The Iraq War will end soon, but the conflict has largely lost the attention of many members of the Duke community.
President Barack Obama announced Oct. 21 that U.S. forces in Iraq will be fully withdrawn by the end of 2011. U.S. troops entered Iraq March 2003, but after nine years, the American public has shifted its focus to domestic issues. Many at Duke similarly believe that the end of the war has just been a long time coming.
Senior Paul Salem, a sniper with the U.S. Marine Corps who served eight months in Iraq before coming to Duke, said the war now lies at the periphery of his mental radar.
“The Iraq War certainly seems to have receded from the public consciousness,” said Salem, who served with a mobile assault platoon from July 2005 to February 2006. “Being at Duke, my attention has been on school. My consciousness of the war has receded to some more obscure part of my mind. I haven’t been reading about it much, and I haven’t been thinking about it much, so most people in the wider public probably haven’t been either.”
Salem’s said that although outlook for the post-war Iraq is uncertain, at the very least Duke students and Americans should consider the sacrifices made as well as the reasons behind them.
“I would like to see America, and Duke for that matter, simply think about this war,” he said. “I know that America is going to learn something from this war.... There will be some bottom line and some social movement—something that people will be able to assign to this war in hindsight. I just don’t know what it is yet.”
‘Less of an issue’
The Iraq War has not had the same impact on University culture as compared to earlier wars, said Peter Feaver, professor of political science and public policy studies and director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies.
“It has been less of an issue for Duke students than the Vietnam War was in the 1960s,” Feaver said. “Most students are preoccupied with other concerns.”
Feaver noted the preoccupation of Duke students is representative of the general public’s attitude and involvement with the Iraqi conflict and added that the focus of the political landscape had shifted to other issues.
“The average American is similarly preoccupied with other matters,” he said. “Media coverage has waned and there have been fewer headlines. It’s less of a contentious issue in Washington, so it gets less coverage.... The policy debate now happens with less political grandstanding than when it did when it was a high-profile issue—it isn’t the focus of political theater.”
The Iraq War did not lead to a draft or a monumental growth in civilians enlisting, which may have led to less attention from the American public, said junior Jake Kuhn. As a result, the gap between soldier and civilian may have grown over time.
“Everybody went as volunteers,” Kuhn said. “This war lacked the unity of our fathers’ wars.”
Kuhn and sophomore Elizabeth Hannah both said they are pleased that the combat is coming to an end.
“Obama is finally fulfilling his promise that he made years ago,” sophomore Elizabeth Hannah said. “This withdrawal was really overdue.”
Although the public may be paying less attention to military affairs, it remains supportive of the armed forces, said Lt. Col. Peter Oertel, commander of the Duke Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps.
“The sense of patriotism and pride in their country is still alive and well in America’s young adults,” Oertel added. “Duke appears to have a healthy, positive relationship to military personnel.”
Appropriate timing
Bruce Jentleson, professor of public policy studies and political science, noted that other Middle Eastern affairs may have shifted collective attention from the Iraq War and signified that the United States has other obligations in the region.
“Our priority interests in the Middle East are Arab-Israeli peace and the Arab Spring,” Jentleson wrote in an email Thursday. “We need to focus our attention on these.... Concerns about Iran can be addressed without continued U.S. troops in Iraq.”
In addition to concerns outside of Iraq, Jentleson noted the internal struggles in the state that may not be properly addressed by the American military and may instead require a diplomatic solution. Resolving Sunni-Shia-Kurd sectarian conflicts is priority, and a continued U.S. military presence has been manipulated by the Iraqi government to avoid rather than facilitate these political discussions.
The withdrawal, however, will be relatively unimportant to both the Republican and Obama campaigns in the upcoming 2012 presidential election, said Pope McCorkle, visiting lecturer in public policy studies. He noted the chronological distance from the war and the fact that it was birthed by former President George W. Bush’s administration as reasons why Obama’s campaign will likely remain mostly unaffected by the Iraq War and the withdrawal.
“I don’t know that it adds up to very much politically in either way,” McCorkle said. “[The Iraq War] hurt Bush and the Republicans so dramatically in the 2006 elections that I don’t think anybody thinks of Iraq as Obama’s war. Afghanistan is one thing, but I don’t think that Obama is really on the hot seat for Iraq unless something really negative happens in the region like a swift Iranian takeover.”
As long as Iraq stays relatively peaceful, this will likely lift a “slight negative” from Obama’s campaign, McCorkle added, noting that Obama’s recent foreign policy successes will also keep Republicans from challenging his campaign much in this area.
The aftermath
The best possible outcome of the war is for the state of Iraq to stand on its own, Salem said.
“As the war fades into history, I’m curious to see how it unfolds,” he said. “It’s going to be really interesting and really important to those who served there and those who sacrificed for that war to happen—to people who died and people who served.... We want to get something for our sacrifices.”
Hannah said she is not hopeful that the Iraq War will create a positive legacy for the United States. The war perpetuated the stereotype of the U.S. as an aggressor and a meddler in the affairs of other countries, adding that veterans may not be welcomed home and remembered as warmly as they should be.
Although the war may have faded from public memory, Salem said he hopes that people will remember each individual soldier for the sacrifices he or she made to both Iraq and the United States.
“There are two names on the veteran memorial by the Chapel of Duke graduates who died in the Iraq war,” Salem said. “I never met those guys, but I think about their names when I walk past. I hope other people do too.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.