US Marine Lieutenant Lyle Jeremy Rubin:
An American who leaves for war never leaves America. The war is the society and the society is the war, and one who sees that war sees America.
…
It is exhausting having to declaim the same talking points over and over again: that the majority of the US official adversaries were once clients and allies. That almost every intervention comes with an ex post facto assessment from the government acknowledging the failure of the mission. That investigative reporters and historians almost always unearth internal documents betraying motives that not only run counter to public rationales but undermine all claims to humanitarian intent.
