We're accomplishing things in Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia was a cluster fuck plain and simple. Yeah, the soldiers, marines, airmen and seamen/women are missing their "lives" and all, but they know what they signed up for. I did my 17 some odd months and was happy. It's what I did, what I volunteered for. I knew fully well what I was getting into, and so is everyone else. It's a job just like anything else. If your friend didn't like it, he could have gotten out. Iraq needed to be done, and so did Afghanistan. Thank God our generation is doing this, and not our children and their children.