Paths of Dissent: American Veterans and U.S. Foreign Policymaking
QI co-founder and board chair Andrew Bacevich will lead a discussion with several veterans of the so-called Global War on Terror who will reflect on the implications of their military service — what it signified and how it changed them. How did their military service affect their outlook on citizenship, war, and America’s role in the world? Bacevich co-edited a collection of veterans’ essays for Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America’s Misguided Wars. On this Veterans Day, several contributors to that volume will place their own service in a larger context, describing how it changed their own outlook on war and America’s role in the world.
Join us for a panel exploring the impact that military service has on veterans through the lens of American foreign policy. This conversation will feature Jason Dempsey, who served over 20 years in the Army as an infantry officer for the US Army deploying twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. He last served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gil Barndollar served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps; he deployed twice to Afghanistan, as a light armored reconnaissance platoon commander and as a combat advisor with the Georgian Army and led a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) platoon during deployments to Guantanamo Bay and the Persian Gulf. Joy Damiani was recruited months after 9/11, and spent six years as an enlisted public affairs specialist, emerging after two deployments to Iraq with an altered sense of patriotism. Erik Edstrom graduated from West Point in 2007 and was then deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as an infantry platoon leader.