Do U.S. Vets Who Have Experienced Iraq And Afghanistan See The Dallas Massacre Differently?

Dallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas. Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/Handout via REUTERS

Michael Yon: American Unrest: Officers Shot, Killed in Dallas

Many veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and other such wars, likely view this news cycle through a different glass.

Using Iraq as example, after things truly began to spin out of control in 2004, many people were fighting for vastly different reasons. The situation was difficult to track even for dedicated analysts. Just who was fighting whom, and for what reasons, often was a great mystery even to our intelligence people.

Amid the chaos of unstructured conflict and war, the always-there lunatic fringe is uncorked. Suddenly the actions of a serial killer look like the work of an insurgent or group. Criminality skyrockets, and what would earlier have been seen as just a bank robbery looks like part of a movement.

Groups or individuals who are honestly fighting for some cause — not just angry, or lunatics, or criminals unleashed — can have many separate goals. These goals often will be in opposition to one another.

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WNU Editor: An old friend of mine who lives in San Francisco and is in his 80s told me this morning that his biggest fear is that the U.S. is returning to the turbulent times of the 1960s when many Amercian urban centers were engulfed with protest, crime, and population flight. Being one who was too young to remember that period of time (and also being one who grew up in the Soviet Union) .... I have trouble relating to his concerns. But I do know history, and if the U.S. is entering such a period of time .... sighhhh .... dark days ahead.

My friend also told me to watch out on what happens at the Republican and Democrat conventions in the coming weeks. With the world media being present he is predicting major disruptions .... or worse. I hope he is wrong .... but with the current state of U.S. politics and deep racial hatreds being what they are .... his concerns are probably justified.