War in the Middle East came home for the families of three young soldiers, Sgt. William Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Sanders, and Spc. Breonna Moffett, the latest U.S. military reserve component casualties killed in Jordan in January. The three were assigned to an Engineer Company and were responsible for combat service support, not necessarily in combat roles.
This is the dangerous reality of serving in a reserve capacity under current foreign policy that I know all too well.
After a break in service from my Marine Corps enlistment, I re-enlisted, joining the National Guard. This was a chance to continue serving my country, but on a part-time basis. I expected my future to include a drill schedule of “one weekend a month, two weeks a year” as the recruiting commercials said, along with college and a regular job.
But Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything. What I foresaw as a smaller commitment to the Guard in peacetime morphed into multiple activations and two combat deployments.
The scope and scale of the Global War on Terror led to “all hands on deck” with regular active duty troops, National Guardsmen and reservists all suddenly deployable. Thousands of guard and reserve veterans share a story of expecting a part-time career, only to find themselves headed to a combat zone.
Of course, we all know when we join the military that war is a possibility, and we’re ready to go. But U.S. foreign policy in the last 23 years has created a reliance on guard and reserve resources as was never intended by Congress.
I’m always saddened by the loss of fellow service members, but especially the loss of fellow Guardsmen and reservists. Like many, I’m left questioning what national security purpose they were even serving in Jordan to have put them in such danger.
U.S. troops have been deployed to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries around the world in support of vague missions with no clear exit strategy for decades. More than 7,000 men and women have lost their lives in the conflicts since 9/11, and more than 30,000 veterans of those wars have lost their lives to suicide at home.
I’ve lost good friends to both combat and suicide, and each hit in a unique but gut-wrenching way.
These are the costs of America’s combat-first foreign policy. While the number of America’s sons and daughters who raise their hand in service is dwindling, we still send them unnecessarily into harm’s way and many come home in flag-draped coffins. Meanwhile, President Biden, DC lawmakers, and the foreign policy elites have little to say but a trite “thank you for your service.”
There’s a real way to thank those who served. There’s a meaningful way to honor Sgt. Rivers, and Spcs. Sanders and Moffett. And there’s a clear path to ensuring troops like them are not continually put in needless danger.
Washington needs to redeploy troops out of Iraq, Syria, and the greater Middle East to more strategic locations. Risky overseas deployments should be reserved for times, places, and missions that secure our safety at home. Many current Middle East deployments don’t meet those criteria, and as it stands, troops in these countries are sitting ducks for strikes from Iran-backed militias. We should stop giving Iran and its proxies needless leverage that endangers our troops.
The United States has the most powerful military in the world. Paired with the nature of combat in the Middle East, our strength creates the ability to use over-the-horizon capabilities to strike enemies of the United States.
Deploying troops should be our last resort, not our first.
Congress needs to start debating and voting on deployments and overseas operations, as is its constitutional responsibility. The White House justifies current operations in Iraq and Syria via the 2002 Authorization for use of Military Force, originally aimed at Saddam Hussein. Just over a tenth of current members of Congress even voted on that AUMF, meaning it’s deeply outdated and doesn’t reflect the will of the American people in 2024.
Now is the time for Congress to speak up, honor its duty, and hold the president accountable, making him work through Congress to deploy troops, not around Congress.
Our military community is mourning three of our own — three soldiers who did their duty but should never have been sent on their mission in the first place. To honor their deaths, we need to redeploy troops out of Iraq and Syria without delay, and rethink American foreign policy to end such heavy reliance on our National Guard and reserve components.
John Byrnes is a senior advisor to Concerned Veterans for America and a combat veteran of the United States Marine Corps and Army National Guard.