As a vet, I think if you don’t self-crit and realize that the propaganda you have been told you entire life is imperialist lies, veterans are always going to be defending themselves/the military. The most I will say now is I miss my friends from the army and that I wouldn’t have a nuanced understanding of the US colonialism/imperialism system. A lot of them are encouraged by a system that offers basic human needs/rights by training and doing this job, etc.
Of course the military is bad, evil, imperialist, colonizing, war-criminalizing, etc. but I still don’t think we should write off every single troop if there is the chance they will be a comrade.
You can also thank capitalism and the American education system for setting these kids up to be duped into murdering brown people. Nobody with a general awareness of their role as a cog in this nightmare engine is going to join up, unless they are a goddamn psychopath.
There is a huge difference in that a cop can just quit and it really isn't that much they are losing. You can't quit in the military, once you sign up you are stuck. If you try to escape you are fucked.
Troops that are actively in the military are even more inside the imperial core than a civilian. The training we have is specifically towards Arabic, Muslim, and middle eastern stereotypes and I guess “experiences” for lack of a better term, of veterans. Some are eventually institutionalized by it, and after 10 or 12 years, you have to stay in by contract until your 20 years. At that point you have invested so much of your life you do not know what else to do besides be a troop. That’s why suicide rates are so high, or at least a part of it, for vets.
I’m not making excuses for the military, I’m saying that everyone should be given a chance to analyze themselves, their material conditions, what has led them to this point. If they still refuse or at worse, fight back, we have no choice but to defend the communist project we have started.
As a vet, I think if you don’t self-crit and realize that the propaganda you have been told you entire life is imperialist lies, veterans are always going to be defending themselves/the military. The most I will say now is I miss my friends from the army and that I wouldn’t have a nuanced understanding of the US colonialism/imperialism system. A lot of them are encouraged by a system that offers basic human needs/rights by training and doing this job, etc.
Of course the military is bad, evil, imperialist, colonizing, war-criminalizing, etc. but I still don’t think we should write off every single troop if there is the chance they will be a comrade.
This is the correct take
You can also thank capitalism and the American education system for setting these kids up to be duped into murdering brown people. Nobody with a general awareness of their role as a cog in this nightmare engine is going to join up, unless they are a goddamn psychopath.
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There is a huge difference in that a cop can just quit and it really isn't that much they are losing. You can't quit in the military, once you sign up you are stuck. If you try to escape you are fucked.
Troops that are actively in the military are even more inside the imperial core than a civilian. The training we have is specifically towards Arabic, Muslim, and middle eastern stereotypes and I guess “experiences” for lack of a better term, of veterans. Some are eventually institutionalized by it, and after 10 or 12 years, you have to stay in by contract until your 20 years. At that point you have invested so much of your life you do not know what else to do besides be a troop. That’s why suicide rates are so high, or at least a part of it, for vets.
I’m not making excuses for the military, I’m saying that everyone should be given a chance to analyze themselves, their material conditions, what has led them to this point. If they still refuse or at worse, fight back, we have no choice but to defend the communist project we have started.
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