Listening to Veterans About the Costs of War

By Phil Anderson, Coordinator for the WBW Upper Midwest Chapter, October 20, 2024

A majority of post 9/11 veterans in the United States believe the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not worth fighting. This is the finding of research by the Pew Research Center. It is also the message of the independent film “What I Want You to Know.”

Veterans For Peace (with a coalition of partners) recently brought this film to Duluth, Minnesota for two showings on the campuses of the College of St. Scholastica and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Garett Reppenhagen, one of the veterans featured in the film, led six conversations with students and the public about his combat experiences, the costs of his moral injury, and PTSD.

This 90 minute movie delivers profoundly honest veteran experiences from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a courageous and unblinking look at the cost and consequences of war, and the moral tragedy of sending America’s young men and women to fight wars their country has no need to fight.

The 13 veterans in this film were told their mission was to protect America, defend our freedoms and help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. But what they found on the ground was shockingly different. These veterans brought home lifelong physical and mental injuries from their deployments. They also brought home questions…What was it all for? Why were we lied to? What’s to stop it from happening again?

Too often the American people don’t want to know what these veterans really experienced or how it affected them. It is easier to “thank” veterans for their service and forget the costs of these wars.

The film ends with the veterans asking all of us to be better citizens and take responsibility for the actions of our government. They ask that we insist our government stop creating unnecessary wars of choice. As one of the veterans in the movie says, “Until the American public acknowledges the lies that were told to us – what actually happened on the ground there and the consequences of war – then it is hard to imagine how we are not going to repeat the same mistakes. It is hard for me to see that in 20 years my children will be called up to fight in the next war that did not need to happen.”’

Over two days of events about 450 – 500 people heard the message of this excellent film and Garret’s excellent talks.

Garett is the son of a Vietnam veteran and grandson of two World War II veterans. He served in the Army as a sniper and was deployed to Kosovo in 2002 on a peacekeeping mission. He served a combat tour in Iraq in 2004, which was involuntarily extended for 10 months. He was honorably discharged in 2005.

All this could not have happened without the financial and promotional support of these co-sponsors: the Alworth Center for the Study of Peace & Justice, the Veterans Resource Center, the Philosophy and the Honors Programs at the College of St. Scholastica; the Alworth Institute for International Studies, the Honors Program and the Department of Communication at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Veterans and Nontraditional Student Services at the University of Wisconsin-Superior; Veterans For Peace Ch. 80; Northland Grandmothers for Peace; and World BEYOND War.