Also former troop here. I find it difficult to look back on the decision to join and judge myself too harshly just for the fact that I'm not sure how else I would have known it was a terrible idea without the benefit of hindsight. I joined shortly after 9/11 and genuinely thought it was a noble thing with the knowledge I had at the time. Once I did realize it was a huge mistake, I ended up getting myself booted out and have zero regrets about that of course. Not sure if you see it the same way, but I feel like there's kind of a weird American thing to reduce "the troops" to a political symbol so that people tend to paint every single one as either a hero or war criminal based only on what they represent, as opposed to how an individual decided on a course of action with the knowledge and experience they have when confronted with a moral/ethical choice. This, imo is really what we should be concerned with, and if there are regrets for decisions based on a genuine lack of understanding, all you can really do is process what you've learned and use it to make better decisions going forward and this really goes for anything in life.
Reading over this again, it might be just a more convoluted version of what Skoubalon said, but I hope it's helpful and makes some sense.
Also, related, I feel like we (leftist vets) could do a lot of good with the knowledge and experience we have as far as countering the propaganda that once convinced us, and this includes going after recruiters on social media. I have some ideas on this if you ever want to discuss.
I feel like we (leftist vets) could do a lot of good with the knowledge and experience we have as far as countering the propaganda that once convinced us
That's why I admire the folks on the What A Hell Of A Way To Die podcast, their primary intent is to convince people not to join the military. That said I'm sure you have some other knowledge and experience that might be useful in the coming years.
Yeah I posted some diy stuff back when the site* was first starting out I should get back on that, also reminder that most of our military training material is available free online because it is publicly funded and a lot of it has practical applications outside war/combat.
Also former troop here. I find it difficult to look back on the decision to join and judge myself too harshly just for the fact that I'm not sure how else I would have known it was a terrible idea without the benefit of hindsight. I joined shortly after 9/11 and genuinely thought it was a noble thing with the knowledge I had at the time. Once I did realize it was a huge mistake, I ended up getting myself booted out and have zero regrets about that of course. Not sure if you see it the same way, but I feel like there's kind of a weird American thing to reduce "the troops" to a political symbol so that people tend to paint every single one as either a hero or war criminal based only on what they represent, as opposed to how an individual decided on a course of action with the knowledge and experience they have when confronted with a moral/ethical choice. This, imo is really what we should be concerned with, and if there are regrets for decisions based on a genuine lack of understanding, all you can really do is process what you've learned and use it to make better decisions going forward and this really goes for anything in life.
Reading over this again, it might be just a more convoluted version of what Skoubalon said, but I hope it's helpful and makes some sense.
Also, related, I feel like we (leftist vets) could do a lot of good with the knowledge and experience we have as far as countering the propaganda that once convinced us, and this includes going after recruiters on social media. I have some ideas on this if you ever want to discuss.
That's why I admire the folks on the What A Hell Of A Way To Die podcast, their primary intent is to convince people not to join the military. That said I'm sure you have some other knowledge and experience that might be useful in the coming years.
I’ve heard of that podcast but never really listened to it. I’ll have to check that out. Seems like exactly the kind of thing I’d be into.
The most useful knowledge I have honestly is the kind of fun stuff I like to post in the diy comm.
Yeah I posted some diy stuff back when the site* was first starting out I should get back on that, also reminder that most of our military training material is available free online because it is publicly funded and a lot of it has practical applications outside war/combat.