I agree with what you wrote, but it always amazes me how many people, especially working class people, place military service on a pedestal. If a man (usually a man), has served in the Army, he automatically gains enormous respect from his community. That’s the problem: mass indoctrination runs very deep.
Well in order for society to be able to keep fighting wars, especially for the benefit of the 1%, they have to spin it as honorable and give out special status and benefits and create entire holidays and rituals around it romanticizing it. Most people think the wars their country fights are like the wars the military in TV shows and movies fight. But notice how in movies and TV, all the wars fought are defensive or honorable. Pick a show, any show, and 9.8 out of 10 times the military in that show/movie is fighting a righteous war - be it Star Wars or Star Trek...rarely do we see movies where the plot is this celebrated military that in actually just goes out there bombing the poorest people in the world on behalf of the empire.
That propaganda creates the myth that all these wars are for some higher, noble, liberation causes as opposed to wars of aggression and choice to secure more resources for the global West.
Well said, Ginnie 👍. Unfortunately, the addiction to that status gets passed down through generations. Trying to change the minds of such people is an uphill struggle.
Dominic, you’d like this post I wrote yesterday. In fact, there are many who served who have woken up from their mass indoctrination and don’t want to be thanked for their “service”. Totally agree with you here. Here’s the piece: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/short-thoughts-may-25-memorial-day
@franklin….. I agree. Have a lot of friends who have served (late GenX) and they don’t like what they are seeing. Ditto for the majority of .mil I follow online. The real sticking point for them is the fact we are no longer a sovereign nation (US). That is no longer debatable.
Me and my brothers never served. Youngest brother has twins almost 16. Both are good athletes but the boy is hard wired for military service. Would probably end up in Special Forces one day. He literally checks all the boxes fast, agile, strong, smart, and loves guns.
He doesn’t want to go to college. I suspect the girl will. But the boy will NOT go to the military. My brother won’t allow it after Biden and now Trump. But I think the widespread knowledge we lack sovereignty will be the overall dealbreaker.
Not only is military service placed on a pedestal, but it is considered "manly" to be a soldier. This indoctrination of boys starts very early. It starts with the "boys will be boys" idea when they are very young. It is mass indoctrination that starts the minute they are born. It starts when people express disappointment that their new baby is a girl and not a boy. Girls who join the military are, in many respects, even more pathetic than boys who join the army. I wish that Caitlin's perspective were taught in schools and homes.
After the Korean war, it became an immoral act to join United States military. What kind of person would sign a contract to kill whoever they were asked to kill, for gangsters, in exchange for what the military offers: training, partially paid college education, travel, and a chance to kill people legally? Most of the American boys who died in the Vietnam war were drafted, and they had no idea what the war was really about. 90% of them probably had to look hard to even find it on the globe. But the scumbags like Pete Buttigieg who went in after Vietnam and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are despicable human beings, or else they are people who were profoundly ignorant in the past, and maybe now they have learned something. But Pete Buttigieg is extremely proud of his military "service". Service to a Nazi military, basically, for anyone able to see objectively as an extra terrestrial sociologist would.
"Saving Private Ryan, aided by superb cinematographic technology, draws on our deep feeling for the GIs, in order to rescue not just Private Ryan but the good name of war.
I will not be surprised if Spielberg gets an Academy Award. Did not Kissinger get a noble Prize?"
***
"It enabled political leaders - whatever miserable adventure they would take us into, whatever mayhem they would wreak on other people and on our own - to invoke WW2 as a model. Vietnam caused large numbers of Americans to question the enterprise of war itself. "
I flew for the first time in a long time yesterday. After the first class people boarded, and people with special needs - I'm disabled, and kicking myself for not using that privilege - they let military people board. I could understand it if they were disabled. But no - these were presumably fit enough to fight, surely they could endure waiting to board along with the rest of us ordinary folks! It makes me sick. Old people having to get on after these young, prime-of-their-lives folks, who then get the limited bin space and better seats. I found it infuriating and insulting. If I were active duty military, frankly, I would refuse to take advantage of this.
