IMO, the majority of Parents and Spouses that lost loved ones find solace in their belief that they died fighting to protect the United States. But, IMO, I believe that the poor foreign policy of the Obama Administration since he was elected in 2008 has undone all that these soldiers accomplished and lost their lives for. It is sad. Unless we enter conflicts with the intention of winning them, sticking in there until we achieve that end, lives lost were basically for nothing. Apparently the Obama Administration does not value our soldiers lives. them in danger and combat without enough boots on ground or advanced weapons they need. And, pull back of the support the troops need and failing to give our Generals, etc., full control over policy and battle plans that would achieve the objective of destroying the enemy lead to inability to achieve the objective. Would I allow or support my sons if they wanted to join the armed services? Definitely not. I would only support them joining if they were defending "our" Country from attack or our borders and if the Federal Government fully supported the mission they were deployed to. In other words, all those that lost their lives over the last 10+ years will have done so in vain due to this Administration backing down on the stated objective of destroying terrorists, terrorist organizations and governments that have announced their intent to destroy the United States and other Western/Christian Countries. Don't go into battle if you are not prepared to give full support to the troops and with the objective of winning the battle. To do otherwise is a waste of our troops lives. I believe the Federal Governments further most job as defined by the U.S. Constitution is to "protect our borders". Beyond that, stopping terrorists and terrorist Countries from gaining the ability to attack our borders is also a job of the U.S. Government. The Constitution does not require the Federal Government police the rest of the world or attempt to influence the structure of their Governments. In fact, the Founding Fathers were against this type of interference.
I don't think it would have helped if we stuck it out or dedicated more to the wars. The problem was the mission. Invading Afghanistan to disrupt the terrorist training camps resulted in a decline in global terrorism, but sticking around afterwards will not magically transform Afghanistan into a country that will love us and be an ally. In fact, sticking around has generated more terrorists because it reinforced the very reason we were attacked in the first place: That we want to control the Middle East, and impose our culture upon the entire world. Then when the terrorists hide amongst civilians, and those civilians get killed when we attack anyway, the surviving family members of former civilians become terrorists themselves. We should have left much quicker than we did. No matter when we leave, there's a power vacuum. But at least if we leave quickly we kill more enemies than we create. Invading Iraq was pointless. Saddam Hussein was a dick, but no threat to us, or even Israel. And he was a check on the power of Iran.
Yes we shouldn't have even been there to begin with and the soldiers deaths were unnecessary and the outcome has done nothing to stop terrorism or protect our borders and Country. And, now, in the news today, dumb (*)(*)(*)(*) college students spit on the flag and veterans? Reminiscent of how Vietnam soldiers were treated when they returned home . As if they had a choice whether or not participate when they were drafted. Our Country's first objective should be to protect our borders from invasion by hostiles and illegals and that is where our troops should be deployed. Presence in other Countries should only be required to protect our Embassies, and where Congress declares war on our enemy.
Afghanistan had a point right up to the death of Osama bin Laden. After that there was no point in being there. Iraq never had a point. Screwing around with ISIS has no point. We've been messing around in the Mideast since WWII. Most of our intervention has been counterproductive, as when we overthrew a popularly elected Iranian gov't to install the Shah - setting the stage for the rise of the Ayatollahs. No wonder they don't like us there. We can't even be trusted to work in our own best interest.
