According to a Military Times survey of more than 750 active-duty troops, service members oppose military action in Syria by a rate of about three to one.
But one Army staff sergeants at Fort Hood claims it may be even higher than that, saying, “I haven’t heard on single person be supportive of it.”
The online study found that nearly 75 percent of troops are against retaliatory air strikes, while nearly 80 percent do not perceive military action to be in our nation’s best interest.
A poll conducted by Washington Post-ABC, published Monday, found 64 percent of Americans oppose air strikes, far less than those polled who are actively serving.
For many soldiers, one of the key factors used to make their decision is money.
“We don’t have money for anything else but we have a couple hundred million dollars to lob some Tomahawks and mount an expensive campaign in Syria? Said Army Sg.t 1st Class Chris Larue, a 39-year-old maintenance expert at Fort Eustis.
Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Harvey, a nuclear-trained officer who works at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, expressed his disdain.
“People are just sick of it,” he said. “It’s like the old pre-World War II isolationism. I hear grumblings of that. People would rather withdraw all our troops and let the rest of the world figure out what to do. I think there is a lot of credence to that argument.”
Those soldiers who are for a military strike in Syria expressed their primary decision making factors were humanitarian and moral in nature.
“It’s a moral issue. If we’re going to set ourselves up as the moral leaders in the world, then we have to act,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Noel Cumberland at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
Others agreed, including Army Staff Sgt. Derek Harris, who said, “I’m not talking about it from a national security standpoint or a political standpoint, I’m talking about human rights.”
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