3 ms·

There are two crucial differences between the wars of the past decade and a half and WWII/Vietnam, though: 1. The number of veterans is very small 2. Veterans

There are two crucial differences between the wars of the past decade and a half and WWII/Vietnam, though: 1. The number of veterans is very small 2. Veterans are overwhelmingly from the richer half of the population About 0.5% of the cohort currently between the ages of 20 and 40 had any military service (compare to 12% of the WWII cohort and 6% of the Vietnam cohort), and only about half of that population saw service in Iraq or Afghanistan (e.g. I was active duty for almost all of the Iraq war and never went to theater, nor did almost anybody in my battalion). Furthermore (and this has been troubling the Pentagon for a while), the enlistment/commissioning standards the military has make it very difficult for poor Americans to serve. The poorest 20% of Americans are the least likely to serve, followed by the next-poorest. In fact it's nearly a perfect correlation except that the richest 20% are slightly less likely to serve than the second quintile. This yields a recruit and officer candidate pool that is both richer and whiter than the nation as a whole. (On the other hand, richer whiter servicemembers have abysmal retention rates, so that the standing force is browner and poorer than the nation as a whole because most of the middle class white people leave after one tour).

sailfast 10y ago
These arguments make sense, but the duration of the wars was completely different, as were the number of people returned injured (read: mortality stats have greatly improved). Scale is different, but so are the wars. Probably end up with something in the middle? The latest I've got is that in 2013 over 2.6 Million Americans had been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. (That number is obviously higher now).[1] The impact percentage-wise to those returning veterans with either TBI, PTSD, etc is relatively high: http://www.research.va.gov/topics/oef-oif.cfm http://www.research.va.gov/topics/oef-oif.cfm No data in those articles about labor force contributions and any impacts there - that would be an interesting area to get more data to see how much the wars have contributed to the laborforce issues identified in the article. [1]: http://www.ibtimes.com/va-stops-releasing-data-injured-vets-total-reaches-grim-milestone-exclusive-1449584 http://www.ibtimes.com/va-stops-releasing-data-injured-vets-...
sparrish 10y ago
I think you missed one other important difference. Unlike WWII/Vietnam, recent wars are being fought by volunteers (those who, knowing the risks, willing signed up to fight), not working men forced to be soldiers as in the drafts.

sailfast 10y ago

These arguments make sense, but the duration of the wars was completely different, as were the number of people returned injured (read: mortality stats have greatly improved). Scale is different, but so are the wars. Probably end up with something in the middle? The latest I've got is that in 2013 over 2.6 Million Americans had been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. (That number is obviously higher now).[1] The impact percentage-wise to those returning veterans with either TBI, PTSD, etc is relatively high: http://www.research.va.gov/topics/oef-oif.cfm http://www.research.va.gov/topics/oef-oif.cfm No data in those articles about labor force contributions and any impacts there - that would be an interesting area to get more data to see how much the wars have contributed to the laborforce issues identified in the article. [1]: http://www.ibtimes.com/va-stops-releasing-data-injured-vets-total-reaches-grim-milestone-exclusive-1449584 http://www.ibtimes.com/va-stops-releasing-data-injured-vets-...

sparrish 10y ago

I think you missed one other important difference. Unlike WWII/Vietnam, recent wars are being fought by volunteers (those who, knowing the risks, willing signed up to fight), not working men forced to be soldiers as in the drafts.