CLARKSTON, Mich. — While US advisers slog their way across northern Iraq with sub-standard Iraqi forces and US troops once again deploy to the region, some veterans are reflecting on their own fighting of an un-winnable war against an ambiguous enemy they, unwittingly or otherwise, helped create.

"Yes, I can grow a beard, start my own t-shirt, coffee, flip-flop, or humor website, or even become a Fox News analyst, but the grass isn't always greener," said Jared Glossner, an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran who was honorably discharged in 2007 with a four-year engineering degree and nearly a dozen job prospects.

"The days of executing vague strategic directives with little to no accountability or tangible benefit to most Americans are but a distant memory."