You truly are one of those people who don't understand aren't you. While I do not agree with us going over there in the first place, we did need to stay to help rebuild what we screwed up. You are honestly devoid of intelligence if you think that we were over there as gung ho idiots just shooting and bombing those people for the fun of it. The vast majority of our time was spent helping secure their elections, providing medical and infrastructure support, helping train their own soldiers and policemen to take care of themselves. But we left them way too early. I honestly have a large place in my heart for the people of Iraq. I met them, helped them, learned who they were and learned to respect their customs. Now you have extremist controlling most of their country, killing off anyone who doesn't agree with them. So I and my brother soldiers did everything we could to save and help them while these new extremist kill them and force them to live/hide in terror or watch their loved ones burn, get beheaded, get shot in the head, throw off buildings, children used as walking bombs, etc. and I am the evil soulless devil?
Keep spewing your ignorant propaganda.
Do I think the US should have been over there? well at first no, after we did, yes.
You say according to UN figures this and that, I was there, I walked the streets there, I know what happened there. Were there some soldiers who were gung ho idiots, yes but very very few and we actually prosecute them ourselves. It goes against everything a soldier is taught to mindlessly kill anyone. We do have souls, we do care about civilians.
What you don't understand is things like having to fish 100s of bodies out of the river because the local town up the river were accused of helping us, whether they did or not, by insurgent groups who were not even from Iraq. You have never had to help collect an entire towns dead bodies, and then try to find locals willing to help give them their proper burial rights. You also don't understand standing in a crowd of children, giving out candy and one of those same children have a bomb strapped on them and they kill 40 or so other kids just to get 3 soldiers. Yes I guess we are the heartless bastards.
You sir actually make me sick to my stomach. But you know what, if I was still a soldier, I would place myself in harms way to ensure that you were safe to talk shit about me. That's what we are sworn to do in the military. That's what the vast majority of us believe and practice. Keep accusing me of drinking the cool aid, selling my soul, whatever you like. Its your right to do so, but know that you are so far from correct on your thinking it is actually sad.
BTW there were many civilians who begged us for help when the Iraqi leader was gassing the Kurds because they were a different ethinic group, we didn't help them then.