America’s Wars Are Waged By Relatively Few. It is a problem


In his introduction, he writes: “War continues to be a large part of who we are as Americans, with almost a sixth of our federal budget going to defense, troops deployed at 800 military bases around the world and entering counter-terrorism missions in 85. countries. And yet, for the average American, who is mostly invisible, thanks to a series of political and strategic choices.”

First-hand exposure to the country’s “long wars” intensified almost unbelievably. All Americans who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, or any US battlefield at any time since the 9/11 attacks of 2001 together make up about 1 percent of the nation’s population. The best of these articles combine reporting with Klay’s own military service observations, historical evidence, and spiritual reflections, all helping to illuminate the “invisible” world of this 1 percent.

For example, “History of Violence,” written after the Las Vegas shootings in 2017, describes how the AR-15, now America’s most-owned rifle, emerged from the military’s search for a light weapon that could do maximum damage. through high volume “field fire” rather than relying on carefully aimed sniper shots. He also describes the horrific series of experiments in “wound ballistics” that guided the selection of ammunition for the AR-15 and its military descendant, the M16. (According to his family, the AR-15’s designer, Eugene Stoner, had never imagined this weapon in civilian hands.) With a slightly modified AR-15, the Las Vegas gunman managed to kill 58 people and injure at least 400. “There was nothing particularly remarkable in the shooter’s skills,” writes Klay. “His lethality was primarily a function of the number of shells it could reduce range.”

Originally a Brookings essay, “Citizen Soldier: Moral Risk and the Modern Military” features the invisibility of the 1 percent wearing the uniform and the cheap “thank you for your service!” many veterans are not mistreated, but deeper into the physical, emotional, and moral costs of war. rituals that mask an indifference.

And in “Man of War,” written for the Jesuit magazine America, Klay explains at length how serving in the Marine Corps gave him an almost religious sense of community and mission, which he felt lacking when he returned to civilian life. As a Marine, he writes: “I’ve been given tales of military saints – men and women who risked their lives under enemy fire, jumped at grenades to save their friends, defended their faith with years of prisoners of war torture. … Outside of the corps, I was deprived of that community and yet to the civilian world. I was not fully involved … Like many veterans before, I was alienated.”



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