World

Two decades of war, wariness and the post-9/11 security state

Changing public opinion

By 2006, voters had grown weary and wary, especially in Iraq, a country that had not yet attacked the United States. countries can conduct brutal interrogations and establish detention and torture camps at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It also highlights rebuilding countries ravaged by the US military as an imperative to prevent America’s enemies from gaining power. Expenses have been billed to the taxpayer.

Grassroots conservatives see Bush as a spendthrift, both in the war effort and in his authorship of expansive federal domestic programs, such as prescription drug benefits of Medicare and the Department of Education’s No Child Left Behind law. The failure to make tangible progress in Iraq, coupled with Bush’s failed response to Hurricane Katrina, opened questions about his competence not only among Democrats but also among some party members. Republic.

Representative Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., 33, who commands a platoon of marines in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

“George W. Bush still doesn’t have enough opprobrium,” Auchincloss said, accusing Bush of lying to the public about “two spectacularly failed wars.” “I can remember what the atmosphere was like after 9/11. The world rallied behind us. …He squandered it.”

While Americans remained supportive of American operations in Afghanistan in the mid-to-late late years, support for the Iraq War dried up. Democrats wiped out the midterms in 2006, and they used their new powers to signal their readiness to withdraw from Iraq by pushing for a timetable to end the war.

President George W. Bush announces an end to the major war in Iraq aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln near California on May 1, 2003.J. Scott Applewhite / AP file

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., vowed to prioritize ending the Iraq War “responsibly” and “ending the war against Al Al” Qaeda and the Taliban.” His treatment of the two wars – one wrong and one poorly executed – reflects public sentiment.

In March 2003, 75% of Americans thought the war in Iraq was not a mistake, according to Gallup. By November 2006, the figure was 40%, and it remained in that range until November 2008, when Obama faced McCain in the presidential election.

But support for the war in Afghanistan remained solid through the end of the Bush presidency — at 70 percent, according to Gallup — and it lost its height slowly. Only twice in the past 20 years have many Americans said that they believe war was a mistake, and only because profits are razor thin. In July, 47% said it was a mistake and 46% said it was not.

Auchincloss said the wars differ from previous US military engagements that require sacrifice – and command attention – from the public.

“We have to ask tough questions as a democracy about whether we can wage a war on the periphery for an entire generation,” he said.

Meanwhile, policymakers must grapple with the potential national security and political consequences of withdrawing US troops. Up until Biden, none of them felt comfortable ending a fight on their own watch.

“There has been a series of misjudgments,” said Jeh Johnson, who served as an adviser at the Pentagon and as secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration. He said advisers to presidents advise that stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan requires counterinsurgency efforts and ultimately nation-building. The removal of any part of the military, intelligence, diplomatic and aid efforts could subvert the operations, they were advised by those in charge of the effort.

“Once you’re in that situation, it’s hard to get out of it,” he said at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s virtual conference. “In recognition of his credit, President Biden said: ‘I’ve seen this movie. … It’s time we got out.”

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