What did WE learn in OEF/OIF, that is going to help the next generation win against ISIS?

Don't start a fight if you don't plan to win. Don't fight with people who have no desire to win. Don't use 10 dollars words one dollar sentences.

To fight ISIS, we need to get rid of the bogus limitations that was impose in Iraq. These limitations was stupid and dangerous. For example, if you were taking fire from a mosque, you could not return fire. That was SOP for my unit on Irish. Let the soldiers do what they are trained to do and FIGHT without a brunch of armchair quarterback 6000 miles away that don't know their a** from a hole in the ground telling them how to do it
Let loose the dogs of war and take no prisoners

I know that if we go back, it should be a no holds bared. The whole political objective should be win. Or stay out, the whole pinpoint warfare hasn't worked since it started in Korea. We sacrifice to many for so little.

Have a complete battle plan for winning a war that includes exit strategy with a SOFA vs. chew it up, spit it out and leave it until next time.

Finish the job.

We learned we have to keep out the media. And we learned that most civilians aren't willing to consider the necessary actions needed to win a war, while the enemy is willing to do whatever it takes. Our Enemy learned how to use the Media to save their lives one day, so they can kill another day. And we learned that as we fight on the front line, liberals will allow the enemy into the country, from the back, so the fight is in our backyard. We learned that Americans, as a whole, are so detached from reality, they will protect terrorists.....Most importantly, we relearned that no standing force can defeat Guerrilla Warfare as long as their hands are tied with 'Gentleman Rules' of Combat.

That we cannot change the hearts and minds of people that have been conducting business the same way over thousands of years. You cannot plant the seed of democracy and believe that it will take hold in a decade, when we've been doing it for 239 years and still haven't figured it out. In my time over there I didn't see any George Washingtons, John Adams, Thomas Jeffersons or James Madisons. Heck, we don't have them over here today either. Can you imagine trying to start a country today with the representation we have in Washington today? Should we have gone into Iraq to begin with is a question that will be argued for years to come. Iraq and Suddam posed no direct threat to the United States or our interests in the Middle East at the time of invasion. One of George W. Bush's campaign edicts was that the United States would not be involved in nation building under his administration and that is exactly what we attempted to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to give up bin Ladin, we should have gone in full force simular to Desert Storm, captured or killed bin Ladin and got the hell out. In Iraq we destabilized the region by deposing Sadam and created the vacuum from which ISIS was born. The unstable situation in Syria provided the fertile atmosphere for ISIS to grow in strength letting it spill back over Iraq, where the government we supported had allowed the country and its military to fall apart due to sectarian differences upon our departure. Staying longer in these countries just increases the hate the other people in the region have for us. Sorry people, but for those that try to compare this with our long term occupation of Japan and Germany after World War II have absolutely know realization of the geopolitical situation in the Milddle East today. Keeping our military in Kuwait and our relationship with the Saudi Arabia after Desert Storm, where bin Ladin was from, was his declared reason for the 9/11 attack let's not forget. Instead of embracing the lessons of Desert Storm we forgot the lessons of Vietnam.

Furthermore, it is high time that ISIS is acknowledged for what it *actually* is: ISIS is not a "terrorist group". It is now a full-fledged, legitimate governing entity over the territory it has defined by force; no different than any other country that exists on earth. The ISIS leadership has delegated authority, the same as the US government has. These hierarchies have subordinate leaders that haul away the trash, that run the power plants, clean the water, pay municipal salaries, provide police and emergency services, build roads, etc.....you may not like it. I don't care for ISIS, myself. But you have to think logically and realistically. What is ISIS doing to you? What is ISIS doing to the US? Answer: nothing. There is nothing that ISIS is doing, militarily or economically, that the US government hasn't been doing to the rest of the world, especially the Arab world, for about 100 years now. In fact, ISIS is doing far, far less.

It's time for people to really weigh out what is going on here. Americans live everyday knowing that despotic governments exist on every continent, but media-fueled outrage and manufactured opinion causes them to focus on just one group in particular, because they want so badly to vindicate foreign policy blunders that no one seems to learn from, no matter how often they occur.

Don't underestimate the veracity with which your opponent will fight. Don't underestimate their tactics either, they study us just like we study them

The millennial generation has already served in Iraq, & Afghanistan the first of them turned 18 in 2001. I have to imagine the majority of the military has been millennials for awhile, its actually my response when people start trashing this generation.