It was once President Barack Obama's "war of necessity." Now, it's America's
forgotten war, according to an Army
Times article.
The Afghan conflict generates barely a whisper on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. It's not a hot topic at the office water cooler or in the halls of Congress — even though more than 80,000 American troops are still fighting here and dying at a rate of one a day.
It’s a shame that after 12 years, people are not more concerned. The only ones who care are the ones who’s kids are over there getting killed. And the treatment they are getting by their superiors and the government is a travesty.
I teach at a local community college and as a veteran myself, I am an advisor to our student-veterans organization. I don’t know if the media is tired of reporting the conflict in Afghanistan, if they believe its over since Bin Laden is dead or if they are downplaying it for the sake of Obama’s reelection bid. All I know is that these young men, mostly grunts from the Army and Marines, as well as the other services, and not a few female veterans are being shortchanged by our society. Before class, I hear comments from young students talking to a slightly older and very world weary veteran. These kids are surprised we are still fighting a war. The same with many of the faculty. They seemed genuinely surprised to meet a recently discharged combat veteran. There was a bumper sticker I saw a while back and it fits this to a tee: “The US Armed Forces are at war; America is at the mall.” It is very sad that this is true.