Lost your job? That's a bit flippant.
WE disbanded the Iraqi Army as part of our great nation building color-by-numbers booklet Dick gave Dubya to keep from getting bored while Bremer burned Rome to a crisp. Manufactured demand much? We created the environment that necessitated the surge in the first place. Poor people's kids got blown up as a result of that decision mind you. That they "volunteered" due to economic draft to get blown up does not take away from the fact we created the dynamic. You don't play favorites in a game of chess you don't understand.
We then put some of them displaced iraqi soldiers all together in "social networking camp" for half a decade, antagonized the civilian population with collateral damage (all occupying forces do, we're not more guilty of it than anyone in history) then we cut them loose on the civilian population and the disorganized, equally sectarian new-puppet civilian government. Ta-da. And we try to suggest we had no hand in ISIS? LOL
I may be paid to shut up and salute sharply, but even I can count with my fingers and figure out it doesn't take a phD in international affairs to understand the anatomy of why we're hated and why our poor bleed over our own decisions. Frankly this is the Brits and French's fault back in 1916, but that distinction is frankly academic at this point.
So the educated elites who understand these sectarian dynamics merely roll their eyes (which as long as there's no draft, is all they'll do) and the defense M-I-C laughs all the way to the bank while the dissenting voices get called hippies and dismissed. I love this Country but I'm not dying so a oil n' gas nouveau riche redneck soccer mom in Katy,TX can afford $2.50 gas, $99/rt Orlando tickets and thus have the economic freedom not to have to send
her kid to die for it, while she laughs as I indoctrinate mine into believing everything the military does is good because I draw a paycheck from it currently and so should he. Yeah fat chance.
It's easy to lampoon dissenting servicemembers who operate drones, as their hand in the fiasco is considered a position not deserving of credibility due to physical separation from harm, but I get their point. The world is grey; I've been smart in my ability to cherry pick assignments that hold true to me. The day the military asks me to do something I don't believe in is the day I'll quietly complete taskings under lawful orders and separate at the first opportunity. A 20 year check does not supersede my moral compass. That involves removing food from my kid's table over a principle btw, hardly an academic posture.
Now back to our regular uneducated posturing about Middle eastern political dynamics and freedom fries.....