In Myanmar the trains had special cars for the military, which ruled the country. The military academy is full of identical young men in identical uniforms all carrying identical briefcases.
Now the USA is going in that direction. They no longer make anything but weapons, so they have to pay for it via an extortion racket. Well, they also print dollar bills so they also make money.
Yes, it’s like the country was founded after WW2. I’m tired of them wheeling out dementia patients during the propaganda portion of a pro sports event so we can all worship their “sacrifice “. I’m starting to boo them but I get dirty looks.
"...did you know Canadian soldiers, men and women, have trained 47000 Ukrainians to protect their own country?"
I wouldn't be so quick to trumpet your country's ill-advised participation in the training of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine - as if it was something to be proud of. Or to exhibit pride in having "actively served" as instruments of Western imperialism. But then, I am strongly anti-Fascist and am in possession of a moral compass.
BTW Did you know that the reason Canadian government initially welcomed the Nazis after WW2 was to have them as "Strike-breakers" against the workers' Unions?
The only thing I wasn't aware of was the original reason for welcoming the Nazis into Canada - to act as strikebreakers designed to ultimately diminish the power of the workers unions.
But why am I not suprised by that? Why am I not surprised by the fact that hidden behind every outrageous anti-workers decision made by any Western government is a vulgar economic / financial calculus?
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. "
-Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pastor, arrested by Gestapo and imprisoned in concentration camp as a political prisoner
***
In Germany, at the end of the WW1, November 1918, In a stunning upheaval working people and soldiers toppled the Kaiser(King), and created councils of workers and soldiers everywhere in the country, and on November 9, a government of members of two socialist parties was built. However, the people and this government did not manage to replace the state of the Kaiser, and in a terrible civil war, the counter revolution, the workers councils were crushed, and a capitalist republic was built. Those militias later became the basis for Hitler's SA and SS whose objective was to terrorize the working class. And the Nazis never really gained dominant influence among the working class back then, unlike today.
With respect to the Socialists and Communists being the first “clients” of the Nazi concentration camps, of course I knew that. All good Communists know that. And you would have to be asleep to not have been familiar with the "First they came for the..." piece.
Have you ever read "The Informed Heart" by Bruno Bettelheim? If you have not I would recommend it to you. It deals with the role of the concentration camp from the perspective of a “client” of it's services.
I have been paying close attention to this world I have inhabited for over 5 decades - I would guess that I am at least twice as old as you are. While I find your enthusiasm endearing and commendable, you should not assume that others are not as well informed as you are.
How comes you ignore the fact that the people of Iraq never had asked for your help?Same goes for Ukraine which is being sacrificed for evil aims and cashflow in the pockets of those you presuambly follow blindly.
It's amazing how many bots still pretend to believe that anglo-murican imperialist oligarchy wants to "help the people" of Iran/Cuba by bombing and starving them…
I never said that you-or others who have served in the military or other forces-have no value. We all have value, including people who never served. Be offended if you like. I was simply pointing out my own perspective.
$7.25 minimum wage, 7% of jobs unionized, college costing big bucks, healthcare unaffordable and political/historical conscientiousness virtually non existent. It is not surprising desperate kids “volunteer “.
Becoming a war criminal who helps bomb and murder the poorest people on the planet on behalf the of the ruling pedo billionaire class, so you can get free healthcare or college is never ok. There are certain lines you never cross. 'I became a killer to feed my family" is not an excuse. The legal system does not accept desperation as an excuse to let someone off the hook who committed murder "I was hungry and needed tuition money, so I murdered this family, your honor" would be a preposterous defense in a court of law. But when it comes to the military, we take it for granted and just accept it.
I dont think you are condoning this, but I am trying to say that even making it such a statement gives validity to why someone may join the military. As if being poor enough justifies anything.
