I got to plan and lead a brigade raid on the 4th of July once, Iraqi Special Operations Forces brigade consisting of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Force and the 36th Commando Battalion with embedded American SF advisers. Basically the Iraqi version of Delta + a Ranger Battalion...

..and we did 3 simultaneous capture/kill raids in different neighborhoods in Baghdad. Took down an entire IED network. I was an Army Captain at the time and felt like I'd been crowned the All-American boy by my nation or something, Captains don't generally lead BDE-sized ops...

..but I was always a rockstar and, IMHO, was being rewarded for some services I'd rendered to higher. Problem-solving stuff, at which I tend to excel. Mission went well. Didn't lose anyone and captured some high-value targets and took out a network and all that jazz...

..Other than clearing my way up a stairwell with a couple of commo guys to get to the roof on the primary target site I mostly spent the night worrying about my people getting hurt or killed. There was no Ernst Jünger-esque "great thrill of battle" by any means, just stress...

..and anxiety about the myriad of things that can go wrong in urban combat during a high-risk raid. More "perception vs reality" lessons learned. Now, 13 years later, I'm apparently part of the "left wing radical mob" because I don't worship the orange idiot king. This...

..coming from the GOP, a party that cavorted in Moscow on the 4th of July 2 years ago. The party that sought to reward Putin for putting bounties on the heads of US soldiers in Afghanistan, a county where I was targeted by suicide bombers while working on the Af-Pak border...

..It's time to wake up and smell the treason, America. Time to declare independence from politicians who serve as proxies for hostile corporate + foreign interests. Shake off preconceived beliefs and look around with eyes wide open. Be brave and face reality. Independence Day.

Oh, since I'm putting my operator creds up here, let me take a moment to express my utmost disdain and contempt for the Boogaloo domestic terrorists (since they like to cosplay as operators and everything). You people are vermin and trash, wannabe staff at tomorrow's rape camps.

Receipts.