Sending American Troops into Conflicts Abroad

2006-2024 | 18 years

This episode takes place towards the end of the race for the presidency between Vinick and Santos. At this point, Santos has finally caught up to Vinick with only three weeks left until election day. While they are campaigning, President Bartlet is dealing with a potential conflict between Russia and China over Kazakhstan. He calls both Santos and Vinick to the White House to discuss his plan to deploy 150,000 American troops to Kazakhstan.

The last time the United States formally declared war, something which has to be done by Congress, was during World War II, but the country has been involved in countless conflicts since. The United States is most commonly involved in wars through funding or sending weapons to countries, without war being declared by Congress. While there are often domestic groups who oppose the United States funding wars abroad, this is nothing compared to the uproar that has happened when the United States sent troops abroad in modern wars. The Korean and Vietnam Wars were both extremely unpopular domestically as many American troops were dying in wars that the American people did not believe it was imperative we get involved with. And, although there was more American support for sending troops into Iraq at the start of the war, this was only because of the fear coming out of 9/11 and the fact that they were told that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction. By the time we were pulling out of Iraq and knew that there were actually no weapons of mass destruction being harbored in the country, most Americans regretted the war.

As Vinick and Santos pointed out to President Bartlet, another thing that needs to be considered when placing troops into foreign conflicts is the exit strategy for those troops. The consequences of a lack of a strong exit strategy can be seen in the 2020-2021 American exit from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to seize almost complete control over the country. Currently, the United States is giving aid to both Ukraine and Israel in their ongoing wars. While currently there is no foreseeable end to either of these conflicts, President Biden has made it clear that he does not plan to send troops to these countries in support of their wars. This is because it would probably be unpopular and cause more American deaths.

Deciding whether or not to put American troops in harm's way is one of the most difficult parts of being an American President. Many episodes of The West Wing focus on President Bartlegt struggling with this issue. President Obama also agonized over this when deciding whether or not to send SEAL Team Six to kill Osama bin Laden. What makes this even harder is that Presidents have to face the political reality of their decision to put American soldiers on the ground. Doing so, even if they believe it is the morally right thing, can cause them to lose the support of the American people. This can be seen when President Jimmy Carter decided to send troops to rescue the Iran Hostages, and the plan failed, contributing to him losing reelection.