Man that's a good question.
I learned a few quality life lessons that's for sure. I learned what I am capable of, and it's so much more than what most people think. The human mind and human body is capable of being pushed to extreme limits. Things I never thought I was capable of, I found out I could do. I also learned that there is real evil in this world, and that humans are capable of doing extremely ugly and violent things to one another, it's quite gross. But through learning these things I also learned to let most things roll of my back because there are much greater issues in the world, and overall life is pretty easy and pretty good.
As far as if I was a military general. I'd probably model myself after General Mattis. I think a better question would be "having been to war how would I have done things differently as a politician". And I'd say that I would look at it as sending my own children off to war, and not be so quick to deploy troops. I'd also have left Iraq before 07, and the same with Afghanistan.
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