I had a good friend named Areef who surrendered during Iraqi Freedom. He trained police and military in the use of small arms.

The US is notorious for making it extremely difficult for anyone to enter the country in general. Iraqis, specifically, had to (still do) go through a much more extreme vetting process than other immigrants. The US was very wary of terrorism at the time, and so they almost never accepted young military aged men by themselves. Most of the people who were accepted were families.

Now for people who were actually in the military in some capacity, they get to go through a special vetting process that's extremely long, demanding, and difficult. It did not matter if you're a woman, a cook, retired, surrendered to the US military, disabled, or were applying with your family, everybody went through it. The vast majority of these cases were rejected. For anybody who actually dealt with weapons, that rejection was pretty much guaranteed. The rejection rates were so high that such individuals often found it worth the risk to lie about their involvement on their applications so they could leave with their families.

My family literally went through this process. I've seen this shit first hand. The only possibilities for your friend are these: Either your friend is made up, Areef lied to you, or he was the luckiest man in the country at the time.

He was learning to be a commercial pilot in the US and was dating a white girl. He eventually left to go back to Iraq to marry as an obligation to his family.

I'll let you in on another thing regarding Iraqi immigrants, once they're out of the country they never go back. Iraq is dangerous, oppressive, extremely hot, poor, and unstable. For people who put themselves through hell to leave, there's no way they would voluntarily go back, especially once they get a taste of the freedom and high standards of living outside the country. For Iraqis in diaspora that do get married to Iraqis in Iraq (which does happen a lot), they almost always pull their spouse to come live with them outside of country. In fact, a lot of marriages exist for this purpose because that's one of the few avenues that people could realistically immigrate to the West.

That being said, Iraq is no place to raise a family, especially back then, and everybody knows this. Which is why I find it very unlikely that his family would demand their son to give up the life he built to go back to Iraq and start a family there. No family would be unreasonable enough to ask their son to do this, and no reasonable son would accept such a request. Especially because marriage as an obligation is not a thing for men in Iraqi culture. So again, the only possibilities are either that your friend is made up, he lied to you, or he has the most unique and unreasonable family circumstances.

You are frankly full of shit which is why I commented to begin with. I totally get your sentiment, but you said it in such a stupid and trivial way I couldn’t help myself. I am sorry for what has happened to Iraq and your people.

There's nothing wrong with showing empathy towards Iraqis nor is there any issue discussing the events that took place. The parts that I specifically take issue with when people try to use us as props to push their agenda, when they spread misinformation about what happened on our behalf, and when they talk down to Iraqis who call them out. In other words, don't speak for Iraqis, only Iraqis can speak for themselves. This is not specific to you, but it is a big issue in the Western discourse in general. This type of attitude tends to come from people with good intentions, but it often comes off as patronizing.

So please take your outrage somewhere else and do try not to make an idiot out of yourself in the future. If not just for you, but the people of Iraq. The last thing we need is someone like yourself pouring fuel on a fire.

This is precisely the thing I'm criticizing.