I come to this Veterans Day with dread. I often am asked what the United States will learn from its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? 

The answer is: U.S. political and military leaders learned their lessons from these wars and have been implementing that knowledge for nearly a decade now. 

The mass unpopularity of the wars, waged by both Republicans and Democrats, and the electoral backlash the wars engendered in the 2006 midterms, 2008 Democratic primary and general election, and 2016 general election, have led the U.S. political establishment, with a very willing Pentagon, State Department, and CIA in agreement, to hide these wars.

From the west coast of Africa to Pakistan, the United States is engaged in secret wars with commandos, drones, contractors, and proxies in somewhere between one and two dozen countries.

Congress is unaware of much of this activity, including combat, while retired generals have bragged they have been able to keep U.S. casualties in these wars hidden from the Congress, the press, and the American people.

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From the west coast of Africa to Pakistan, the United States is engaged in secret wars with commandos, drones, contractors, and proxies in somewhere between one and two dozen countries.

Matthew Hoh