MAybe from the first Iraq war cause there certainly aren't many of those. And most guys who come back from Iraq end up signing up for 2 or 3 tours total and going back for more. They believe in what we're doing over there. (for what it's worth)
Actually, I was referring to the current Iraq "war":
http://www.fighting-dems.com/I don't know the exact #'s but, from memory, I think of the approximately 50 Iraq vets (current war) who chose to run for Congress all but ~ 2-3 ran as Democrats (which could be for many other reasons than that they believe the Democratic platform - whatever the fuck that is)
I fully agree that most who are there fully believe in what they are doing and why they are doing it.
I'm not sure if they could articulate it though. The kids that I know that are there aren't really interested (or even really aware) of the politics.
For the rest of us:
First it was because Saddam has weapons of mass destruction that he was about to use at any moment. Somewhere along the way this morphed into Saddam was responsible for 9-11
Then it was to give them freedom (while ironically attempting to erode our freedom here at home)
Then it was because Al Quada was in Iraq and if we didn't fight them there we would have to fight them here (the worst reason of all).
Now we're just stuck in the middle of Sunni's and Shia's torturing and killing each other (why? because Mumhamid was dumb enough to die without having a son from what I can tell - although it's probably mostly just revenge for stuff that's happened previously and control of the country and assets).
Military leader acknowledged recently that foreing fighters account for only 2-3% of the forces fighting in the country
Afghanistan is almost a lost cause and basically we (the country and the planet are worse off than we were 5 years ago).
How about the fact that this war is going to bankrupt our country. The entire cost of this war is not even included in the budget.
Our military is spread way too thin and we're actually at a greater risk now because we're unable to respond to other threats
The real problem is that we don't know how to leave without making matters even worse.
Big winner is all of this will most likely be IRAN. Thanks alot GWB