rockin'robin
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Americans are confused and uneasy about the war in Afghanistan, harboring deep misgivings about the U.S. military mission there and doubts that the United States can "win'' in any meaningful sense.
Yet even in an election season when American battle casualties have risen to over 50 dead and 600 wounded a month, the conduct of the war is hardly ever mentioned as a campaign issue – either by candidates or by the voters.
That leaves 100,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting for a mission that has only shallow support at home. And it leaves the Obama White House facing an uphill battle to rally the country behind what senior military and civilian officials say will be a difficult effort ahead to bring the war to a satisfactory end.
In-depth interviews last week across southern Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, with voters and congressional candidates, teen-agers and retirees, confirmed what national polls suggest: Americans have soured on the war and tuned it out.
"I was pretty much a staunch supporter at first; we seemed to be doing the right thing,'' said Tom Williams, a soft-spoken 42-year-old computer network manager in Oxford, Pa. "I'm not so sure about the war any longer, and I think most people just don't dwell on it.''
A former Marine, Williams is the uncle of Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony L. Williams, who at age 21 was killed in an IED explosion in Helmand Province in March 2009.
"I am confused and very concerned about our current role and mission in Afghanistan,'' Williams said. "I think we don't have a clear focus. And to me, it's very unfortunate we are asking these young people to make that sacrifice if we don't have a clear idea of what we're doing. Any loss of life at this point in my own mind, nothing justifies it. I don't see where we have an end game or a strategy.''
National opinion surveys suggest that most Americans are equally dispirited. About half of Americans say they don't believe the United States is winning or will be ''successful'' in Afghanistan. In a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in mid-summer, for instance, 55 percent said the United States "will not be successful in eliminating the threat from terrorists operating from Afghanistan.''
In a Gallup poll also conducted in July, 60 percent said the war was going "moderately badly'' or "very badly,'' while 37 percent thought the war was going well. A Fox News poll in June found 58 percent convinced it is not possible "to achieve stability in the region.'' Asked by CNN/Opinion Research in August if they thought the United States "can or cannot win the war,'' respondents split 49-49 percent.
"I don't think we have figured out this kind of war,'' said Ralph Denlinger, a retired high school science teacher in Oxford. "How do you 'win' this kind of war?'' he wondered.
Pennsylvania's mostly Republican16th Congressional District, which picked John McCain over Obama in 2008, encompasses the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish farm country around Lancaster, a broad swath of blue-collar families, well-to-do retirees, an active Quaker and Mennonite pacifist community, and newly arrived Mexican farm laborers.
Across that spectrum, "people are anxious and angry'' about jobs and government spending, but they "hardly ever'' bring up the war, said Rep. Joe Pitts, a six-term Republican running for re-election. When he mentions Afghanistan at campaign events, it's often in the context of urging more humanitarian aid. "It's a serious situation, very troubling ... very complex,'' he said about Afghanistan. "It needs to be done right, but I'm not sure there is a military solution.''
His challenger, former AT&T executive Lois Herr, has twice lost congressional races to Joe Pitts, by substantial margins (39-56 percent in 2008). This time, she hopes an anti-incumbent tide – and her blunt opposition to the war – will put her into office. She opposed Obama's decision last December to send 30,000 more troops into battle.
"A military solution is unlikely,'' she said, adding her doubts that "anything will work. We've wasted so many years and so many lives with the wrong strategies, and to try to impose our way of government on an area of the world with a history like Afghanistan is just foolhardy.''
She favors sending more civilians, but acknowledges they will need troops to protect them.
"It's a matter of having no good alternatives,'' she said about war strategy.
But she also acknowledges the issue has not caught fire on the campaign trail. "It does not register very much, at all,'' she said, "although there is some talk that if we are going to fight terrorism, Afghanistan is not the place to be.''
But she is not critical of those without strong opinions on the war – or solutions. "It's so hard for those of us who are so far away,'' she said, "trying to work with the limited knowledge we get.''
Connie Winchester, a grandmotherly 75-year-old in Oxford, said tartly that if the United States does have a strategy, "it hasn't worked out very well.''
She said she is "very concerned'' about Afghanistan and supports President Obama's intention to begin withdrawing troops next July. "But part of me understands we can't just leave suddenly, and I know that's inconsistent,'' she said, "I just don't know all the answers. To me, it's just scary that we're there.''
"It is a complicated thing and I don't have a solution – I don't know if there IS one,'' agreed Billy Bilger, who has kept a barber shop on Oxford's South 3rd Street for 40 years. His storefront displays a large "Proud to be an American'' poster.
"It might be a better idea if the United States would slow down before it gets involved'' in a place like Afghanistan, he added. "Are these people really our allies? Would they do the same for us?''
Down the road at Oxford Area High School, principal David C. Madden counsels the few students who want to enlist. A former Marine, Madden tells them: "Understand you are going to Afghanistan, and you better make sure you are absolutely willing to make that ultimate sacrifice.''
Last year – the same year Lance Cpl. Williams was buried at Beulah Baptist Church in Oxford – nine kids from the school enlisted in the Marine Corps. Madden finds it incomprehensible that the war is still demanding more youth. A close friend of Madden's is a Marine first sergeant and has done several combat tours. His son just graduated from Marine boot camp and will be deploying. "Now his own kid is going out there,'' said Madden. "It just doesn't seem real.''
His own view: Do what it takes to win, or get out.
But the war does seem far away from the bucolic rolling hills and old stone walls of southern Pennsylvania. "For a country at war, we don't live the kind of life I remember from World War II,'' said Bert Greenwald, a retiree. "We are insulated from it unless we have somebody in the family, or friends, who are killed or injured.
