{"id":2363724,"date":"2024-11-04T09:46:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T14:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-veterans-really-hate-liz-cheney-and-kamala-harris\/"},"modified":"2024-11-04T09:48:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T14:48:22","slug":"why-veterans-really-hate-liz-cheney-and-kamala-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-veterans-really-hate-liz-cheney-and-kamala-harris\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Veterans Really Hate Liz Cheney And Kamala Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-veterans-really-hate-liz-cheney-and-kamala-harris%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2363724&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The recent controversy surrounding Donald Trump&#8217;s criticism of Liz \u200cCheney as\u2062 a \u200c&#8221;warhawk&#8221; has highlighted a growing resentment among many veterans\u200b of\u2063 the Global\u2063 War\u200c on \u2062Terrorism (GWOT) toward Kamala\u2063 Harris and the Democratic\u200b Party. This\u200b animosity stems from the perception that Harris and the Democrats have\u2062 aligned \u2064themselves with three groups\u2062 that veterans feel have betrayed them: neoconservatives who initiated the GWOT, media and Democrats who undermined military missions,\u200c and generals who failed to achieve success in \u2063these conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>1. **Neoconservatives**: \u200cMany \u200dveterans \u200cview figures like Liz\u2062 Cheney\u2014seen as a symbol of neoconservatives who\u200c advocate for endless wars without having served\u2014as emblematic of the \u2064betrayal\u2063 perpetrated \u200dby those who promoted these conflicts without bearing the risks themselves. Veterans feel frustrated that these same advocates now \u2062turn \u200dagainst the \u200done \u2063president (Trump) who did\u200b not start new wars.<\/p>\n<p>2. **Democrats and the Media**: Veterans\u200b also harbor resentment toward Democrats and the media for their roles in shaping public\u2063 opinion against \u200cthe wars, which veterans \u200bsee as undermining their efforts. The perception is that the \u2064negative coverage and protests contributed\u2064 to the weakening\u2062 of national resolve during the conflicts, which many \u2062veterans believe directly aided enemy \u2062groups \u200dlike\u200c Al Qaeda and the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>3. **Military Generals**: Lastly,\u200b many veterans feel disillusioned with military leaders \u2064who they believe failed in command and who now \u2062criticize\u200c Trump while endorsing Harris. Veterans point \u2062to the ineffective strategies and \u200dleadership\u2064 of these generals as\u200c contributing factors \u2063to\u2063 the \u200dchaos in the\u2063 wars they fought.<\/p>\n<p>this sentiment reflects \u200ca profound sense \u200bof \u200bbetrayal \u200bby those who are perceived as aligning against \u2062the veterans&#8217; experiences and sacrifices,\u2062 leading many in the veteran community to feel \u200ba strong allegiance to Trump over Harris. They feel that their sacrifices were wasted \u2064on policies that were poorly \u2062conceived and\u2064 executed and that those responsible now seek\u200c to distance \u2063themselves from \u200caccountability. The lingering effects of their experiences continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">leave deep\u2062 emotional scars<\/a> \u2064on\u2064 many \u200cveterans, who\u2064 deal with the \u200cheavy toll of their service.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/11\/01\/politics\/donald-trump-liz-cheney-war-hawk-battle\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent controversy<\/a> regarding Donald Trump&rsquo;s criticism of Liz Cheney as a warhawk who has never faced the dangers of the wars she embraces has synthesized an issue that may be opaque to non-veterans: the extreme resentment many veterans of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) feel toward Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party. <\/p>\n<p>Harris and the Democrats have created a perfect storm of veteran disdain in that they have succeeded in uniting three once-inapposite groups behind Harris: the neocons who started the GWOT, the media and Democrats who undermined the veterans&rsquo; GWOT missions, and the generals who failed again and again and again at bringing the GWOT to a successful conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to understand the prevailing veteran rage against Harris and love for Trump, you need to understand this unholy trinity that so many veterans loathe.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;ll start with the neocon &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chickenhawk_(politics)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chickenhawks<\/a>.&rdquo; Maybe it&rsquo;s not fair to blame Liz Cheney for the GWOT as her father was its prime architect and not Liz herself, but she has come to serve as a symbol of the many advocates for useless, endless wars who never put their own lives (or the lives of their children) on the line, and who now support Kamala Harris. Liz Cheney stands as a symbol in this regard, and she stands for the many establishment Republicans who would rather support a radical Democrat than the only president in decades who did not start new wars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These are neocons like <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cheney-gonzales-harris-endorsement-trump-mainstream-republicans-224d7be9ee7ebb6dc699bca5339a4458\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/several-efforts-bill-kristol-republicans-095900332.html?guccounter=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bill Kristol<\/a>, and the infamous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/kamala-harris-endorsement-bush-mccain-romney-staff\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">200-plus Republican former staffers for George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and John McCain<\/a> who helped design the GWOT. These are the people who put GWOT veterans into the cauldron that left them and so many of their friends dead, maimed, or bearing invisible scars that linger even today.<\/p>\n<p>I served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. I was committed to our missions when I was there, and I know we did great good for so many citizens of those two countries. But in the end &mdash; given how those wars ended &mdash; I have to admit it was all for naught. Defeating al Qaeda and bin Laden in Afghanistan was the one mission that actually mattered, and the rest of what we did in those two wars was, sadly, a waste of time, money, and lives.<\/p>\n<p>To have the architects of those useless, endless wars now turn on the one president who really cared about not squandering our lives feels like an injustice. Many of us stood by those neocons &mdash; even defended them in our private lives against slanderous lies &mdash; and now they turn on us by opposing the one man who vows that these sorts of wars will end. It is painful and feels like a betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>The second leg of the unholy trinity is the Democrats and their media lackeys who helped us lose those wars &mdash; the same people those treacherous neocons have now allied themselves with.