The African-American Perspective on the Iraq War or…We Told You So (And Why It Matters)
31 Aug 2010 Author: Jill Tubman
I have to say — along with the Inauguration, the president’s first speech to the nation on Haiti and the passage of healthcare reform, this is probably going to be one of my favorite moments to date of Barack Obama’s presidency, reminding me why we all worked so very hard to get a brother elected in the first place. Congratulations on another promise kept.
80% of African-Americans thought before the war in Iraq started that it was a bad idea. That’s partly because 25% of the Armed Forces are black — at twice the percentage of our population. It means if you’re black, you’re more likely than most Americans to know someone who might be put in harm’s way in active combat — a relative, a friend or a co-worker. In my case, I know people personally in each of those categories who were sent to Iraq, their lives disrupted and endangered for an unnecessary mission. What’s left behind — friends and loved ones who pray for their safe and sane return. You don’t always get both of those, I’ve learned. You can see that yourself on the mean streets of America — too many of our cities’ homeless are military veterans, shamefully treated by the society they risked their lives to protect. If you know someone who’s going to have to go to war, it means you’re more likely to take that burden a bit more seriously. Our people are not toy soldiers, but flesh-and-blood men and women. From the Boston Globe:
Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, major polls showed that African-American support for the invasion was as low as 19 percent, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, while white support ran between 58 percent and 73 percent in major polls.
Even today African-Americans by far lead the way in calling the war a mistake. According to Gallup, 85 percent of African Americans say it was a mistake, compared to 53 percent of white Americans. According to Pew, a plurality of white Americans, 49 percent, still say it was the right decision to invade Iraq, compared to 21 percent of African-Americans.
Our opinion matters as a people because without us, the military is starving for new recruits. Culturally speaking, it’s not just younger black folks who thought the war was wack but their parents, preachers and teachers. Here’s more from this excellent, must-read Boston Globe piece offering the African-American perspective on the war and why it’s so important given our history supplying the military with recruits:
Gregory Black, a retired Navy diver who last year started the website BlackMilitaryWorld.com, said that quote sums up what he too hears from African-American veterans of Iraq.
“African-Americans detest this war,” Black said yesterday in a phone interview. “Everybody kind of knows the truth behind this war. It’s a cash cow for the military defense industry, when you look at the money these contractors are making. African-Americans saw this at the beginning of the war and now the rest of the country has figured it out. It’s not benefiting us in the least.”
Asked about the reference to an “oilman’s war,” Black said, “It’s basically about oil, basically about money. It’s an economic war.” He said veterans are saying they are tired and burned out. “Guys are saying we’re halfway around the world fighting people of color under the guise of democracy and we can’t see how it’s benefited anyone,” Black said. “It’s hard to fight halfway around the world for people’s freedom when you’re not sure you have it at home.”
Today, we must turn our attention to the war in Afghanistan. It’s gone badly and is likely to take a nasty turn given the floods in neighboring Pakistan near the region in conflict. Desperate people are often targets for demagogues such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Black people in my experience at least tend to be more ambivalent about Afghanistan in contrast to Iraq which was just a crazy idea on the face of it.
Al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan when they attacked the U.S. on 9/11/2001. Busting some ass over there made sense at the time, but nowadays, it’s not clear if our presence is doing more harm than good while putting Team America in danger’s way. I hope the President will address his vision for peace in that area of the world in his speech tonight…
Photo credit: American soldiers salute while the national anthem is played during a ceremony marking Veterans Day at the U.S. Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
For African-Americans, folly of this war hits home
MILITARY SOCIOLOGIST David R. Segal was asked Monday over the telephone what he hears in his surveys of soldiers. He quoted an African-American veteran of the Iraq invasion and occupation: "This is not a black people's war. This is not a poor people's war. This is an oilman's war."
Gregory Black, a retired Navy diver who last year started the websiteBlackMilitaryWorld.com, said that quote sums up what he too hears from African-American veterans of Iraq.
"African-Americans detest this war," Black said yesterday in a phone interview. "Everybody kind of knows the truth behind this war. It's a cash cow for the military defense industry, when you look at the money these contractors are making. African-Americans saw this at the beginning of the war and now the rest of the country has figured it out. It's not benefiting us in the least."
Asked about the reference to an "oilman's war," Black said, "It's basically about oil, basically about money. It's an economic war." He said veterans are saying they are tired and burned out. "Guys are saying we're halfway around the world fighting people of color under the guise of democracy and we can't see how it's benefited anyone," Black said. "It's hard to fight halfway around the world for people's freedom when you're not sure you have it at home."
This war, launched under false pretenses, now has so little merit that the enrollment of African-Americans in the military may be at its lowest point since the creation of the all-volunteer military in 1973. In 2000, 23.5 percent of Army recruits were African-American. By 2005, the percentage dropped to 13.9 percent. National Public Radio this week quoted a Pentagon statistic that said that African-American propensity to join the military had dropped to 9 percent.
Technically, 13.9 percent is about the proportion of African-Americans in the general population. But the military's meritocracy has long been a disproportionate option for young African-Americans because of a disproportionate lack of career opportunities and decent public schools to prepare them for college.
The drop in African-American enrollment in the military may be as powerful a collective political statement about Iraq as when Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, major polls showed that African-American support for the invasion was as low as 19 percent, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, while white support ran between 58 percent and 73 percent in major polls.
Even today African-Americans by far lead the way in calling the war a mistake. According to Gallup, 85 percent of African Americans say it was a mistake, compared to 53 percent of white Americans. According to Pew, a plurality of white Americans, 49 percent, still say it was the right decision to invade Iraq, compared to 21 percent of African-Americans.
"African-Americans are always more sensitive to anything that smacks of neocolonialism, which this war did smack of," said Joint Center political analyst David Bositis.
Segal and Black said that sensitivity has nothing to do with patriotism. "What we're getting is not an opposition to war, but considerable opposition to this war," said Segal, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization. He has done soldier attitude surveys for the Army. "What we're seeing is a growing resentment that it feels to them that the military has gone to war, but not the nation. The military has gone to war, the nation has gone to Wal-Mart."
Black said that he still believes "without a shadow of a doubt" that the military still provides one of the best opportunities for African-Americans to advance in a nation where civilian opportunities remain checkered. But he said the military may underestimate how young people are absorbing the horrific images in Iraq's chaos. Pentagon officials largely attribute the drop in African-American interest in the armed forces to "influencers," parents, coaches, ministers, and school counselors who urge youth not to enlist.
"I think some of that is true," Black said. "But I taught ROTC in high school, and the kids themselves are a lot smarter about this stuff. They see the news and they can't justify going into a fight for something they have no faith in."
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com. 