Marine veteran John Koehler was eager to serve his country back in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War. He loves, especially, what the Marine Corps did for him as a young man trying to find his way.
“I look at it as kind of a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said. “I got the kick in the tail end that I needed and the motivation I needed. I got my GED through the Marine Corps.”
But looking back more than a half century later, Koehler sees that war as a blunder. He feels the same way, he says, about Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s not that he’s turned his back on his fellow veterans, though. Far from it. Koehler is an active member of more than a half-dozen veterans’ organizations and a founder and facilitator of Fox Cities Veterans Roundtable, which advocates for veterans in the area. For the past 11 years, he’s been a member of Veterans for Peace.
Koehler remembers his thoughts on the morning of March 2, when he first heard that the Trump administration had unleashed a saturation bombing campaign against Iranian leaders and military infrastructure.
“I can’t remember feeling that way since they went into Iraq and I saw ‘shock and awe,’” he said, referring to the phrase the Bush administration employed to describe its bombing campaign against Sadaam Hussein. “And seeing the Cabinet looking at all the bombs exploding like it was some type of TV show.”
Despite his distaste for the U.S. action in Iraq, Koehler views the Trump administration’s war against Iran with even greater disdain, arguing that it has been launched with even less preparation and calling it a war of choice.
“They were absolutely wrong about what they did,” Koehler said of the Iraq war. “(Secretary of Defense) Cheney says we’ll be greeted as liberators. They had their heads up their butts, but they had some competence. (The Trump administration has) no competence. God only knows what they’re going to do next, and they don’t know what they’re going to do next.
“So I was just sick.”
Koehler, who lost a brother – also a Vietnam Vet – to suicide following the war, points to what critics have deemed callous comments from Secretary of State Pete Hegseth in response to six U.S. soldiers’ deaths in the aftermath of the campaign as well as the deaths of more than 150 Iraqi schoolgirls. Hegseth complained that media outlets were reporting on the deaths while ignoring the mission’s successes for the purpose of hurting President Trump
“War is hell and always will be,” Hegseth said.
Rationale for war still uncertain
Koehler, who spent Saturday with a group of anti-war protesters at Houdini Plaza, was offended by those remarks, which he saw as cavalier.
“I was thinking about the thousands of people that are going to die, the civilian deaths, the billions of dollars we’re going to put into this thing, the lost Americans,” he said. “And I think of my brother, and I think to myself, you know, it’s not only the casualties during the war, but after they come home and screwed up families and suicides and all of the other residuals.
“It’s offensive to a lot of veterans that they’re playing war games without regard to the soldiers.”
The Trump administration, in concert with Israel, launched a fierce bombing campaign on March 1, killing, it has now been confirmed, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials and decimating a large portion of Iran’s military capacity. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered as a rationale for the attack the opportunity for the U.S. to strike Iran before it likely lashed out at U.S. targets in the region following Israel’s own planned bombing campaign. But that justification has since been walked back by the administration, which has all but admitted the United States was not under imminent threat when it took action.
Dennis Van Hoof, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam from 1966 until 1968, was also at Houdini Plaza on Saturday, protesting U.S. action. He says he wasn’t surprised at all when he heard the news.
“Well, he does this all the time,” Van Hoof said. “You know he’s always going to attack somebody. It’s Greenland, it’s somebody else. Doesn’t make any difference, but I had anticipated that from the way he was talking, because he’s a screwball, and you just never know.”
‘He’s done a lot of damage’
Van Hoof, like Koehler, finds it especially galling, given Trump’s use of bone spurs as a means to avoid the Vietnam War. He also pointed to Trump’s infamous comments during a D-Day ceremony in France in 2018, remarks former White House Chief of Staff and retired four-star Marine General John Kelly has since confirmed.
“I remember he was in Europe, and they were going to go up to Flanders Field to visit the cemetery, and he called soldiers ‘losers and suckers,’” Van Hoof said. “So he’s got no comprehension whatsoever of what he’s gotten us involved in. He’s arrogant and unsettled. He’s done a lot of damage to this country.”
Congressman Tony Wied responded with a call of support for President Trump’s actions in Iran.
“There is no doubt that the death of the Ayatollah and other senior Iranian leaders is an objectively good thing for world peace and America’s national security,” he said via e-mail. “Like the vast majority of Americans, I do not want to see a prolonged war in the Middle East, and I know President Trump has made it clear in the past that he shares that view. Our number one focus now should be the protection of our brave men and women in uniform, and I urge everyone to join me in praying for their safety and swift return home.”
For Rick Crosson, a candidate in the Democratic primary that will challenge Wied for his seat, what is happening in Iran is personal. Crosson served for more than 20 years in the Army, serving as a Lieutenant Colonel and Master Army Aviator.
