October 26, 2017
Want to Honor the Vets? Go See This Movie.
Ancient Greeks knew war intimately, thanks to frequent conflict at the time and norms about military service that existed back then. Despite or maybe because of this intimacy with violence, audiences numbering in the thousands flocked to amphitheaters to watch tragedieslike Ajax. The soldiers in the audience experienced the movies as a form of catharsis; the citizens watched out of duty to vicariously experience the wars fought in their name.
Fast-forward two millennia. Our country has been at war for 16 years, but the verities of war remain known only to an American warrior caste: the 3 million men and women who have deployed since 9/11 and their families. In airports, at baseball games, and in shopping malls, Americans express nothing but gratitude and respect for the troops. Indeed, political debates have erupted recently over what expresses respect for the troops more: free speech or patriotic salutes. And yet very few Americans know much about the realities of our wars anymore, nor about the troops who fought them.
Read the full op-ed in Slate.
More from CNAS
-
School of War Ep 150: Katherine Kuzminski on the Draft
Katherine Kuzminski, Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at CNAS, joins the show to discuss recruiting and mass mobilization in the event of war. Listen t...
By Katherine L. Kuzminski
-
The Melting Fortress: The United States, Canada, and the Race Against Time in the Arctic
For years, Moscow has prioritized the Arctic as a critical pillar of its national security, opening or refurbishing over 50 military bases and scaling up military operations a...
By Andrew Spafford & Samantha Olson
-
U.S. military must reinforce Guam's crumbling infrastructure
In Guam, one is quickly struck by the juxtaposition of crystal-clear waters with crumbling infrastructure and abandoned cars strewn across the small Pacific island. Following ...
By Taren Sylvester & Evan Wright
-
Preparing for the Possibility of a Draft without Panic
Conscription has never had a political constituency in Congress. It remains a serious, costly, and potentially deadly tool meant to protect Americans from the extreme conseque...
By Taren Sylvester & Katherine L. Kuzminski