This is fair statement, but I suppose I don't see any way a person donning a US Military uniform is doing any good. No matter what good they do, its worthless. Because the organization they work for doesn't believe in building and mending. It's pretty much ACAB scenario. Are their some cops trying to "protect" and "serve"? Sure, but they are operating in a system that is designed to kill, kill, kill. At the very least the industry you're in has a human service as a component. US military operates to kill and subjugate. Nobody can tell me they wore a US Military uniform, went to a country US is engaged in an overt war, and they didn't fire any bullets (or would have, if they came under fire).
I also understand that many servicemembers are victims of US army propaganda, and do sign up in good faith or because they are dirt poor and have no other prospects. But this is the part where introspection is needed.
Thanks for making this thread. It's one where I read every reply, think about it for a while, and then debate whether to post and what to say.
I'm personally proud (or at least, not ashamed) of what I've done, because the highlights were "build Afghan schools," "prosecute rapists," and "share intelligence with Ukraine in their defensive war against Russia." But I'm under no illusions about the well-defended thesis you're presenting here. I want nothing more than for the U.S. military to be a stabilizing force for good, not the least of which is because it's the only institution that's funded and actually does international logistics (i.e., shipping things and people) well in the U.S. government. I'd quibble with your statement that the U.S. military only exists to kill and subjugate -- although that's mission #1. Because we don't fucking fund the State Department, the U.S. military also engages in well-meaning but misplaced diplomacy, to say nothing of other missions. Everything from disaster relief and unambiguous humanitarian assistance ones, to cancer research at Walter Reed.
So yes, I believe I've done good, but I'd welcome a situation where there's a collective recognition that the Iraq War was a horrific mistake that should never be repeated, with institutional safeguards enacted to ensure it doesn't happen again.
One thing that I'm curious about is this: all of the baby Sergeants and LTs during the early days of the "War on Terror" are the Command Sergeant Majors and possibly pinning on stars now. Similarly, while I'm a minion at best, I'm getting up there in rank. Surely these perspectives and the reality of what followed are baked into the collective consciousness of senior leadership now. At the
very least, all the principals who orchestrated it are retired or dead.
I'd really like to see a reckoning. At best, thanks to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, we had the WMD Report that formally concluded that the invasion of Iraq was premised upon faulty intelligence and flawed analysis (see: Curveball, among other things).
All this rather than admit you lost (with 9/11). You still haven't, can't, and won't admit that you were completely and perfectly defeated that day. TKO, flawless victory, hello, Earth to America. And here we still are, pacing the meaningless steps, enacting the nightmare perversions of your vanished superiority fantasy. It's been over, for 22 years, and the hope of America reconciling with, y'know, reality, just continues to diminish.
You built horseshit into your executive functions, as an excuse to allow you to lash out, and now you can't get it out. But not to worry, because your nation's corpse will take generations to fall apart, and generations of vultures will feed very, very well for the duration.
Other people called you tasteless, but I see your point. How anyone could view the reaction and response to 9/11 as anything other than loss, I can't understand it. Too many people died, both American and especially Afghan (and Iraqi, and others), and the Taliban rule Afghanistan again. At best, it was a short-term tactical victory followed by an overwhelming strategic loss.
Anyway, I'm done in this thread. Sorry for offending anyone.
I appreciate your perspective.
Kabul PRT here circa 2011, checking in.
