In July 2021, the Watson Institute of Public Affairs at Brown University reported that since September 11, 2001, 7,057 US military personnel have been killed in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan alone. Civilian contractor deaths reached 8,000, although the institute admits this is an estimate considering many contractors were not US citizens, so some deaths went unreported. Finally, 30,177 US service members would commit suicide after their deployments to these war zones, and the number of wounded veterans is even higher, as the Watson Institute would claim:
Over 1.8 million veterans have some degree of officially recognized disability as a result of the wars—veterans of the current wars account for more than half of the severely disabled veteran population. Many additional veterans live with physical and emotional scars despite lack of disability status or outstanding claims.
Since September 11, the US government has participated in three major conflicts: the second war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and military operations in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But they have also led operations in Libya to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and in Yemen in support of the Saudi government, despite the fact that Saudi bombings and blockades pushed the country to the brink of starvation.
Twenty-three years after September 11, neoconservatives in Congress, the State Department, and the Pentagon are still pushing the same war hawk policy in Ukraine, Israel, and Syria. American foreign policy is out of step with the Constitution and the original intent of the founding fathers. It is time for the men and women who push this policy to be held accountable.
The Founders’ Intent
At the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made remarks about American leadership. He highlighted the importance of an American military presence throughout the world in order to protect “democracies’’ like Ukraine and Israel. Secretary Austin also had remarks about noninterventionists:
You know, in every generation, some Americans prefer isolation to engagement—and they try to pull up the drawbridge. They try to kick loose the cornerstone of American leadership. And they try to undermine the security architecture that has produced decades of prosperity without great-power war. And you’ll hear some people try to brand an American retreat from responsibility as bold new leadership. So, when you hear that, make no mistake: It is not bold. It is not new. And it is not leadership.
Secretary Austin needs a history lesson in the founding ideals of the United States. If what he said is true, then American figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were bad leaders. President George Washington issued a neutrality proclamation in response to the revolution in France and the subsequent declaration of war on Austria, England, and Prussia, which embroiled the whole European continent in war. In President Washington’s farewell address on September 19, 1796, he made his vision for American foreign policy clear: “It is our true policy to…