People want to pay for college and need healthcare? Yeah, do what everyone else is doing: take out loans, hustle, get a fucking job. Anything is better than taking this ugly step scarring your own soul and serving evil, bombing helpless children and civilians who have done nothing to you on behalf of bloodthirsty immoral psychopaths. To call any of this defensive is an insult to those who lost their lives actually defending their nation (i.e. WW 2).
I also would say that most volunteers are joining to be part of the military that is non combat. However, I don’t excuse people for joining large companies that do terrible things to people or are unethical.
The narrative that everyone joins the military because they are so desperate is simply not true. It infantilises the vast majority of people in the military who are not in extreme poverty, and have other options. These people are choosing to murder for money.
Not in extreme but only moderate poverty? We have to keep in mind that careers like military and police are attractive to people who cannot otherwise afford housing, healthcare, education, etc. The capitalist system itself ensures that there will be masses of people with no other viable choice, and thanks to jingoist indoctrination and the shittiness of our underfunded public education, they don't know any better. It is true that becoming a professional murderer and cannon fodder on behalf of the ruling class is a horrible career choice. And yet, we should not be so quick to judge.
Very true Iggy.........but what are they signing up for: killing and decapitating leaders/bleeding sovereign countries! There is absolutely NO moral reason to fight.
That’s true but at some point, personal responsibility does have to come into play. How would you feel if we applied this standard to fictional or historical villains? Would you be willing to excuse the actions of a stormtrooper serving aboard the Death Star by saying, “Hey, he joined the Empire because he needed money for college” or “He enlisted in the Wehrmacht because it was the only job available that offered decent wages?”
Or would you be more likely to say that, “Yes, everyone deserves healthcare, college, and decent wages, but that still doesn’t change the fact that they knowingly enlisted into a monstrously evil organization and committed crimes on behalf of this organization, which makes them a war criminal regardless of their initial motivations?”
Because good intentions only matter so much. Anyone who enlists and doesn’t immediately put down their weapon and refuse to comply or desert is complicit in everything the military carries out whether they like it or not. In fact, since we do not currently have an official draft AND thanks to social media, no one can claim plausible deniability regarding the realities of what the US war machine does all over the world, to a certain extent you wonder about anyone who voluntarily enlists in the US military.
Exactly. It has nothing to do with "serving" anything other than oneself - the military is for most the fastest way out of a dead town into relative financial security and benefits otherwise unavailable to those with no education. The fact that they have to murder brown people in some country they know nothing about doesn't bother them, because our media works overtime to dehumanize our victims, and some of the more psychopathic among our soldiers - I should really call them mercenaries - actually enjoy the killing. Plenty of video evidence has surfaced about that too.
People from underprivileged communities - that come from poverty, and that suffer victimization and brutalization from their police force - make the calculation that by joining the army and accepting a small amount of controlled war crimes they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty and make a life for themselves.
Somebody ought to show these vulnerable people that participating in the crimes against humanity perpetuated by the elites - and the various monopoly business interests of their country - is not the answer to their problems. They need to be made aware of how their country treats them after they are done with them (for those that are unaware, it's not very well). They need to understand that by participating in the system that has immiserated them they become culpable in it's crimes.
Western Imperialism is a complex of moving parts that grinds the vulnerable - both at home and abroad - into fuel for the system. Don't be the fuel. Be the friction. You aren't going to vote your way out of this mess, but you might just friction your way out.
The Powers That Be don’t become better; they become smarter. Having an official draft like they last did during Vietnam, forces the public to reckon with the possibility that they might be sent off to fight in whatever war is raging which forces them to pay attention to what is going on in said war. The US war machine functions better when the public can safely turn a blind eye to the crimes being committed on their behalf.
