| | Buttigieg participated in protests against the war in Iraq while was at Harvard. As a politically -minded person, Buttigieg stated that he decided to sign up for the Navy Reserves in 2009 after being sent to knock on doors in canvassing in Iowa for Barack Obama in 2008 and many of the people who answered were in the armed forces. Buttigieg also thinks that America may have never had gone to war in Iraq if more elected officials had served or had family members in the military.<ref>The Washington Post, March 10, 2014[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/03/10/the-most-interesting-mayor-youve-never-heard-of/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.28cc464bd61e]The most interesting mayor you’ve never heard of</ref> | | Buttigieg participated in protests against the war in Iraq while was at Harvard. As a politically -minded person, Buttigieg stated that he decided to sign up for the Navy Reserves in 2009 after being sent to knock on doors in canvassing in Iowa for Barack Obama in 2008 and many of the people who answered were in the armed forces. Buttigieg also thinks that America may have never had gone to war in Iraq if more elected officials had served or had family members in the military.<ref>The Washington Post, March 10, 2014[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/03/10/the-most-interesting-mayor-youve-never-heard-of/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.28cc464bd61e]The most interesting mayor you’ve never heard of</ref> |
| − | Buttigieg began serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2009 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014.<ref>https://www.axios.com/pete-buttigieg-2020-presidential-election-factsheet-indiana-mayor-020c5afc-c8a2-4691-940c-b271e63306b1.html</ref> Buttigieg stated that he approached military service ethically and morally by telling himself at the time was that there are cases where violence is necessary in order to prevent greater violence. However, as regards experiencing any injury as a consequence of having been to Afghanistan, he said that it was not from moments when he was afraid of being killed, as much as it was from moments when he may have participated in killing. Over time he began to realize that was the part he was having the hardest time coming to terms with. He added as regards what people in the military are asked to do, "I don't think we've really reckoned with the moral weight of what we're asking them to do -- not just in terms of the physical risks they take but the moral harm that we're asking them to go through."<ref>CNN, Turner Broadcasting System, April 2, 2019 [https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/opinions/buttigieg-and-religion-qa-beck/index.html]Pete Buttigieg on faith, his marriage and Mike Pence</ref> | + | Buttigieg began serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2009 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014<ref>https://www.axios.com/pete-buttigieg-2020-presidential-election-factsheet-indiana-mayor-020c5afc-c8a2-4691-940c-b271e63306b1.html</ref> for 6 months in a non-combat role, having volunteered for an overseas deployment as intelligence officer, which he describes as dangerous. Buttigieg was part of a unit assigned to identify and disrupt terrorist finance networks, mainly a desk job, but which sometimes involved being an armed driver. Buttigieg invokes his military service at nearly every campaign stop, using it as both a sword and a shield in his campaigning. <ref>CNN, Turner Broadcasting System, May 17, 2019 [https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/17/politics/buttigieg-military-service-2020/index.html]Buttigieg wields his military credentials: 'It's not like I killed Bin Laden,' but it was dangerous</ref> He stated that he approached military service ethically and morally by telling himself at the time was that there are cases where violence is necessary in order to prevent greater violence. However, as regards experiencing any injury as a consequence of having been to Afghanistan, he said that it was not from moments when he was afraid of being killed, as much as it was from moments when he may have participated in killing. Over time he began to realize that was the part he was having the hardest time coming to terms with. He added as regards what people in the military are asked to do, "I don't think we've really reckoned with the moral weight of what we're asking them to do -- not just in terms of the physical risks they take but the moral harm that we're asking them to go through."<ref>CNN, Turner Broadcasting System, April 2, 2019 [https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/opinions/buttigieg-and-religion-qa-beck/index.html]Pete Buttigieg on faith, his marriage and Mike Pence</ref> |