War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era The Military-Civilian Gap

The Pew Research Center put out a useful study comparing America's veterans and the general public - demographics, attitudes and the burden of our decade of war:

"America’s post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are unique. Never before has this nation been engaged in conflicts for so long. And never before has it waged sustained warfare with so small a share of its population carrying the fight.
This report sets out to explore a series of questions that arise from these historical anomalies. It does so on the strength of two nationwide surveys the Pew Research Center conducted in the late summer of 2011, as the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan approached ..."

Advocates for the military and veteran community will find this objective background useful. For example, were you aware that "At a time when marriage rates are declining in the broader population, the share of active-duty military personnel who are married has increased dramatically in recent decades. Today, a majority of all enlisted personnel are married (53.1%), up from 40.1% in 1973. Overall, those in the military are significantly more likely to be married than are civilians of a comparable age." ....

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