Hence why a poverty draft serves their purposes better than an official one.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
On Memorial Day, I honor the victims of war. The victims include, not only the innocent people killed, but those who pull the trigger and kill them, for the actual combat soldiers are immature boys, whose brains and full adult judgment will not mature for another 10 years. They are, as in Vietnam or Israel, 18 or 19 yrs old, too uneducated to understand the narrative they are told is a lie, too reckless to stop and consider, and so the victimizers are also victims, for if only those with mature brains, let's say 30 yrs or older were allowed to fight, there would be no wars. For the mature mind knows that combat is insane while war itself is profitible, AND so those who send young boys into war are older and stay safe, and those who command them are also older, staying in back and pushing them into the madness of war.
And so there are two levels of victims: the innocents caught in the crossfire, or sometimes deliberately killed to force regime change by causing mass suffering, the collateral damage are pure sacrifice for the gods of war, which are the financial elites which finance wars, the politicians paid to promote wars, the fossil fuel tycoons who fuel war, and the merchants of deeath who grow fat producing killing machines.
The boys (sometimes girls) sent to kill and be killed are the second level: chosen because they lack the mature brain to see thru the lies and because they are too young to have gained the authority to say no.
They kill both the innocents and those, on the other side, about whom they know nothing, who have been manipulated to kill them.
This is a level of victimhood compromised by the fact that it is conditioned by coming to kill.
So on Memorial Day, I remember the boys sent to slaughter and be slaughter but I not glorify them; I pity them and reserve my mourning for those they come to kill, 3/4 being civilians, innocents.
I AM lying. On Memorial day, I grow angry at the insanity of war, at the sacrifice of our youth, at the obscene evil of the old men who profit from war. I cringe when I see the flag; I shirk in horror when I see people saying, "Thank you for serving." I draw back into myself, an utter stranger in world where killing each other is normal. I shudder at the very idea of honoring those who "died so we could be free" knowing that if I openly expressed my dread of this day in the presence of those executing the ritual, I would be erased with a violence that is the hidden message of Memorial Day.
The murderers are the victims? So until someone gets to 30’years of age they are excused from blowing humans to bits? Your intent may be noble but dead wrong. Millions of dead wrong. I believe most human beings have a conscience that is activated long before 30 like 20!years or more before.
Why limit victimization to military service? How about the jilted lover that kills? The employee that does not get promoted and kills his superior? Endless reasons why young people kill. Should they have immunity from consequences?
I would, based on the features of the immature brain, also ban gun ownership to anyone under 25 and apply to other issues that require a mature brain. I am not limiting by any means but violence, in war and domestically, is the key issue with immature brains: "The human brain finishes developing around the mid-20s to early 30s, with the rational centers maturing last.
An immature brain is characterized by:Emotional Processing: Driven by the emotional center (amygdala) rather than the rational center. Low Impulse Control: Due to an unfinished prefrontal cortex.Slower Connections: Lacks complete myelin insulation to speed up signaling.High Adaptability: Possesses high neuroplasticity, making it flexible but vulnerable. Poor risk assessment. I intend no limits but focus on the most significant areas where immature brains cannot function rationally. Thank you for prompting me to expand.
When the entire weight of a society and your family tells you as a child this is good and right and a correct path? It’s understandable. Not right. Understandable.
There is no uniform response: "Summary of Family Responses to EnlistmentFamily agreement when a son decides to join the military depends on several distinct factors: Family History: Households with a military background tend to agree and offer support more readily. Safety Concerns: Deep anxieties about physical danger and active deployments frequently trigger initial parental resistance .Alternative Plans: Parents who prioritize a traditional college path often prefer their son to earn a degree first. Financial Incentives: Families often welcome the enlistment because it offers guaranteed career training, stable income, and healthcare.Legal Age: Parental consent is legally required at age 17, but at age 18, the decision rests entirely with the son."
"Recent polling reveals that 54.4% of Americans would actively discourage a young person from enlisting as an regular soldier.
Declines Within Military Families: Historically, families with a legacy of service have been the strongest proponents of enlistment. However, recent data shows a major shift: only 32% of active-duty military families would now recommend that their children join the service. This is a sharp drop from 55% recorded in 2016."
