Obama"s "War-Weary" Claim Rings Hollow

As the debate over whether to launch a military strike against Syria rages on, one of the most common phrases sprinkled throughout arguments for and against is “war-weary.” We hear it almost nonstop:

– The American public is war-weary.

– Members of Congress are war-weary.

– Our allies are war-weary.

– Even President Obama is war-weary.

Never one to bypass an opportunity to use the superlative, Obama recently one-upped the field when he declared, “Nobody is more war-weary than me.”

Really? What about the men and women of the U.S. military who have been fighting and dying for the past 12 years? What about their families who made, and continue to make, great personal, psychological and financial sacrifices while they wait anxiously at home for their loved ones to return?

In nearly 7,000 cases, those loved ones returned in a coffin. And in tens of thousands more, families greeted returning loved ones maimed and scarred by the ravages of war, often with paltry aid from the government to help them cope.

They are the ones who should be war-weary, not those of us who sit by and complain about how tired we are of reading and seeing news reports about war, or grumble about how much money is being wasted funding these battles being waged so far away from home.

While we might squeal the loudest, the truth is that the vast majority of Americans have little personal skin in the game.

We have no draft. Therefore, a tiny percentage of Americans actually serve in the military. All of them are volunteers. A 2011 Pew Research Center study reported that one-half of 1 percent of Americans served in uniform at any given time in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks — the longest period of sustained conflict in U.S. history.

Currently, about 1.4 million Americans are serving on active duty in the military. That’s a little over 1 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 50.

But small as those percentages are, they are highly significant. Many of those 1.4 million Americans put their lives on the line every day. Yet, we seldom hear anyone talk about the real soldiers in this battle — the ones who should be, and are, war-weary. While we carp, they just battle on, for the most part quietly, loyally and bravely, ready to do whatever their commander in chief says, even when they feel in their own hearts that the orders are flawed.

Thus, the public’s war-weariness for the most part is a symbol rather than a reality.

To be sure, many who say they are war-weary are not thinking of themselves or their pocketbooks, but really saying that their hearts break for those military warriors and their families making the real sacrifices in all this. They just want to see the killing and the heartbreak stop. Others would prefer to spend the money on schools or health care or the poor, rather than armaments.

However, decisions on whether to go to war are difficult ones for those who have to make them. Many factors, including national security, strategic importance, moral obligations and consequences of action or inaction, have to be considered, analyzed and weighed. War-weariness, for whatever reason, should be the least of these, and certainly not a convenient excuse for inaction. 

Richard Benedetto is a retired USA Today White House correspondent and columnist. He now teaches politics and journalism at American University and for The Fund for American Studies at George Mason University.

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Obama"s "War-Weary" Claim Rings Hollow