Are Americans Tired Of War?

U.S. Marines load onto a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter during a mission in Afghanistan's Helmand province, May 1, 2014. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joseph Scanlan

The U.S. Military: Sidelined by a Fatigued Nation -- Mark Thompson, Time

After more than a decade of war, no longer the global cop on the beat

In recent years, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s troops have brutalized their fellow citizens. They’d killed about 2,000 civilians when President Obama told him, nearly three years ago, that it was time for Assad to step down. Since then, Obama has drawn a “red line” against Syrian use of chemical weapons that Assad ignored—and another 150,000 have died. The U.S. military has stood on the sidelines.

In recent weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has unilaterally redrawn Europe’s post-World War II borders by snatching Crimea from Ukraine. Since that deft move, he has acted as a Slavic Geppetto in eastern Ukraine, sowing enough discord in the former Soviet state to keep it off balance, unable to puncture Moscow’s sphere of influence. Beyond dispatching small, tripwire forces to nearby NATO nations, the U.S. military has remained at parade rest.

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My Comment: On the one hand the U.S. has disengaged from Iraq and are now disengaging from Afghanistan. On the other hand .... the U.S. is now directly involved in a number of conflicts. Case in point .... sending weapons to Syria's rebels, hunting down terrorists in Yemen, supporting the French in Mali, training Libyan security forces, targeting Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan .... these are just a few of the many operations that U.S. forces now find themselves involved in. So are Americans getting tired of war? My answer is a maybe for the bigger wars .... but for the smaller conflicts the perception that I am getting is that the American public appears to be indifferent.