This archive report was first published on 5 January 2020.
For a Post-9/11 Generation, War Isn’t New but Fears of Another One Are ¶
January 5, 2020, 9:15 pm ET
As the United States escalated its conflict with Iran by killing Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Iranian commander, Americans scrambled to determine what it all meant for the young men and women whose lives could be upended in the event of an extended conflict.
For a generation of young people who were born after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, or were not old enough at the time to have grasped their impact, the events of the past week signified the most urgent — and perhaps alarming — military escalation in memory.
Adrian Flynn, a senior at a Manhattan high school, was born a month after the Sept. 11 attacks and registered for the Selective Service shortly after he turned 18 in October, as all men between 18 and 25 are required to do.
But he and his friends did not give much thought to the ramifications of registering until this past Friday, after the drone strike authorized by President Trump killed General Suleimani and prompted vows of retaliation from Iran.
“Now it’s like, what exactly did we sign up for?” said Mr. Flynn, who was recently accepted to college.
At this point, registering for the Selective Service has little bearing on the likelihood of being conscripted. That has not done much to assuage many young men, many of whom registered when they applied for college as a prerequisite for federal financial aid.
Some young adults joined thousands of antiwar protesters on Saturday at more than 80 demonstrations to condemn the strike in Baghdad that killed General Suleimani.
At one protest in Seattle, Lukas Illa, 19, said he was not too worried about being drafted, but was concerned about the impact a war would have on others, including service personnel who might come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“We’re not going to be affected by this as much as Iranians will be,” Mr. Illa said.
For most, being shipped off to war is still a theoretical peril — a nerve-racking thought perhaps, but not an imminent threat. But for some young men and women, it was now a reality; at Fort Bragg, N.C., 3,500 troops were ordered to the Middle East in one of the largest rapid deployments in years.
Ms. Smith said her grandfather had served in the military and had come back so mentally scarred that she and her family found it difficult to visit him.
“Growing up as a kid, you hear about the Vietnam War and all these things that are so surreal to me, until you’re in a time or space when you’re like, ‘This is real,’” Ms. Smith said from Fort Bragg.