25 million soldiers spend life practicing killing. If all practiced saving lives instead of taking lives, nuclear Armageddon would be relegated to the archives of human history.
It really has become a sacred cow. Look how much of a backlash there has been to suggest US soldiers have a duty to disobey an Unconstitutional military order? Even though every American soldier swears to uphold and defend the US Constitution.
As a vet, makes me sick how the military lust has infected the sports world, with flyovers and flags the size of fields, etc.
Whenever someone gives me the ‘thank you for your service’, I hit the ‘serenity now’ button and say ‘appreciate it, but I hope that the next time you thank someone for their service, you’re addressing a teacher, or a nurse, or a janitor’.
When I point out that Americas wars do not make us safe or protect our freedom- quite the opposite, Americans look at me like I just killed Mickey Mouse.
I am writing to you as an ally. I have spent my life advocating against the Western empire, often at a physical cost that most will never understand. I have supported your voice because, like you, I want to see this machine dismantled. But I must speak plainly: your recent call to stigmatize everyone who has worn a military uniform is a tactical and moral error that alienates the very people you need to reach. By drawing a line in the sand against a massive, diverse group of people whose only shared commonality was survival, you aren’t weakening the empire—you are deepening the tribalism that allows it to thrive.
You call us "stormtroopers" and "mindless," but you are ignoring the biological and social reality of who you are attacking. Neuroscience tells us that the teenage brain is not fully developed; the prefrontal cortex—the seat of reason and long-term consequence—is still a work in progress. The military machine knows this. They hunt these underdeveloped minds in our poorest communities, knowing exactly which buttons to press.
I speak from the experience of being one of those hunted. I did not join for an ideology. I was a teenager working three jobs, yet I remained homeless, unable to qualify for a basic lease because I had no credit, no cosigner, and no family support. I had no access to healthcare or education. I reached a point where I had to sell my own body just to afford a shower and bread. When you have faced that level of absolute social abandonment, the military is not a "career choice"—it is a survival trap. If you had stood where I stood, you would have chosen the cot and the bread, too. To mock that choice as "mindless" is a luxury of the comfortable.
Today, I am visiting the grave of my elementary school best friend, Marine Lance Cpl. Dominic C. Brown. He died in 2004 at the age of 19 while serving overseas. He was just a child—his mind, like mine, was underdeveloped, and he was a victim of a society that lacked the awareness to protect him from being fed to the machine. He wasn't a "stormtrooper." He was my friend. When you use these pejoratives, you aren't just attacking a political entity; you are spitting on the graves of children who were exploited by the very empire you claim to despise.
We were fed a lifetime of propaganda. From our first day in school, the education system functioned as an indoctrination machine. We were lied to about history, and post-9/11, we were conditioned to believe we were the "good guys" defending against a second attack. We were blind right up until the moment we were handed a rifle and told to shoot.
But look at the reality of those who "see the light." You don't have to look further than Aaron Bushnell. He was an active-duty soldier who realized the true nature of the empire and, in a final act of radical dissent, gave his life to protest the atrocities he was being forced to facilitate. Does the label "stormtrooper" or "mindless" apply to him? If you acknowledge his sacrifice, you must acknowledge that the individual inside the uniform is not the enemy—the system that forces them to choose between their humanity and their survival is.
Many of us never fired a weapon, and many of those who were asked to participate in harm refused, risking our lives against our own squads to do so. We aren't your enemies; we are your most battle-tested allies because we know exactly how the beast operates from the inside.
It is rare to meet a self-aware veteran between 18 and 45 who doesn't agree that this system is the real evil. By using blanket pejoratives, you are not holding wrongdoers accountable; you are attacking the people who have already emerged from the fog. Tribalism is a destructive ideology, and your approach mirrors the very "us versus them" mindset the empire uses to keep us fighting each other.
