This week, we bring Phil Klay on the podcast to talk about his recent article talking about what exactly it is we troops are fighting for overseas in the first place. Seventeen years is a long chunk of time, and many soldiers have seen multiple deployments, but is there a sense of purpose beyond fighting for the people to your left and right?
I'm not sure many can tell you why we're fighting any longer. We have the boogyman ISIS who some Marines are certainly engaging in Syria and parts beyond, but when a platoon is gearing up for a year in Afghanistan, what do you tell them to prepare them? How do you convince these soldiers, especially the older ones with a bit more experience under their belts, that this is worth their time, effort, and if necessary, lives?
Logistics in a military are important, but bean, bullets and bandages aren't going to attack what makes a person willing to walk into known danger. What point is there to Afghanistan, Syria, and possibly Iran in the future? Are we safer now than in 2001? Does anyone feel safer, or as a nation do we feel more on edge, teetering over an abyss we aren't willing to acknowledge ourselves?