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Grew up in a cult that refuses to do any military (JW), so at least one benefit I guess in that I was never brought up to venerate the military, or even any living person.

"The Universal Soldier," all about a soldier's responsibility in the continuation of war, is one of my favorite protest songs from the 60s (though I am more familiar with Donovan's version).

Maybe we can add some verses to this one?

... And he's fighting for the fascists...

The Universal Soldier

Buffy Sainte-Marie

He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you

And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way

And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls

But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on

He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war.

Yes and no. American military personnel absolutely murdered innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Panama, Vietnam, Korea, Germany, Italy, Japan, ...

But not every one, not every day, not multiple times a day.

I know this sounds like "not all X are Y," and to some extent sure, but some mechanic or cook or logistics nerd who never touched a trigger after Basic isn't a murderer like the shit bag who killed Good or Pretti or the others is.

shaq asleep meme American tax dollars funding the slaughter and maiming of hundrends of thousands of civilians in gaza and 3rd world countries

shaq awake meme American tax dollars killing 1 american

I don't have one of those. I have an ex-marine friend, who I chastised when he originally signed up I remember I joked "If you die in combat I'm going to kill you." because he was basically my best friend at the time. He came from an extremely poor family.

He ended up (unwillingly) being assigned to being a MP, and ended up never shooting or bombing a soul. He was just agonizingly bored for hours and hours (He hoped for bar fights to break out just to fill the time). Hes now a union rep for a private security company and he hates all of his co-workers because he tells me they're almost all [redacted] racist assholes (hes half black).

Nice to finally see other Americans waking the fuck up and realizing that this is what we've been doing to the rest of the world for over a century.

My cousin was aNavy F16 pilot who got a medal for dropping the most bombs on Syria. I casually asked him what it felt like to he responsible for so much death and broken families and he looked at me like his brain was shorting out.

Easily proven true by endless apologia for US military members. When Russians do it, the are orc, when Americans do it, they were poor and needed healthcare.

The military is a social program.

They need the poors to fight their wars and work on their factory floors.

One person’s hero is another person’s war criminal

Ask a black person that has grown up in the USA, ask how free they have felt before even all this. I had one break it down for me and it started the trek to changing my view of the USA as well as political positioning. We've always been like this from inception, just it's hitting close to home now the moderate is feeling the pain.