Iraq-Afganistan War veterans, what were your experiences?

My BIL was a contractor in what was apparently the only peaceful area of Afghanistan. You'd see all these news stories about mayhem and he never heard a shot fired in anger. He operated surveillance equipment on the border between AFG and one of the Stans. They caught a lot of smugglers but the Taliban weren't active in the area.

quote:

---

but Iraq was inexcusable.

---

Sadly the history doesnt admit that the US government the Intelligence Committee and if it was flawed it was flawed and other western intelligence systems and Bill Clinton admitted that he believed Iran had weapons of mass destruction

When we went in there there was a thought that that threat existed at that time

now why we stayed there that was a gross miscalculation by the neocons and I do mean gross But given what was going on in the wor;d invading wasn't a mistake

some of that doing the tribal first work for SA for their blessing and not making it a regional Holy War. it was clever and cynical Diplomacy

If they would have left the Iraqi military intact as well as the leadership structure (sans Saddam and his cronies), the country may have survived.

Paul Bremer made some massive miscalculations there.

You can't make a country like Iraq into a democracy, it's impossible.

quote:

---

If they would have left the Iraqi military intact as well as the leadership structure (sans Saddam and his cronies), the country may have survived.

---

IDK how well that would have worked. Saddam had built up a network of insurgents loyal to him personally. AQ and the Salafists picked up the slack, but the initial resistance was the so called dead enders.

Meanwhile the Kurds and the Shia had been chafing under Sunni misrule for decades. They weren't going to stand for the status quo remaining in place.

This

I was minimally inconvenienced for a year of my life flying missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Never feared for my life more than I would on a typical training mission. Complete waste of time in the shite hole Middle East. a-hole of the planet IMO. Ground pounders had it much worse. “Restrepo” is a great watch.

quote:

---

what were your experiences?

---

20 year Army veteran with 4 combat tours (3x Iraq, 1x Afghanistan). First deployment (2004) was pretty intense...I characterize it as the "million dollar experience I wouldn't pay a dollar for."

The remainder had upsides, downsides, and their own "oh shite this is going sideways" moments, but pale in comparison to my first.

My tactical experiences were all very positive (camaraderie, selflessness, mission focused, etc). My experiences at higher commands, although impactful and positive in the sense that I learned/grew, also demonstrated that much of the strategic failures were as much the military's fault as it was political. Sunk cost bias, 'can't fail so we'll perpetuate the cycle' approaches, etc.

quote:

---

It's also disgusting how the Bush Administration took advantage of the patriotic attitude of the country following 9/11 and used it to send so many of our kids to their deaths, maimings, etc in a completely unnecessary war in Iraq.

---

This is such an oversimplified, dumbed down version of reality that has basically just become accepted as fact. If you want stories and experiences from GWOT vets, don't insult us.

We were in Afghanistan when the Iraq invasion happened and were pissed. All of our resources were dramatically cut overnight and we figured the WMD thing was bullshite.

Iraq opened my eyes to the MASSIVE about of waste is involved in "war". Remember a meeting where the State Department was trying to figure out what happened to $5 million dollars of small portable generators they had purchased for citizens in Baghdad. No clue. Taliban was probably using them to work on IEDs at night for all we knew.

quote:

---

This is such an oversimplified, dumbed down version of reality that has basically just become accepted as fact. If you want stories and experiences from GWOT vets, don't insult us.

---

OP is a fricking moron and/or troll... don't even worry about engaging with that fig