A soldier who “made you feel important,” a mother just days from returning home, and a son known to be the life of the party were among the first American troops to lose their lives in the line of duty in the war with Iran.
I get what you are saying. But I’m just gonna quote my comment from elsewhere in this comment section. So I don’t have repeat myself.
I’m all for redemption and rehabilitating. The “too young to know what they were involved in”. The “poverty draft” argument. Etc.
But, all of that relies on those former military or former cops actually realizing what they were a part of and spend the rest of their life speaking out against it and actually working to a restorative justice.
Unfortunately, when you die being a modern day Nazi, I’m not gonna waste my time thinking or caring about “if” any of those things could have happened. I’m just glad you’re dead and not hurting people anymore.
There is no reason to speculate on what these people COULD have been later. Or assume that they were tricked.
Everyone is a product of their material circumstances. Millions of Americans live under worse conditions than any of these Joes ever did. They also are able to make the decision to not join the military and support the illegal wars and genocide.
I’ll save my care and my respect for someone like Aaron Bushnell. Not something I would want on anyone else. But, that is the the rational and reasonable response to a society that is as sick as ours has become. And I definitely still wouldn’t call him “a kid”. Calling these people “kids” is just trying to humanize them for the benefit of American empire.
I get what you are saying. But I’m just gonna quote my comment from elsewhere in this comment section. So I don’t have repeat myself.
There is no reason to speculate on what these people COULD have been later. Or assume that they were tricked.
Everyone is a product of their material circumstances. Millions of Americans live under worse conditions than any of these Joes ever did. They also are able to make the decision to not join the military and support the illegal wars and genocide.
I’ll save my care and my respect for someone like Aaron Bushnell. Not something I would want on anyone else. But, that is the the rational and reasonable response to a society that is as sick as ours has become. And I definitely still wouldn’t call him “a kid”. Calling these people “kids” is just trying to humanize them for the benefit of American empire.