I am one of your strongest allies, and I have done more in my life to fight this empire than many who are cheering for your divisive rhetoric. I am not asking you to apologize for being anti-war; I am asking you to be more effective. Stop attacking the victims of the recruitment machine and start aiming your fire at the power structures that thrive when we are busy tearing each other apart. We are the ones you need to win this fight. Don’t push us away.
Anybody who joined the military after Vietnam was ignorant. Anybody who joined after Bush's insane speeches in the days following 9/11 was *profoundly* ignorant, and even *criminally* ignorant, because by then everybody had the Internet, and it would have only taken a few minutes to find out about the American Holocaust in Vietnam and about the lies being seamlessly generated by the Bush administration to manufacturer our consent for a new Vietnam.
I realize that for poor people the military is way out, a way to get training and education, but in the richest, most powerful country in the world, there is no excuse for ANYBODY signing up to be a slave, a murderer slave whose job is to murder poor people in other countries for gangsters. Fuck that.
Your comment is a perfect example of the intellectual laziness I’m talking about. You are projecting 2026 connectivity and a middle-class 'leisure' lifestyle onto a reality that didn't exist for those of us on the bottom in the early 2000s.
The idea that a homeless teenager, working three jobs and struggling to find a shower, had the 'access' or the mental bandwidth to conduct independent research into geopolitical 'opposing views' is a fantasy. When you are fighting for basic biological survival, the 'web' isn't a tool for critical inquiry—it's a luxury you don't possess. We were trapped in a closed loop of state-sponsored propaganda, and for a kid on the street, the only 'world' that existed was the one immediately threatening to kill him.
Suggesting that we should have simply 'researched' our way out of indoctrination is a classic display of activist privilege. It’s the comfortable person’s way of blaming the victim for failing to solve a structural trap they’ve never had to endure.
You’re focusing on how you wish the world worked for everyone, rather than how it actually works for the people being hunted by recruiters. If you want to engage in this discussion, drop the armchair analysis and recognize that your 'critical research' requires a baseline of stability that millions of people in this country are systematically denied.
Are you implying that most of the idiots who signed up for the Iraq war were desperately poor? And didn't your hypothetical kid know a single smart person? Ever? The Internet is not the only way to learn. The military most likely wouldn't have even let that kid join up anyway! Most poor people in the US are obese and have smartphones. There were plenty of dumb, middle-class and lower-middle-class kids who joined up out of an infantile sense of patriotism. And even rich guys like Pat Tillman, with his multimillion dollar NFL contract joined up. (And then learned what Caitlin and I know, about manufactured consent, and was then killed by friendly fire.)
That pathetic starving kid working 3 jobs you mention had 18 years to have at least 1 good conversation about Vietnam, if he cared. At the moment, over 1/3 of American adults love Trump, proving statistically that we are a hardhearted, selfish, ignorant country lacking empathy. Imagine if 1/3 of the cells in your body were metastasizing cancer cells.
I dropped out of high school and hitchhiked from Los Angeles through the South to the keys of Florida and then up to Tennessee when I was 17. In doing so, I met hundreds of people, including many veterans of the Vietnam war, who set me straight. An 18-year-old who doesn't know that murder is wrong, and who hasn't yet realized that he's already a tool for rich people, is oblivious to reality.
Your argument relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of socioeconomic stratification, which leads to a series of logical errors.
First, you continue to frame my history as a 'hypothetical.' My lived experience—homelessness, the lack of credit, and the necessity of trading my body for basic needs—is a factual record of the precise socioeconomic conditions the recruitment machine targets to function. By labeling these systemic realities 'hypothetical,' you are not engaging in debate; you are engaging in denial.
Second, there is a clear contradiction in your stance: you claim to be an anti-imperialist, yet you are currently punching left. You are directing your fire at a fellow traveler who actively advocates for the dismantling of the Western empire, simply because my path to that realization—born of survival and necessity—does not align with your own. By alienating those who have seen the machine from the inside and emerged as your most informed, battle-tested allies, you are prioritizing your own ego over the efficacy of the anti-war movement.
