' health system, which the administration wants to make worse by privatizing.
The numbers are staggering. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops--100,000 or more at time--have served in Afghanistan alone. At almost 17 years on, it's our nation's longest war. Some 15,000 troops are still deployed there.
Yet does anyone other than their families even think about them?
Numerous military and political leaders have acknowledged that the Afghan war is unwinnable, yet the deployments continue. Meanwhile, Afghans--children, old people, journalists, wedding parties--continue to die. Some are killed by U.S. airstrikes, others by Afghan government or opposition forces. The killing goes on because we help perpetuate a permanent war that almost everyone agrees cannot be won.
But it's not just U.S. troops and Afghans who pay for this folly. The rest of us do, too--more dearly than many realize.
The Pentagon says the war in Afghanistan will cost us $45 billion this year alone. If we didn't spend that money on an unwinnable war thousands of miles away, what could we do with it instead?
For starters, we could hire 556,779 well-paid elementary school teachers in struggling states like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia, where teachers have protested abysmal conditions. Or create 809,999 new well-paid jobs to rebuild infrastructure like the broken water system in Flint, Michigan.
Or provide 4.36 million veterans with healthcare. Now that would be something.
And that's just for one year of one war. All told, our full $700 billion-plus military budget sucks up 53 cents out of every discretionary dollar in the federal budget--compared to just 15 cents for poverty alleviation. Our troops and Afghan civilians pay the price, but so do the 140 million Americans living in poverty or with very low incomes.
When people talk about universal health care, education, infrastructure and debt-free college, the conversation usually ends with "too bad we can't afford it, we don't have the money."
But that's not true. We have plenty of money--the United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. What we don't have is a moral compass that recognizes that spending more than half of the available funds on a giant military mired in wars that don't keep us safe is wrong.
Remember those school kids who said "no more thoughts and prayers" after mass shootings? They're demanding action. So let's take a page from their book. For next Memorial Day, let's say "No more thank you for your service."
Instead, we need action, and a new moral compass--one that recognizes that the best way to honor our veterans, keep people safe, end poverty, and fund jobs, education and health care for veterans and everybody else is to end the wars.
This spring, we helped launch a new Poor People's Campaign to revive the movement against what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago called the "evil triplets" of racism, materialism, and militarism. And for the next few weeks, people are holding actions in at least 30 state capitals and the District of Columbia to start bringing our war dollars home to build a just new economy. Check out poorpeoplescampaign.org to find out about events happening near you.
The cost of our military is creating a national moral crisis, where our priorities are skewed, vulnerable communities are threatened, and our veterans aren't being honored. This year, let's honor them with action. Let's end the wars.
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 InsideSources
Phyllis Bennis
Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and serves on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. Her most recent book is "Understanding Palestine and Israel" (2025). Her other books include: "Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer" (2008) and "Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power" (2005).
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, is a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. He serves as President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and has been Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Goldsboro, NC, for the past 29 years.
afghanistandroneseducationgooglehealthcareiraqpentagonphyllis bennispoor peoples campaignveterans for peacewilliam barber
Millions of Americans will spend Memorial Day at community picnics, family barbecues, or local parades. "Thank you for your service" will be a ubiquitous phrase.
Despite that annual refrain, we're very far from honoring our veterans. Though drone strikes and bombing campaigns have reduced casualty figures (in fact, more people have died in school shootings this year than in the military), too many of our young women and men still come home from our wars destroyed physically and devastated emotionally.
In addition to grievous bodily injuries, many come home suffering from trauma, addiction and moral injury--the sense, as Veterans for Peace Director Michael McPhearson explains, that "you're not really standing on stable moral ground" after you've been ordered to kill people. At home they confront an overburdened veterans' health system, which the administration wants to make worse by privatizing.
The numbers are staggering. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops--100,000 or more at time--have served in Afghanistan alone. At almost 17 years on, it's our nation's longest war. Some 15,000 troops are still deployed there.
Yet does anyone other than their families even think about them?
Numerous military and political leaders have acknowledged that the Afghan war is unwinnable, yet the deployments continue. Meanwhile, Afghans--children, old people, journalists, wedding parties--continue to die. Some are killed by U.S. airstrikes, others by Afghan government or opposition forces. The killing goes on because we help perpetuate a permanent war that almost everyone agrees cannot be won.
But it's not just U.S. troops and Afghans who pay for this folly. The rest of us do, too--more dearly than many realize.
The Pentagon says the war in Afghanistan will cost us $45 billion this year alone. If we didn't spend that money on an unwinnable war thousands of miles away, what could we do with it instead?
For starters, we could hire 556,779 well-paid elementary school teachers in struggling states like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia, where teachers have protested abysmal conditions. Or create 809,999 new well-paid jobs to rebuild infrastructure like the broken water system in Flint, Michigan.
Or provide 4.36 million veterans with healthcare. Now that would be something.
