Americans have Become Desensitized to the Bloody Reality of War

For as long as there have been human societies, there has been war, with nations, tribes, and nomadic bands taking up clubs, spears, and missiles against one another, as Thucydides observed, driven by fear, honor, and interest—sometimes to defend the innocent and punish evil, at other times in pursuit of domination, and often through some ambivalent combination of both.

However, in contrast to most civilizations throughout recorded history, the U.S. in the last several decades has long enjoyed a unique geographic and emotional distance from our conflicts. While this sense of removal is beneficial in many ways, it has also come to numb too many Americans to the horror, suffering, and killing endemic to human conflict.

While much of Europe, Asia, and Africa have been ravaged by wars, the United States hasn’t fought on our own soil since 1865. Even attacks which occurred on U.S. soil in 1941 and 2001 began wars fought elsewhere. As such, the American public has largely been spared the firsthand experience of civilian death and destruction that comes with it. Less than 1% of Americans are currently in the military and only about 6% are veterans, further compounding the problem. Even those of us whose adult lives were largely defined by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan had the luxury of transiting to and from those warzones between deployments.

This emotional distance from he realities of war has been exacerbated in recent years; while our geography and temporary deployment to warzones help to buffer the public from civilian deaths, Americans have also come to be protected from the realities of losses among U.S. service members.

It’s been over 14 years since the transition from Operation Iraqi Freedom to New Dawn in Iraq and 12 since the transition from Operation Enduring Freedom to Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan. The former represented a withdrawal of U.S. forces from a largely stable (at the time) Iraq and in 2014, when the rise of ISIS required an American return to Iraq, the United States shifted into an advisory role, providing planning, intelligence, and fire and air support for Iraqi commandos and Syrian Kurdish forces engaged in the bloody business of fighting and dying in places like Mosul and Raqqa. In Afghanistan, the transition represented a shift away from conventional forces engaged in direct combat to primarily Special Operations Forces, particularly Army Green Berets and Rangers, a phenomenon written about by Jessica Donati in Eagle Down. America went from reports of dozens of service members killed each month to death being a rarity, and usually only among special operations units which Americans assumed were always out in the fight.

Recent short duration combat operations have added to the perception that America can engage in no or low-risk conflict. In just one year, President Trump ordered Operations Rough Rider in Yemen, Midnight Hammer in Iran, Southern Spear in the Caribbean, Absolute Resolve in Venezuela, and strikes against Boko Haram in Nigeria, all of which luckily resulted in no American combat deaths—though a few close calls—from F-16 pilots barely dodging surface-to-air missiles in Yemen to the heroics of helicopter pilot Eric Slover in Caracas, which were recounted during the most recent State of the Union.

For most Americans, war has become clean, antiseptic, and risk-free. The U.S.-led campaign against ISIS was executed largely through air power. Many Americans often talk about the war in Ukraine as though America is engaged in the fighting merely because we have provided equipment to those who are. The perception of civilians back home misses the enduring realities of war—to defeat ISIS, Iraqi commandos had to fight in close quarters, street by street, house by house, room by room. To defend Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers have endured years of grinding combat where air power and drones can never take and hold territory.

The mistaken perception that precision or stand off weapons somehow change the nature of war is not a new one; Spartan King Agesilaus II believed, upon seeing a catapult for the first time, would lead to “cowardly” warfare that negated the utility of the phalanx.

This distorted sense of war has also affected discussions about civilian casualties. When civilians die in war, it is sometimes intentional to inflict more pain and suffering. Often, however, it is accidental, a horrific byproduct of combat in and around population centers that can never be fully prevented. But the continued belief that war has grown more precise has created a false perception of near-omnipotence in conflict, and that any civilian deaths must therefore be intentional. This has caused misunderstanding as particularly in assessing the war in Gaza, where all civilian deaths are viewed as purposeful on the part of the Israeli Defense Forces. The much sadder truth is that, in Gaza and everywhere conflicts play out near civilians, innocent people will inevitably suffer and die.

And yet, war will remain an enduring part of relationships between states. It is an ugly, horrible, and yet sometimes tragically necessary business with which death is inextricably linked. From this sad fact follows several conclusions.

First, that political leaders must be up-front with the American people about the potential costs of military action, but also of inaction in the form of human rights abuses and global instability which will likely impact the U.S. and our allies. President Trump’s decision to rely heavily on surprise in attacking Iran precluded making a convincing case to the American people that Operation Epic Fury was worth the risk—a decision he likely regrets as public opinion increasingly turns against the war in Iran. Secondly, that solemnity should be observed in all such decisions, which means not projecting that war is a video game, as both the White House and Department of War have in recent social media posts; it is both profane and sadistic to trivialize the horrors of combat. Third, that all Americans who have not served should make an effort to talk with veterans about their experiences—not only because they deserve our gratitude, but because Americans have become so ignorant of the reality of war that an informed debate around military action is nearly impossible.