Comment by bell-cot
2 years ago
Whether or not this poll tries to distinguish such details, social "trust" is many-dimensional.
For the military, the most critical forms of trust are "don't attempt to coerce or overthrow our government", and "credibly wage war against our enemies if and when called upon to do so".
Being able to nation-build in Afghanistan, under a delusional do-gooder mandate, is not important. For as long as their orders were (in effect) "pretend it's possible", they more-or-less tried.
If anything they took trying their best to the extreme. They would try no matter the odds, to the point where they would want to stay and try to “win” in Iraq and Afghanistan no matter the situation. The solution to every problem was to throw more soldiers into the fight.
Whereas only a commander in chief who isn’t from a military background can say “no, we lost this one, time to take the L and pull out”.
But that’s good I guess. A military that tries its best to finish the mission and a commander answerable to the people.