And that's just for one year of one war. All told, our full $700 billion-plus military budget sucks up 53 cents out of every discretionary dollar in the federal budget--compared to just 15 cents for poverty alleviation. Our troops and Afghan civilians pay the price, but so do the 140 million Americans living in poverty or with very low incomes.
When people talk about universal health care, education, infrastructure and debt-free college, the conversation usually ends with "too bad we can't afford it, we don't have the money."
But that's not true. We have plenty of money--the United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. What we don't have is a moral compass that recognizes that spending more than half of the available funds on a giant military mired in wars that don't keep us safe is wrong.
Remember those school kids who said "no more thoughts and prayers" after mass shootings? They're demanding action. So let's take a page from their book. For next Memorial Day, let's say "No more thank you for your service."
Instead, we need action, and a new moral compass--one that recognizes that the best way to honor our veterans, keep people safe, end poverty, and fund jobs, education and health care for veterans and everybody else is to end the wars.
This spring, we helped launch a new Poor People's Campaign to revive the movement against what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago called the "evil triplets" of racism, materialism, and militarism. And for the next few weeks, people are holding actions in at least 30 state capitals and the District of Columbia to start bringing our war dollars home to build a just new economy. Check out poorpeoplescampaign.org to find out about events happening near you.
The cost of our military is creating a national moral crisis, where our priorities are skewed, vulnerable communities are threatened, and our veterans aren't being honored. This year, let's honor them with action. Let's end the wars.
Phyllis Bennis
Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and serves on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. Her most recent book is "Understanding Palestine and Israel" (2025). Her other books include: "Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer" (2008) and "Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power" (2005).
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, is a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. He serves as President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and has been Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Goldsboro, NC, for the past 29 years.
Millions of Americans will spend Memorial Day at community picnics, family barbecues, or local parades. "Thank you for your service" will be a ubiquitous phrase.
Despite that annual refrain, we're very far from honoring our veterans. Though drone strikes and bombing campaigns have reduced casualty figures (in fact, more people have died in school shootings this year than in the military), too many of our young women and men still come home from our wars destroyed physically and devastated emotionally.
In addition to grievous bodily injuries, many come home suffering from trauma, addiction and moral injury--the sense, as Veterans for Peace Director Michael McPhearson explains, that "you're not really standing on stable moral ground" after you've been ordered to kill people. At home they confront an overburdened veterans' health system, which the administration wants to make worse by privatizing.
The numbers are staggering. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops--100,000 or more at time--have served in Afghanistan alone. At almost 17 years on, it's our nation's longest war. Some 15,000 troops are still deployed there.
Yet does anyone other than their families even think about them?
Numerous military and political leaders have acknowledged that the Afghan war is unwinnable, yet the deployments continue. Meanwhile, Afghans--children, old people, journalists, wedding parties--continue to die. Some are killed by U.S. airstrikes, others by Afghan government or opposition forces. The killing goes on because we help perpetuate a permanent war that almost everyone agrees cannot be won.
But it's not just U.S. troops and Afghans who pay for this folly. The rest of us do, too--more dearly than many realize.
The Pentagon says the war in Afghanistan will cost us $45 billion this year alone. If we didn't spend that money on an unwinnable war thousands of miles away, what could we do with it instead?
For starters, we could hire 556,779 well-paid elementary school teachers in struggling states like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia, where teachers have protested abysmal conditions. Or create 809,999 new well-paid jobs to rebuild infrastructure like the broken water system in Flint, Michigan.
Or provide 4.36 million veterans with healthcare. Now that would be something.
And that's just for one year of one war. All told, our full $700 billion-plus military budget sucks up 53 cents out of every discretionary dollar in the federal budget--compared to just 15 cents for poverty alleviation. Our troops and Afghan civilians pay the price, but so do the 140 million Americans living in poverty or with very low incomes.
When people talk about universal health care, education, infrastructure and debt-free college, the conversation usually ends with "too bad we can't afford it, we don't have the money."
But that's not true. We have plenty of money--the United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. What we don't have is a moral compass that recognizes that spending more than half of the available funds on a giant military mired in wars that don't keep us safe is wrong.
Remember those school kids who said "no more thoughts and prayers" after mass shootings? They're demanding action. So let's take a page from their book. For next Memorial Day, let's say "No more thank you for your service."
Instead, we need action, and a new moral compass--one that recognizes that the best way to honor our veterans, keep people safe, end poverty, and fund jobs, education and health care for veterans and everybody else is to end the wars.
This spring, we helped launch a new Poor People's Campaign to revive the movement against what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago called the "evil triplets" of racism, materialism, and militarism. And for the next few weeks, people are holding actions in at least 30 state capitals and the District of Columbia to start bringing our war dollars home to build a just new economy. Check out poorpeoplescampaign.org to find out about events happening near you.
The cost of our military is creating a national moral crisis, where our priorities are skewed, vulnerable communities are threatened, and our veterans aren't being honored. This year, let's honor them with action. Let's end the wars.
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