Released: October 5, 2011 War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era
The Military-Civilian Gap Chapter 2: Attitudes of Post-9/11
Veterans Veterans who served on active duty during the post-9/11
era consider themselves more patriotic than other Americans, and
most see the military as an efficient and meritocratic
institution. They have a more positive view than the general
public about the overall worth of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars
and the tactics the military has used to wage them. Even so,
only one-third (34%) of these veterans say that both wars have
been worth fighting. Looking at the conflicts individually, 50%
of post-9/11 veterans say the decade-old war in Afghanistan has
been worth fighting and 44% view the 8½-year-old conflict in
Iraq the same way—approval levels that are nine and eight
percentage points higher, respectively, than among the general
public. Post-9/11 veterans also assess these wars somewhat more
favorably than do veterans who served prior to the terrorist
attacks a decade ago. Post-9/1