<\/p>\n<p>Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Taliban in Afghanistan both knew they could never defeat us in battle toe-to-toe. Our technology, our forces, our training, and our tactics were unbeatable. Instead, AQI and the Taliban adopted Ho Chi Minh&rsquo;s Vietnam war strategy: bleed the Americans dry so the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-lead-fight-to-defund-vaccine-mandate-over-government-funding-bill\/\" title=\"Conservatives Lead Fight to Defund Vaccine Mandate over Government Funding Bill\">folks back home<\/a> would abandon the war effort. They knew that if they could turn the national will against our mission, America would quit. <\/p>\n<p>They were right. Every IED attack was made not against the soldiers or Marines it killed or maimed, but against the folks back home watching CNN. The &ldquo;death counts&rdquo; on TV were the ultimate goal of our enemies. <\/p>\n<p>When I returned from Iraq in 2004, I was shocked at how disconnected the news reports were from the reality on the ground, and I was shocked to see those same Democrats who sent us to war now suddenly turning against our mission. The daily march of Democrats with giant Dick Cheney puppet heads on the National Mall and the endless chants of &ldquo;Bush Lied, People Died&rdquo; served precisely the purpose AQI and the Taliban intended: to break the national will. To many of us returning vets, it felt that our own countrymen were giving aid and comfort to our enemy, helping them fulfill that enemy&rsquo;s strategic objective. This too felt like a betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>The last leg of the trinity of veteran betrayal is the generals who could not win those same wars, retired from the military and went deep into the military-industrial complex, and now endorse Harris and demean Trump. These are generals like Stan McChrystal, who gave us such <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/articles\/2010\/7\/8\/rules-of-engagement-in-afghanistan-spark-ideas-for-how-to-prevent-civilian-casualties\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">restrictive rules of engagement<\/a> in Afghanistan that it cost the lives of so many troops. These are generals like John Kelly, whose counterinsurgency tactics solved so little in Al Anbar Province and who now libels the boss who fired him in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2024\/10\/trump-military-generals-hitler\/680327\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Atlantic magazine<\/a>. These are generals like Michael Hayden, whose tenure at the National Security Agency did nothing to prevent 9\/11, yet who found ways to use that tragic day as an excuse to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/nsa-spying\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spy on Americans<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>These are the generals who led us in wars that they were not competent enough to win. Their leadership failed, no one was held to account, and now these same men stand proudly against the one president who would not tolerate those failures nor repeat them. This too feels like a betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>Three groups, three betrayals. So many veterans feel like I do &mdash; not all, but many.<\/p>\n<p>America called on us to go to war. We answered the call because we love our country. We fought bravely. We lost friends. Some gave all, all gave some. Those of us who came home without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/were-sending-your-children-vet-issues-withering-response-to-liz-cheney-firing-squad-lie\/\" title=\"&#039;We&#039;re Sending Your Children&#039;: Vet Issues Withering Response to Liz Cheney &#039;Firing Squad&#039; Lie\">visible scars bear invisible<\/a> ones. Some who bear those invisible scars take their own lives even today because those scars are too much to bear.<\/p>\n<p>We knew this was the cost going in. We fought anyway because it&rsquo;s who we are.<\/p>\n<p>What we did not count on, though, was the politicians who sent us to those two decades of useless, endless war deciding in 2024 that they would rather support more war and not less by endorsing Kamala Harris. We did not count on Harris&rsquo; Democrat Party &mdash; Americans like us &mdash; and their media lackeys facilitating the strategic objectives of our enemies. Lastly, we did not count on the generals, who failed in leading us, selling out President Trump for their own personal gain and allying themselves with those same architects and proponents of defeat. This is the cause of our fury.<\/p>\n<p>Kamala Harris has accomplished something quite remarkable. She has assembled these three disparate groups into an improbable unholy trinity that now personifies the 1935 warning of Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler: &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/War_Is_a_Racket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">War is a Racket<\/a>.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In creating this unholy trinity, Harris has focused and distilled the righteous fury of America&rsquo;s cohort of GWOT veterans into a unified force against her and in favor of her opponent, Donald Trump: the one man veterans trust not to commit them to that killing racket unnecessarily.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a sense, perhaps we should thank Harris for exposing the perfidy of those we once trusted. Instead, we will vote for her opponent and for a U.S. military that is called upon only when national survival is at stake. It&rsquo;s not that we are afraid to die &mdash; it&rsquo;s that we are no longer willing to die for nothing.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Cynical Publius is the nom de plume of a retired U.S. Army colonel and practicing attorney. The Federalist verifies the identity of its pseudonymous authors. You can follow Cynical Publius on X at <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CynicalPublius\">@CynicalPublius<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veterans resent Kamala Harris and the Democrats for their actions during the GWOT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3355,"featured_media":2363725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-03-at-3.52.25%E2%80%AFPM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32438,40143,44316,5894,4873],"class_list":["post-2363724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-kamala-harris","tag-liz-cheney","tag-military-issues","tag-politics","tag-veterans"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-03-at-3.52.25%E2%80%AFPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2363724"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2363728,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363724\/revisions\/2363728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2363725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2363724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2363724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2363724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}