El Chisme

iraq war and vietnam war vets wore this tired line into the ground with their wallowing self-pity. "I thought the war was about fighting terrorism and keeping America safe from WMDs, but I was lied to. It was all a big lie. Us veterans got a raw deal, we were exploited and tossed away". This is the primary pro-imperialist recuperated narrative for post-war hangovers by liberals.

There's never any actual contrition about the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children they murdered. They don't even mention them. America just got "tricked" into a war, it's bad because it's not actually about democracy like we thought! This type of self-excusing keeps the door completely open to the next war to depose "autocracy". What I want to hear from veterans is something along the line of "The US Military's purpose is imperialism and I am deeply sorry for being complicit in the mass murder of its victims". Until they get there they are snakes who run as radlibs and libs in electoral politics and continue their imperialist nonsense. See: Tulsi Gabbard doing this shtick, talking about how 'as a veteran' the Iraq War was a mistake and mismanaged and based on some bad actors at the political level. Remember when she was Bernie aligned and people on this very site defended her? Look at her now, head of one of Trumps' gestappos.

You need to learn to read between the lines. This type of "I'm a sad vet who was exploited" radlib is 100% always going to betray the international working class. The reason nobody on the left shits on Aaron Bushnell, despite them being in the airforce, is because they openly stated the US military was being genocidal and centered Palestinians. Even if they hadn't self-immolated, just continued protesting and organizing, they would be forgiven with that kind of stance.