Third, your insistence that a child on the street 'should have had a conversation about Vietnam' is a profound display of privilege. You assume that a teenager fighting for basic biological survival has the time, the social access, and the mental bandwidth to discuss historical geopolitics. When your existence is defined solely by securing a cot and bread, historical analysis is a luxury of the comfortable. I was not 'infantile' or 'patriotic'; I was starving. I had no ideology because survival requires a singular focus on the present moment, a reality that seems to escape your armchair analysis.
Fourth, your choice to dehumanize children by labeling them 'idiots' or 'metastatic cancer cells' is revealing. You claim to despise a society that lacks empathy, yet you employ the exact same dehumanizing rhetoric that the state uses to justify its own violence. When you reduce victims of a predatory recruitment system to cancerous cells, you aren't acting as a critic of the empire; you are replicating its core methodology: the dismissal of human lives that do not fit into your narrow, privileged framework.
If you are serious about dismantling the machine, I suggest you stop 'punching left' at the people it devours and start analyzing the structural mechanisms that make that devouring possible. The former is merely an exercise in ego; the latter is how change is actually initiated.
When I turned 18, I was living in a trailer in a field with no electricity or plumbing, and I worked all night baking donuts for minimum wage. I was historically illiterate and only literate politically from listening to musicians like Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. But still, I had the sense to look up a draft counselor and ask if I should register for the draft.
It was 1972 and the war would continue for 4 more years. The counselor explained that the draft had been drastically reduced, replaced with an insane level of bombing by Nixon, and that while the war was immoral and criminal, I could go to prison for failing to register. I agreed that it was logical to register, but I also resolved to hitchhike to Canada if I got drafted. I was sure they had donut shops in Canada.
Obviously a country that will give a boy only 2 choices -- murder poor rice farmers on command or take your chances in an American prison -- is a fucked country.
Your whole argument is basically that poor kids should sign up to be murder slaves because they can't help being stupid and poor. True, they are victims: their ignorance and consent has been manufactured by the corporate-military-industrial complex. Still, their starvation isn't remotely close to the starvation faced now by Gazans. They have days when they eat well. Their lives force them to come into contact and talk with councilors, volunteers in a food line, food stamp bureaucrats, and ER doctors. They don't have even 1 smart uncle? 1 Korean War veteran grandpa?
You're like a Trumper, "splitting" from Caitlin over an issue because of how your feelings feel. There should be no split, here. If you like Caitlin, then you know how basic and foundational her belief is that JOINING THE US MILITARY TODAY SHOULD BE TABOO. She loves and feels for the poor fools that do it. But at some point, like if they built a concentration camp right across the street from your house in 1942 Germany, you should be able to realize, like I did at 18, that you don't kill people for a Hitler. Ever.
Your privilege is showing. And yes, they were ignorant. Ignorant means lacking knowledge and there is no shame in that. People that learn better and do better should be celebrated.
Reminds of the french poet Paul Valery's quote: "“War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.” I read it recently re worded as: "war is fought by people who do not know each other and kill each other on behalf of people who know each other very well and do not harm each other"
The problem here is that joining the military is for young adults from low-income families the only feasible way to escape poverty. In our wars of aggression we send our poor to kill the poor of victim nations.
Yeah, there is a pejorative term for people who join the military in the West. We're called 'SUCKERS'!
I was a Sucker once. Whenever I can, I tell everyone who intends to join the military to think carefully about their decision. We're not really defending our country, and the threats we face are pretty much our creation. But it's hard to argue with Hollywood...
Now, let me tell you about a real hero who joined up to defend her country...
