Brokaw: War Is The Forgotten Issue Of The 2010 Campaign

Tom Brokaw issues a sharp, brief, op-ed in today's New York Times, urging that some attention be paid to a crisis that's been all but banished from the midterm election conversation:

How about war? The United States is now in its ninth year of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the longest wars in American history. Almost 5,000 men and women have been killed. More than 30,000 have been wounded, some so gravely they're returning home to become, effectively, wards of their families and communities.

In those nine years, the United States has spent more than $1 trillion on combat operations and other parts of the war effort, including foreign aid, reconstruction projects, embassy costs and veterans' health care. And the end is not in sight.

So why aren't the wars and their human and economic consequences front and center in this campaign, right up there with jobs and taxes?

Brokaw attributes our overarching economic struggles as the primary reason the Wars in Afghanistan and the Whatever-It-Is-That-50,000-"Non-Combat"-Troops-Are-Doing in Iraq have been pushed to the rear view. We're also a few months away now, from that brief period in time when WikiLeaks prompted much of the traditional media to admit that the "conventional wisdom" was that the War in Afghanistan wasn't going well. That was the groundhog that saw it's shadow and fled back to its hole for as many months of silence as could be mustered.

So, a nation of candidates aren't taking positions on these wars, because a nation of reporters isn't bothering to ask them. And so our long, love affair with War as an Abstract Concept continues, to the despair of the military families mentioned by Brokaw.

RELATED:
The Wars That America Forgot About [New York Times]

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Comments

[sarah amy]

03:36 PM on 10/21/2010

This oversight of the war as a viable issue in today's politics is tragic. From where I'm standing, I know there is a war going on because my husband serves in the Air Force. We have friends who are currently deployed. We come face-to-face with PTSD and other combat-related issues weekly in our military community.

But step out of my shoes and into my neighbor's. She's a demographic equal of myself: young professional, drives a decent-ish car (nicer than mine, actually), owns a dog (okay, I have two). But anyway, as American women we fall in basically the same category. And I seriously doubt that war ever crosses her mind, except when my husband comes home from work in his tan camouflage uniform. We are probably her only exposure to the Air Force, at least.

Unless you are an avid news junkie, you'd hardly know there IS a war going on. And depending on what news sources you read, the war gets precious little attention. I admire the New York Times for representing the war and its impact on our troops quite accurately. But look at the White House website--NO MENTION of the war. It's all economy, healthcare, economy, healthcare. War? oh, that's the Pentagon's problem. Not "our" problem as Americans. That attitude really needs to change, both among politicians and the public.

[Cleverboots]

09:50 PM on 10/19/2010

Reply to Dr. Jimmy and Mr. Jim-No reply button.
Lovely to meet you and delighted you are a fan! We must find a way to demonstrate our disgust with these pointless wars,just as we did in the Viet Nam era. If Obama continues on his current course of endless war, then Obama must go.If it were up to me, I'd have a vote of no confidence and force him out before 2012. Keep up the good work! Cleverboots

[jerryatthebeach]

05:06 PM on 10/19/2010

There are two reasons why. 1: It's been going on for so many years and is not televised like Viet Nam. 2:People are more concerned with whats happening in our own country and Gov't...

[DrBulldog]

01:08 PM on 10/19/2010

Brokaw, you're the forgotten pundit of this election. And rightfully so, dimwit.

[zest]

01:03 PM on 10/19/2010

What's to think about? The war has gone on for ten years with little progress and we are told by the general that it will go on for another ten years. The military industrial complex and the no taxes GOP are in charge.

[AyeChart]

11:50 AM on 10/19/2010

No, Mr. Brokaw, the war is NOT forgotten, and that's why we are voting the Democratic wimps out of office. We are quite cognizant of our soldiers and of our enemies.

You perhaps mean that it is the left-wingers who have forgotten the war...

[Michael Gerety]

05:06 PM on 10/19/2010

So you want to make more war?

[CANTHATBE]

11:11 AM on 10/19/2010

The Witch, Chritine O'Donnel, could not tell you what she would do and she claims to have secret government briefings on what is going on.

