Veterans offer differing viewpoints on America’s longest war
Nick Grimes: “I say we get out.”
Sarah Bryant: “Finish what we started.”
Benjamin Wright: “a reality that we have to live with, however we want to approach it.”
George Dvorznak: “Declare victory.”
Todd DePastino, founder and executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club, served as moderator for the discussion.
Chances are, you haven’t heard of the Moro Rebellion,
Until recently, the armed conflict with Muslims in the southern Philippines was the longest war in which the United States was involved, from 1899 to 1913.
Soon, American troops will have been fighting in the mid-Asian nation of Afghanistan for 16 years, since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
On the heels of President Trump’s national address outlining his plans for continued actions in Afghanistan, Peters Township Public Library hosted an Aug. 24 panel discussion, “Experience of War and Why Fight,” in conjunction with the Library of America’s “World War I and America” initiative.
Joining moderator Todd DePastino, executive director of the Mt. Lebanon-based Veterans Breakfast Club, were three Army veterans and one retired Air Force officer. They addressed a variety of pertinent topics, from World War I’s impact on what transpired after – DePastino called it “the seminal event of the 20th century” and likened it to Pandora’s box – to exploring panelists’ viewpoints on war, past and present.
As for the future of the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan, opinions diverged.
Sarah Bryant, who flew UH-60 Blackhawk missions there as an Army captain, spoke about the difficulties of training Afghan soldiers to defend something in which they don’t necessarily believe.
“There is no sense of nationalism, and so I think that it’s a case where we never should have gotten started,” she said. “But now that we’re there, we have to finish it.
“It’s going to take years to finish it, years to train them, years to establish a sense of identity and democracy,” she acknowledged. “And so I think we need to keep deploying soldiers there, keep training the troops, and we have to finish what we started.”
Then there’s the counterpoint.
“I disagree, respectfully,” fellow Afghanistan veteran Nick Grimes said. “I say we get out.”
Grimes served 27 months in combat as part of the Army’s 32nd Infantry Regiment in Kunar Province, and he acknowledged that the United States does have a “path to victory” in its most protracted war.
“What it would entail is several things, and one of those things is the idea that there is an acceptable casualty rate of U.S. troops during any sort of battle,” he said. “What it would be in Afghanistan is close to Vietnam numbers. You’d have to lose 50,000 guys. You’d have to send a quarter of a million over there.
“We don’t have the stomach for it,” Grimes continued. “And if we don’t have the stomach to fight a war, why should we slow-bleed ourselves of young men and women for the next 15 years or so?”
He also gave his opinion on an admittedly controversial aspect:
“The argument that Afghanistan would become a hub for terrorists, in theory, that sounds like, oh, that’s awful. I think, practically, it’s like, cool! They’re all in one spot. We just bomb those places.”
Retired Lt. Col. Benjamin Wright, an Air Force pilot from the Vietnam War through the 1991 Gulf War, said that prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that had been an issue in Afghanistan.
“That’s where they trained,” he said. “And so there was this big surge right after 9/11, when President Bush said we were sending the troops to Afghanistan for that reason.”
But he cautioned against the U.S. getting caught in the type of quagmire that the British experienced in the 19th century and a more recent superpower during the 1979-89 Soviet-Afghan War.
“I’m convinced that Afghanistan broke the Soviet Union economically and caused the breakup. And the same danger is there for us,” Wright said. “But this possibility of a free-market terrorist training center is a reality that we have to live with, however we want to approach it.”
As for Vietnam War veteran George Dvorznak, the course of action he suggested was straight to the point: “Declare victory, come home, have a big parade, and that’s the end of it.”
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