Soon after President Biden announced, and the New York Times reported that the U.S. military would pull out of Afghanistan, hawks in Congress attacked him for accepting defeat. However, a report by Jennifer Steinhauer in the Times July 6 details the massive support for the announced U.S. pullout from Veterans groups across America, from establishment anti-war groups coordinating with the White House’s National Security Council which made it happen, and efforts around the United States. The anti-war coalition ranged from Veterans for America, funded by the far-right Koch network; Common Defense, a group opposing President Trump; and non-partisan groups such as the Secure Families Initiative, a group of military spouses who wrote opinion columns. The American Legion, the largest service organization in America, supported the withdrawal, along with many more.
While military support groups united behind this, so did Democrats and Republicans. Democrats and their political operatives often assumed that most veterans were conservative and did not attempt to organize them, Steinhauer explains, but, after 20 years of no-win war, veterans and their families had come to oppose the “no-win” wars.
Besides, or perhaps because of the support from servicemen’s families, unlikely allies like liberal Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), came together in just one of many examples. Adam Weinstein, who served as a Marine in Afghanistan in 2012, is now a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft that convened the groups. Sarah Streyder, the Executive Director of Secure Families Initiative, said the group saw this
half-year as a once-in-20-year opportunity. “Many of our peers in this space agreed that if we really wanted this policy to happen, now is the time to ramp up the efforts. We began yelling loudly, having meetings on the Hill and the White House.”
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded the civil rights movement in a speech at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 1968: “We shall overcome, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“Veterans are credible messengers on issues of war and peace,” said William Ruger, a veteran of the war who remains an officer in the Navy Reserve. “They are important cue givers to the public and policymakers…. “This isn’t going to be a one-act story.” Steinhauer, who quotes him, points out that Trump had tapped into the frustration with the wars, but did not end them when he became President. Near the end of President Trump’s term, Steinhauer says, the United States signed a deal with the Taliban to end the Afghanistan conflict.
(“Unlikely Coalition of Veterans Backs Biden on Ending Afghan War”: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/us/politics/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal-veterans.html)
