“All troops are forever irredeemable” is a bad take,
Pretty sure only we privileged westerners who have to opportunity to have this "debate" may think this and not the Afghan child that saw their family get blown up by a drone, they certainly wouldn't give a fuck if that US soldier is a doctor, some bureaucratic pencil pusher down the chain of command or the war criminal that piloted the drone.
Read the rest of the comment, though. In no other context would leftists find it acceptable to write someone off for the rest of their life, especially if there are significant mitigating circumstances, and even if they were only tangentially linked to direct harm (e.g., some pencil pusher who's spent his entire career at a base in Kansas).
Imagine some 17-year-old was pressured into joining a gang. He just sells drugs, but other members of his gang kill people. If he thinks he's in over his head and tries to leave the gang, they're going to make life pretty hard for him. Should our 17-year-old drug dealer be put to death? Should he be imprisoned for life? Or should we consider the circumstances of how he got in the gang in the first place, and how easy it would have been for him to leave, and what he personally did, and have some avenue for him to redeem himself?
Pretty sure only we privileged westerners who have to opportunity to have this "debate" may think this and not the Afghan child that saw their family get blown up by a drone, they certainly wouldn't give a fuck if that US soldier is a doctor, some bureaucratic pencil pusher down the chain of command or the war criminal that piloted the drone.
Read the rest of the comment, though. In no other context would leftists find it acceptable to write someone off for the rest of their life, especially if there are significant mitigating circumstances, and even if they were only tangentially linked to direct harm (e.g., some pencil pusher who's spent his entire career at a base in Kansas).
Imagine some 17-year-old was pressured into joining a gang. He just sells drugs, but other members of his gang kill people. If he thinks he's in over his head and tries to leave the gang, they're going to make life pretty hard for him. Should our 17-year-old drug dealer be put to death? Should he be imprisoned for life? Or should we consider the circumstances of how he got in the gang in the first place, and how easy it would have been for him to leave, and what he personally did, and have some avenue for him to redeem himself?