Opinion: This Veterans Day, let’s remember the lessons of our past two wars

(Alex Brandon | AP) President Joe Biden speaks at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City. Biden is speaking on the one-year anniversary of the PACT Act, which provides new benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances.

By Pete Koziol | For The Salt Lake Tribune

  | Nov. 11, 2023, 1:00 p.m.

As America celebrates Veterans Day, it’s a fitting time to reflect on the profound impact veterans have had after coming home. Post-9/11 veterans haven’t rested on their laurels; they’ve formed families, built companies and even stepped into elected roles, all while serving as role models for generations to come.

In light of an increasingly treacherous world, however, Veterans Day isn’t just about parades and thank yous — it’s a stark reminder of the enormous responsibility our nation’s leaders have to fulfill their sacred pact with those who’ve braved the frontlines. After two decades of warfare in far away lands and no clear victories, it’s incumbent on policy makers to ask tough questions about goals and results in future conflicts. Future wars should only be in response to vital threats to United States national security, and our service members must always have clear objectives and a definite path to victory.

Studies show that veterans’ willingness to recommend military service to their children is near an all-time low. The Pentagon recently sounded the alarm about military families discouraging younger generations from enlisting. Amid these concerns, General Mark Milley’s 60 Minutes interview response on whether the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were “worth it” came up sadly short: “Well, that’s always the question. Right? So, 2,461 killed in action by the enemy in Afghanistan over 20 years. Was it worth it? Lookit, I can’t answer that for other people.”

Metastasizing wars in Europe and Southwest Asia, with increasing financial and logistical involvement, have the potential to escalate U.S. involvement and elicit new troop deployments. Since 2021, the U.S. has spent over $100 billion to a stalemate in Ukraine, and President Joe Biden has recently asked for another $105 billion to bolster both Ukraine and Israeli defenses. As U.S. deficits grow and debt hits unsustainable levels, this spending becomes zero-sum and gets directed away from more pressing domestic priorities or passed through to citizens in the form of inflation.

More worrying is the impact on an exhausted defense industrial base. Over the past two years, U.S. support for quagmire in Ukraine has emptied its weapons arsenal. Bolstering Israel in the coming months will further deplete stockpiles, putting servicemembers in danger if and when threats in the South China Sea escalate — the true strategic risk on the map. American forces deserve to go to war with the best our defense industrial base can provide, not leftovers. This is a sacred obligation policymakers have made to generations of veterans to come and it must be kept.

Beware. In the coming months, expect foreign policy experts to double down on reasons to plunge the U.S. more deeply into distant wars. They’ll pitch complex theories of foreign affairs like multilateralism and democracy promotion, while advancing a stale argument that the U.S. must project power overseas to remain safe at home. Most alarmingly, they’ll be willing to wager American lives on vague objectives, all without a clear-cut strategy or will to win. And their approach will continue to be devoid of a whole-of-government strategy to address our coming showdown with the Chinese Communist Party.

This Veterans Day, it’s time to refocus on the American people and to put their interests first. As the world burns, let’s remember President George Washington’s farewell address, a stark warning to future American generations on the danger of foreign entanglement. Next time we go to war, our strategic thinking must be clear, threats must be to our vital national interests, and we must play to win. Those who served deserve nothing less.

Pete Joseph Koziol is a Navy veteran and currently affiliated as a Veteran Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He lives in Park City and can be reached at pkoziol@stanford.edu.

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