Memorial Day, But Who Remembers?
Two years back, when we did a series about the civilian-military divide, some people would ask me: but where’s the divide?
So I knew they were a civilian.
So am I. Though I do have a some military friends, which I wouldn’t have thought was a thing worth mentioning until I learned that most civilians in the US can’t even claim to have a single friend who has served. That’s the divide.
This is a unique situation in American history, as I learned from reporter Quil Lawrence who brought us the series. In past wars, nearly every American family either had someone serving or knew someone who was. When the war heated up, millions of families wondered if that son or dad or friend was going to be OK. The far away war felt close to home. But in the last 20 years, we fought two of our longest wars with the smallest percentage of our population.
You might think the divide is eased now that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are “over.” But it also makes the divide more acute. Many of us have forgotten about those wars, others live each day with the scars. The cost of caring for war veterans goes up after a conflict. It’s not until the 2050s that those costs will peak.
The civilian-military divide can leave military families feeling alienated and misunderstood, and civilians feeling powerless to do anything more than wave flags. The civ-mil divide can weaken democracy and increase the moral hazard of overseas engagement.
So what do we do about this divide? I guess it starts with being aware that it is there.
Today’s audio clip is not a heavy story. The sun is shining, and there’s no need to get sad. This is a listener story about an everyday encounter with the civ-mil divide on the road.
Speaking of driving, if you are stuck in traffic and want an episode from this series to listen to, let me suggest Marla’s War, a two part series about Marla Ruzicka, a young anti-war activist caught between her activist family and her work protecting civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, crossing the civ-mil divide and paying for it. An epic journey that feels like a movie.
Wow, this post is perspective - shifting. I never thought of the divide as a general thing across the US, only my own experience as a civilian far-removed from the military and the broad strokes of the issues which arise from war seeming so far away from US life. Thinking of it as a divide makes me want to bridge it, or for us as a country to do so. Thank you so much.
this email gave me a heart pang because i remember these episodes so clearly. they were excellent story telling. I'm very sad to know that Rough Translation is over, but value this continued contact with the RT universe so very much