When it comes to public dissent over an American war effort, only the Vietnam War matches the 9/11 era. The multi-trillion-dollar combined cost of the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan has thrown a haymaker punch at the economy.

But in focusing on costs alone, it is possible to forget about the important attempt to bury terrorism and build more constructive societies. Internal issues may blind citizens at home, but the efforts of U.S. soldiers haven’t gone unappreciated.

Sgt. Steve Holmberg of Syracuse University’s ROTC got firsthand confirmation when he brought in an Afghan professor who works at SU to speak in his culture class last fall. A student asked if the Afghan people appreciated the U.S. military being in their country.

“He said, ‘Hands down, yes,’ the average person loves that we are there creating jobs for them, jump-starting their economy and empowering the local nationals to take control of their country,” Holmberg said.

Holmberg has been deployed three separate times, once to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, between 2003 and 2010. After 35 months between the three tours of working upwards of 20 hours a day for seven days a week, the moment provided an intrinsic vindication for Holmberg because it came from a firsthand account.

“It felt great because I actually got confirmation from an average person. It was from the horse’s mouth himself,” Holmberg said.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were spurred largely by anti-American motivations of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The first objective in both campaigns was to topple the ideologies of Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq and bin Laden’s Taliban in Afghanistan.

The military succeeded in both cases upon initial invasion. American forces pushed the Taliban out of the Afghan capital of Kabul in October 2001 and overthrew Hussein in April 2003. Then, the real objective began: repairing these broken, leaderless societies in the democratic image practiced by the world’s leading nations.

Michael Kubala, SU professor of military science and lieutenant colonel, compared the lengthy process of fixing the countries to Russia’s transformation into a capitalist state in the early 1990s. It was a process he saw firsthand while stationed in Moscow, Russia, in the fall of 1992.

“They weren’t really sure how this whole capitalism thing was going to work,” Kubala said. “The stores were still working under some of the old Soviet pricing. I bought a couple books one time and I was equating the dollar with the super devalued Russian ruble, and I realized, ‘These books only cost 4 cents.’ It was before the economics had caught up with the political action.”

Terry Finley, Syracuse ROTC instructor and career Special Forces commander, was one of the tactical leaders in the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom back in 2004. Much of his written paperwork even passed through the hands of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for approval.

Finley said processes like Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan take years when they begin under such dire straits.

“After Saddam died, their army, air force, security, police and all other systems of order just disbanded,” Finley said. “Just think of New York if there was no police, the firemen took off their uniforms, there was no National Guard and no Army. It would be chaotic.  Anyone with a gun could do anything they want. That’s what happened in Iraq.”

Kubala relates the situation to another one of his early military experiences: the Gulf War in the early 1990s as part of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield. It was when the U.S. evacuated the Persian Gulf immediately after its victory, instead of overthrowing Hussein and starting the rebuilding process a decade earlier.

Holmberg said these discussions are fundamentally American in the first place and it’s the reason we strive to create similar freedoms in less-fortunate societies.

“Iraq was much more primitive and rudimentary back then,” Kubala said. “They hadn’t worked a lot of resourcing in terms of improving the quality of life. Once we pushed them back, we got out and it was over really quickly.”

He explained how most people blame the first Bush administration for not squashing Hussein when they had the opportunity.

Said Kubala: “They have the right to demonstrate. They have the right to protest. They have the right to not like the military. But I fight for their right to have all those perspectives.”

Published on September 11, 2012 at 1:59 am

Contact Jarrad: jdsaffre@syr.edu