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CVA urges focus on foreign policy in final presidential debate

By Concerned Veterans for America

Next president will face many challenges abroad, candidates must articulate position on key issues

 

ARLINGTON, Va.—Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) on Thursday urged the moderator and presidential candidates to have a substantive discussion on foreign policy during the final presidential debate. The group’s executive director Nate Anderson released the following statement emphasizing the impact foreign policy has on our military community and the broader American society.

“With thousands of troops still deployed in active combat zones – each with loved ones waiting anxiously at home – it is morally imperative the candidates for president clearly articulate their positions on important foreign policy issues. We are mired in ‘endless wars’ across the Middle East, costing young American lives and squandering trillions of taxpayer dollars while many families struggle to make ends meet. Yet Americans have heard little in the previous debate and townhalls about the future of American foreign policy and our role in the world. Americans deserve a deeper examination of this critical issue. We hope to hear it this evening.”

 

BACKGROUND:

Polling commissioned by CVA earlier this year showed a continued increase in support for a more restrained foreign policy. From 2019 to 2020, support among veterans for withdrawing from Afghanistan rose 13 percentage points – from 60 percent to 73 percent. Among military family members, it rose 9 percent – from 60 percent to 69 percent.

CVA launched a $1.5 million national ad campaign in January aimed at bringing our troops home from Afghanistan. The group followed it up with a second phase of the campaign, which launched in July, continuing its nationwide grassroots effort. In total, the campaign has sent over 400,000 letters to leaders in Washington urging them to end to our “forever wars.”