[raker]

10:54 AM on 10/19/2010

We are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, not at war with them. If you want people to be aware of what's happening there, encourage NBC Nightly News to drop the weather report and the feel-good story and report on something substantial. And moderating a candidates' debate and helping the Republican skewer the Democrat doesn't help.

The call is coming from inside the studio!. Get out! GE is a big part of the problem.

[Christian Schultz]

11:49 AM on 10/19/2010

GE the billion dollar company that received $25 million in stimulus money in 2009 and in turn laid off many thousand employees. I think I read like 15,000.

[MarkInTexas]

08:30 AM on 10/19/2010

War? What war?

The mainstream media was blaring the trumpets of war for the Bush administration. I guess now they're tired of their creation.

[lmab]

08:03 AM on 10/19/2010

Perhaps if the press did their job, this war would have never started. The war criminals would have been exposed for what they are.

[army193]

05:47 AM on 10/19/2010

Wait Mr. Brokaw it was you the Media that day in an out that was beating the drums for the White House and neo-cons for War just before a Midterm Election and now we are in the 10th year just before a Midterm Election you’re complaining? What did you think was going to happen when the Majority of the Nation has no children etc involved? I remember a Congressman calling for a draft if this war was so important where was you and the Media? Now that the shock and awl is gone you have moved on to more important reporting like dancing with the Stars, etc.

[dresdengirl]

10:54 AM on 10/19/2010

I hear your anger and I agree.
F&F

[katmeyster]

02:58 AM on 10/19/2010

War is for corporations. War is for contractors. War is for creating wealth. And as long as there is a corporate-run media, and a corporate-run Congress, we will always have war.

And unless we have a draft and an independent media, we'll just keep accepting its necessity.

It is amazing how we don't realize how militarized we are -- there has never been a time in US history when we have not been at war, or militarily involved (CIA), in another country. This is who we are.

[innerpuppie]

01:18 AM on 10/19/2010

Those wars along, with the Bush tax cuts, are what has shoved our economy into a pit.

[Jeffrey E Calvert]

11:40 PM on 10/18/2010

I can't for the life of me think of what would make Mr. Kilmeade say such a thing. I mean lets think about this for a second...there was the bombing of the USS Cole, the American Embassys in Africa, the barracks of Soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia, the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beruit, the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie Scotland, and oh yea...SEPTEMBER 11 2001, IN NEW YORK CITY. Mr.Olbermann, you should have never quit your day job at ESPN, I think you were probably taken more seriously then, then you are now.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

09:56 PM on 10/18/2010

Who asked Brokaw anything? Isn't this guy retired? Stay retired. Please. You have degraded your profession. You have become a rite-wing-nuht-job.

Go away, now. Go. Please. You've done enough damage.

[booki]

10:38 PM on 10/18/2010

i read his article this morning.......
i could not tell he was a right winger , nor did i care..
all i know..he was talking about the wars........that no one seems to talk about .......
peace

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

08:32 PM on 10/19/2010

Well I'm ready and willing to talk about the wars until they end them.
I can remember when the media had integrity and reported the TRUTH above Viet Nam.
Cronkite went over there and found out for himself what was really going on and when he reported the truth, our country found out what was really going on.
I remember seeing coffins draped in American Flags of the soldiers coming back from Nam. I remember seeing the daily body count on TV EVERY DAY.
The media broke the Watergate story. Bernstein and Woodward were folk heroes.
The media televised the Watergate hearings. I can still see John Dean sitting at that huge table, all by himself, left to defend himself.
Like I say, this is when the media had integrity.
Ronald Reagan and Oliver North: Iran-Contra, the media stayed on that.

Brokaw and his ilk didn't hold W Bush to these standards. They let the Bush Administration "bully" them and scare them away from asking tough questions.

I have NO respect for Brokaw or anyone else on CBS/NBC or ABC News.

You are correct. We need to talk about the war. ALL THE MEDIA NEEDS TO TALK ABOUT THE WAR!

Brokaw and the rest are sellouts. They help the GOP because the GOP will further deregulate the media so these networks can get bigger and bigger and bigger and buy up more independent media. This is the root of MANY of our problems.

[sdmcmla]

02:22 AM on 10/19/2010

Fanned.