“My son’s last day in the Army, ironically, was the day an unlawful war was launched without congressional authorization or oversight,” Crosson said. “While we celebrated his military retirement with his family and fellow comrades in arms, we prayed for our servicemen and women, some of them having now paid the ultimate sacrifice.
“I’m mad as hell. Our country needs responsible leadership in Congress, not sycophants and yes men, who allow presidential unilateralism. No amount of argument and obfuscation can convince us that what this administration is doing is lawful and necessary.”
‘Undiplomatic and reckless’
Koehler said he is at pains to discern a rationale for the attack, one that makes sense to him anyway.
“I’ve heard some explanations,” he said. “Yeah, they have nuclear weapons, which doesn’t jive with what Trump said back in June. He (said he) totally obliterated the whole program. And then I listened this morning and Pete Hegseth was kind of all over the place, and to talk the way he did, you would never think that a Secretary of State would be as kind of myopic on some of these things.
“He explained that we went there because they had conventional weapons, and they were going to use those to protect their nuclear arsenal. And we couldn’t wait. And, I mean, that was something that I’ve never heard before. And he said that any nation that crosses us, we’re going to find you and we’re going to kill you. And I thought, good lord, the United States never talks like that. Just so undiplomatic and so reckless.”
Ben Murray, a former candidate for the State Assembly and a 13-year member of the U.S. Navy, said he is flummoxed by the Trump administration’s actions, saying anyone who supports the war should be ashamed.
“What are we doing?” he said. “The American people can’t afford groceries. The price of electricity and gas is up. Housing is more expensive now than ever. And the so-called peace candidate decides to bomb a country that didn’t and wasn’t going to attack us? This is just another quagmire in the middle east where American blood will be spilled for absolutely no reason.”
‘It makes me angry’
Koehler said what also makes this war different from Iraq and Afghanistan is the lack of a significant coalition supporting the U.S. Forty-nine countries made up the so-called Coalition of the Willing in Iraq while 50 nations backed the United States efforts in Afghanistan. Only a few countries have offered tepid support for the action in Iran, with Spain refusing to allow the U.S. use of joint air and naval bases.
“With the last wars, we got input from Congress,” Koehler said. “We had a coalition of countries that were going to sign up with us. This one was done by an autocratic leader and the people in his inner circle. I hope everything turns out all right, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Van Hoof and Koehler estimate that Trump probably has the enthusiasm of about half the troops, something that, given Trump’s own avoidance of the military and his degrading comments about soldiers, makes them scratch their heads. Koehler said he’s been forced to leave several veterans Facebook groups because of what he saw as rabidly pro-war and anti-Muslim.
“The combat vets that I know would never say that war is a good thing or that it’s fun killing people,” he said. “So I think it’s kind of a mixed thing. I think that the military tends to be pro-Republican and pro-Trump. Because he’s a strong man and they like a strong man. But I think the officers tend to know a few more things than the lower branches and aren’t that way.”
Van Hoof, who calls himself a political independent who won’t vote for any Republicans as long as the party remains in President Trump’s hands, but who is not exactly enamored of Democrats either, says he had a conversation two days after the war started with people who he knew were supporters of President Trump. He took note of how little they challenged him when he held forth with his opinions.
“I was kind of the bully on the block,” he said with a laugh. “I said, ‘So what are we going to do about this war?’ I carry a photo with me all the time of a young lady who’s 13 or 14 years old, which I showed them. The side of her face is damaged from shrapnel or burns.
“And I said how can we tolerate that as a people? Yeah, and I’m not trying to be a Christian or a social worker or anything, but I’m just saying there’s ‘collateral damage,’ as Pete Hegseth calls it. Well, he doesn’t know and the president doesn’t know that when you get into a war, there’s always going to be collateral damage.
“And I looked at them and said, okay, how many grandkids do you have? Do you want to send your grandsons to fight that war? And they didn’t try to justify it. At that particular point they were not willing to challenge me.”
For Koehler, the service people who give to their country should not be taken lightly. The actions of the Trump administration suggest to him it doesn’t hold dear those sacrifices.
“It makes me angry,” he said. “I care a lot about our country. My grandfather served in World War One. My dad was in Korea. My two brothers served. And I don’t consider myself a military family, but you know, it does mean something we gave years for our country and for good government and that kind of thing. And to see what’s happening now with Trump? Never in a million years.
“So I’m very, very angry about it. And what do I do? Well, I get out on the street, I talk to people as much as I can. I call my congressman. And most importantly, I think I try to speak up for those that are disenfranchised.”