"Other than that, we don't realize the depths of what's going on.''
Voters Sour on Afghan War and Doubt That America Can Win
Yet even in an election season when American battle casualties have risen to over 50 dead and 600 wounded a month, the conduct of the war is hardly ever mentioned as a campaign issue – either by candidates or by the voters.
That leaves 100,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting for a mission that has only shallow support at home. And it leaves the Obama White House facing an uphill battle to rally the country behind what senior military and civilian officials say will be a difficult effort ahead to bring the war to a satisfactory end.
In-depth interviews last week across southern Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, with voters and congressional candidates, teen-agers and retirees, confirmed what national polls suggest: Americans have soured on the war and tuned it out.
"I was pretty much a staunch supporter at first; we seemed to be doing the right thing,'' said Tom Williams, a soft-spoken 42-year-old computer network manager in Oxford, Pa. "I'm not so sure about the war any longer, and I think most people just don't dwell on it.''
A former Marine, Williams is the uncle of Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony L. Williams, who at age 21 was killed in an IED explosion in Helmand Province in March 2009.
"I am confused and very concerned about our current role and mission in Afghanistan,'' Williams said. "I think we don't have a clear focus. And to me, it's very unfortunate we are asking these young people to make that sacrifice if we don't have a clear idea of what we're doing. Any loss of life at this point in my own mind, nothing justifies it. I don't see where we have an end game or a strategy.''
National opinion surveys suggest that most Americans are equally dispirited. About half of Americans say they don't believe the United States is winning or will be ''successful'' in Afghanistan. In a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in mid-summer, for instance, 55 percent said the United States "will not be successful in eliminating the threat from terrorists operating from Afghanistan.''
In a Gallup poll also conducted in July, 60 percent said the war was going "moderately badly'' or "very badly,'' while 37 percent thought the war was going well. A Fox News poll in June found 58 percent convinced it is not possible "to achieve stability in the region.'' Asked by CNN/Opinion Research in August if they thought the United States "can or cannot win the war,'' respondents split 49-49 percent.
"I don't think we have figured out this kind of war,'' said Ralph Denlinger, a retired high school science teacher in Oxford. "How do you 'win' this kind of war?'' he wondered.
Pennsylvania's mostly Republican16th Congressional District, which picked John McCain over Obama in 2008, encompasses the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish farm country around Lancaster, a broad swath of blue-collar families, well-to-do retirees, an active Quaker and Mennonite pacifist community, and newly arrived Mexican farm laborers.
Across that spectrum, "people are anxious and angry'' about jobs and government spending, but they "hardly ever'' bring up the war, said Rep. Joe Pitts, a six-term Republican running for re-election. When he mentions Afghanistan at campaign events, it's often in the context of urging more humanitarian aid. "It's a serious situation, very troubling ... very complex,'' he said about Afghanistan. "It needs to be done right, but I'm not sure there is a military solution.''
His challenger, former AT&T executive Lois Herr, has twice lost congressional races to Joe Pitts, by substantial margins (39-56 percent in 2008). This time, she hopes an anti-incumbent tide – and her blunt opposition to the war – will put her into office. She opposed Obama's decision last December to send 30,000 more troops into battle.
"A military solution is unlikely,'' she said, adding her doubts that "anything will work. We've wasted so many years and so many lives with the wrong strategies, and to try to impose our way of government on an area of the world with a history like Afghanistan is just foolhardy.''
She favors sending more civilians, but acknowledges they will need troops to protect them.
"It's a matter of having no good alternatives,'' she said about war strategy.
But she also acknowledges the issue has not caught fire on the campaign trail. "It does not register very much, at all,'' she said, "although there is some talk that if we are going to fight terrorism, Afghanistan is not the place to be.''
But she is not critical of those without strong opinions on the war – or solutions. "It's so hard for those of us who are so far away,'' she said, "trying to work with the limited knowledge we get.''
Connie Winchester, a grandmotherly 75-year-old in Oxford, said tartly that if the United States does have a strategy, "it hasn't worked out very well.''
She said she is "very concerned'' about Afghanistan and supports President Obama's intention to begin withdrawing troops next July. "But part of me understands we can't just leave suddenly, and I know that's inconsistent,'' she said, "I just don't know all the answers. To me, it's just scary that we're there.''
"It is a complicated thing and I don't have a solution – I don't know if there IS one,'' agreed Billy Bilger, who has kept a barber shop on Oxford's South 3rd Street for 40 years. His storefront displays a large "Proud to be an American'' poster.
"It might be a better idea if the United States would slow down before it gets involved'' in a place like Afghanistan, he added. "Are these people really our allies? Would they do the same for us?''
Down the road at Oxford Area High School, principal David C. Madden counsels the few students who want to enlist. A former Marine, Madden tells them: "Understand you are going to Afghanistan, and you better make sure you are absolutely willing to make that ultimate sacrifice.''
Last year – the same year Lance Cpl. Williams was buried at Beulah Baptist Church in Oxford – nine kids from the school enlisted in the Marine Corps. Madden finds it incomprehensible that the war is still demanding more youth. A close friend of Madden's is a Marine first sergeant and has done several combat tours. His son just graduated from Marine boot camp and will be deploying. "Now his own kid is going out there,'' said Madden. "It just doesn't seem real.''
His own view: Do what it takes to win, or get out.
But the war does seem far away from the bucolic rolling hills and old stone walls of southern Pennsylvania. "For a country at war, we don't live the kind of life I remember from World War II,'' said Bert Greenwald, a retiree. "We are insulated from it unless we have somebody in the family, or friends, who are killed or injured.
"Other than that, we don't realize the depths of what's going on.''
Voters Sour on Afghan War and Doubt That America Can Win
