Our American Boys who Grew Up in Afghanistan

 

I doubt that we will fully come home from Afghanistan. Our 20-year mission there was not warfare, not a military invasion, but a patriotic duty that started immediately after the 9/11/2001 attacks, culminated with US Navy SEALs executing Osama Bin Laden in 2011, mastermind of 9/11. Unlike the controversial military actions in Iraq that sparked global protest, subduing Al Qaida and the Taliban was an endeavor undertaken by a global coalition.

A small number of Americans bore the burdens of battle in Afghanistan, often with repeat deployments. For the greater armed forces, support of the Afghanistan mission was the spirit de corps, the purpose of arduous deployments and exercises. Support for the Special Operations warfighter included the aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean that launched sorties over Afghanistan, to the American-flagged merchant ships that delivered countless cargo at the port of Karachi, Pakistan, the nearest seaport to landlocked Afghanistan. Servicemembers from non-combat roles, including present Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, were rewarded in their Navy or Air Force careers for taking Individual Augmentee assignments to Afghanistan.

Twenty years is enough to change the character of the Armed Forces. Islam, and Arabic language and culture, were at the forefront of discussion within the military, from high-level Pentagon war-rooms, to wardrooms, and the soldier-friendly bar. The carefree military of the 1990’s was cleaned up to create “21^st Century Sailors”, etc, who treated the military as a career, rather than a finishing school for small-town America. Support roles, from galley operations to security and the operation of supply ships and tugboats, were divested to civilians as sailors and soldiers were positioned for mission readiness. Navy sailors learned to handle firearms, a practice unfamiliar to those retired from the service.

There are men who spent their whole adult lives on the battlefields of Afghanistan or Iraq, often in the special forces, and later as private military contractors (PMCs). While youth of the 1960’s protested war, young men of recent decades have appropriated war. The AR-15 rifle, military haircuts, Call of Duty and other First-Person Shooter games. Wearing brown and green t-shirts, the undergarments of soldiers, signal solidarity with the armed forces. While belligerence is out-of-taste for the urban elite, a good chunk of the United States sees the military and its contractors as the last provider of family-wage jobs.  Well-heeled members of the warrior culture will continue to support morally, financially, and physically, the resistance to Taliban rule.