Just be sure to know that not all service members feel this way. And yeah, I was saying the same thing when I was there. "Fuck this, fuck this place, fuck this deployment" and all. But in retrospect I would do it again. I say it was the best experience of my life.

how does having a nice experience matter when it comes to choosing the 'good' thing to do?
these people have to be pretty stupid and gullible (to government lies) to join up in the first place.
even now, their opinion of why this is going on, and why they've been sent there is probably just as naive.
the idea that the war has, or ever did have, anything to do with helping iraqis is totally untrue.
these guys probably had good intentions, but have actually just contributed to the purposeful chaos caused by the neo-con's project for a new american century.

@Harsh talkers

Don't label our troops like that Chaffinch. It has a lot to do with which part of country you are from and the current situation you're in.

Some people (including 3 of my college buddies) just wanna better themselves and travel to exotic places at the same time. It's similar to volunteering for peace Corp or Christian groups as they tell you where to go and give you free training, except you get to shoot guns.

You could say that they can travel and help people without joining an army or any type of organization. Well, then how? Unless you're wealthy, I don't see a way for an individual to move into an exotic place whom speak foreign language, with limited money, and no local connections. That's why people join armies and volunteer groups.

Also volunteer groups can be just as aggressive as government Army when it comes to achieving their purpose, like spreading Christianity to local populace or giving power to indigenous people, meanwhile the regional government considers them rebels and danger to public safety. OR scientists valuing some endangered rats over starving humans, and convincing the government to prevent them from farming in the region.

Overall, ANY type of foreign intervention's outcome can result good or bad. But just because this particular time they did bad, doesn't mean you can call these people 'stupid'. Why, because they wanted to see something exotic? Be somewhere far away from home for once? Blame the government and people who agreed to goto war with Iraq (which was what, 99% of the nation after 9/11?) instead of the good people who volunteered.

On a side note, the first guy looks like a signal soldier with the 4th ID showing the inside of classified equipment that requires a security clearance. I'm sure it's considered a bad thing by Army standards to be filming in there.

Of course the iraqis don't give a f*ck, they aren't brainwashed like you are. They know you aren't there to help them. The sad part is you don't know why you're there.