This doesnât deserve a response, but for others who might be readingâŚ
Iâm flattered that you think Iâm that young. Just so you know, I entered the Air Force Academy in 1993, and went on active duty in 1998. I separated in 2004. The only Iraq war that was on the books when I joined was Desert Storm.
I know weâve become a land of cynics for cynicismsâ sake, but there are actually people out there who join because of a sense of duty, and not because they want to kill foreigners. These are the people you see now talking about how ashamed they are of this bullshit.
Thanks for youâre service @skydiver8 
I nearly joined myself (RAF) until my parents told me otherwise, and tbh Iâm thankful they did as it would have been just before you joined, then Iraq happened.
I had friends who served there and all they done was sit around the dessert eating rations and building compounds. (Army)
Most people I know who served were not (jarrheads)? Or deplorables. And it changed them in profound ways.
Also no-one really understands unless they were there at war.
Thanks for youâre post & most all appreciate the sacrificeâs you made. 
I think most people join the American military because they want to do good in the world. Or to have a job or to do something they think is Honorable, but something you think is good regardless. That doesnât mean itâs a wise choice to accomplish those goals.
And, skydiver, I wouldnât have guessed you were that old either. Youâre almost as old as I am!
Define âway worseâ. I think it depends on the point of view. The Iraq war was started by the USA. They got rid of Saddam. But it wasnât the intention of the Americans that there would be bombings every week.
In Syria you now abandon the Kurds for the 2nd time. First time Bush Sr. stopped the war, kept Saddam in power and the Kurds got massacred after they started an uprising in the hope that the USA remove Saddam. Now again the USA and Europe leave them just so another wannabe dictator can fulfill his mission to regain the strength of the Ottoman empire and crush his mortal enemies. In the end thousands will die and be displaced.
Each time you could have prevented it. Only the 2nd time you are full aware what will happen and decide to doom people and watch them die.
Putinâs win in northern Syria is what motivates him everywhere. Oil and gas. Itâs pretty amazing how little press this got, but Russian mercenaries (mercenaries are hardly different than regular military anymore - Russian âmercenariesâ or American âcontractorsâ) attempted to take an oil field in Northern Syria a while back and 200+ were killed in US bombing. Russia (Russian companies - ones where Putin is part owner) will be extracting this oil now.
I only caught part of this on the radio today and will go back and listen to the rest later but the letters and politics show by Mitch Jeserich is a must listen on this issue.
Thread about the deal, clarification from the US ambassador who was also the interpreter. Seems the confusion yesterday evening was because they re-definied the âsafe areaâ but didnât tell anyone. The âceasefireâ covers just the areas already taken by the Turkish backed forces, which is now the âsafe areaâ - as opposed to previously when it was a 30km strip running along the border that Turkey wanted to patrol.
From twitter thereâs quite a few reports of Turkish shelling continuing, but thatâs to be expected as the deal only covers âoffensiveâ action and allows âdefensiveâ so they will obviously take advantage of that. That doesnât rule out the deal not taking at all as well, despite being overmanned the SDF have launched local counter attacks and I wouldnât be amazed if some fighters didnât think a US brokered deal was something they wanted to play along with.
Not seen a Syrian or Russian response yet. Iâd guess Russia would be fine with it for now, Assad wonât want Turkish forces staying but maybe can accept the status quo for now. I donât know enough about the particular parts of Syria that the Turks have taken to know if this is a situation that could easily endure or is just unstable. Youâd have to guess the latter, certainly over a period of months if it even gets that far - there is at least one pocket of SDF troops surrounded by Turkish ones.
https://twitter.com/vvanwilgenburg/status/1185101355075211264
I feel like this whole thing should be a significant impeachable offense, but I assume itâs not. That and Trumpâs general assholery.
In the wild swings of the Trump admin, now we have to sweat whether or not Trump nukes Turkey.
That would be a twist. It wonât happen though. Trump has real estate holdings in Istanbul. Their insurance policy definitely doesnât cover acts of war. Although if they did the odds of it happening would quadruple.
Killing millions of people to commit insurance fraud on a money losing property is definitely in Trumps range. Scotland better be careful not to give him any good excuses.
So the Pence / Trump deal we all thought was horrible is magnitudes worse.
Now Iâm imagining Trump reciting the lyrics to Istanbul, Not Constantinople, and it works perfectly.
This is very good.
Scroll a little down to
The Fate of Rojava, the Autonomous, Majority Kurdish Region of Syria
Who is going to âhold the US responsibleâ when we can just drop a big ass bomb on anyone that tries it? Especially considering most of our citizens have a tremendous willingness to drop bombs on anyone and everyone.