Lyudmilla Bolilaya joined the Russian Ground Forces as a medic, and was one of the first people to accompany the units engaging the invading Ukrainians (and NATO 'volunteers'/mercenaries) at Kursk. Corporal Bolilaya went in to evacuate the wounded during an intense Ukrainian artillery barrage. Suddenly one soldier set off a mine, and he was set to be finished off by a Ukrainian kamikaze drone when the medic threw her body over him. The drone exploded nearby, causing serious injuries to Corporal Bolilaya, but she did save the wounded soldier's life. Her injuries were severe and, of course, career-ending, and she is now undertaking state-sponsored study for a new career in civilian life. For anyone who watched this year's Victory Parade in Moscow, you would have noticed a woman in ceremonial dress uniform behind President Vladimir Putin. And you would have also noticed a well-earned decoration pinned high on the left side of her chest. For her actions that day, Corporal Bolilaya received the highest decoration in the country; Hero of the Russian Federation.
You might enjoy Donovan’s song “Universal Soldier” if you don’t already know it. Someone commented on my page this week that the highest guide we have is ethics, especially the rule: do no harm. If soldiers listened to that there’d be no war, but young men and women usually believe that they are invincible and that war is thrilling. Until that changes things will remain the same.
That's just it isn't it? There is this myth of invincibility when youth join the military. Everyone else will die, but God will protect me (and is on my side) and I won't die.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine alone, over a million souls have perished, from both sides of the conflict. Was it worth it?
That song was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie (something I just learned).
Heck when I was a kid I played army. I had a toy .50 caliber machine gun with a tripod, not a wimpy submachine gun. All the other boys did it too. I think it's instinctive. Even ants have a war instinct. That's very basic.
Oh yes. Spot and and so well put. In the current Western context, joining the military is for psychopaths, rapists, pillagers and the like - doing the bidding of a satanic cult.
On a slightly digressory note, I feel like posting this again from the archives:
Don’t be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there’s no poverty to be seen because poverty’s hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you; and even if it seems that you never had so much; that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don’t be taken in when they pat you paternally on the shoulder and say there’s no equality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight; because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and their granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they’ll send you out to protect their gold in wars who’s weapons’ rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can, with a flick of their fingers, tear a million of you to pieces.
And I always let people know on a daily basis that that is exactly the reason why we have to suffer thru the fake "Hero of the Day" bullshit during the local news half hour segments, every single day of our lives. I suspect that every U.S. locality/region does this now, where they purposely waste our lives with a few minutes out of a 22-minute "half-hour" local news segment, with a local hero of the day that anyone living in the area/region can nominate someone as a "Hero", and they will plaster that person's name all over the TV screen and give a short military bio of that person. They've been doing this for well over five years now, even though that segment of that news slot is promoted with a generalized phrase of "Hero of the Day", the slot has always and ONLY been used for a military person... the obvious question here... Isn't the school teacher, isn't the nurse, isn't the person that serves us food when we eat out, the ambulance driver, etc, etc, etc, and on and on and on... FAR more of a "Hero".
The entire charade is just so disingenuously manufactured solely as a way for all of us to be constantly conditioned to love the military, and, by extension, all the killing the U.S. gov't (and its vassal states) do all around the world... and which will then, of course, justify the trillion and a half dollar killing/military budget, and ensure that the power structure never experiences any meaningful mass protest/push-back.
Here's a thought... if the power structure is really so interested in honoring the military personnel, instead of these bogus "Hero" news/TV displays, how 'bout this... don't start any more fucking wars/aggressions all over the world.
I think along the same lines whenever they name (or rename) a building, bridge or some other entity, usually after a politician who’s done nothing but grift off the public. My neighborhood barber used to be my hero (for example), and I’m sure many other’s were deserving of recognition. But it is with outlooks like this that our real hero’s become ignored and our values manipulated
I agree with what you wrote, but it always amazes me how many people, especially working class people, place military service on a pedestal. If a man (usually a man), has served in the Army, he automatically gains enormous respect from his community. That’s the problem: mass indoctrination runs very deep.
Well in order for society to be able to keep fighting wars, especially for the benefit of the 1%, they have to spin it as honorable and give out special status and benefits and create entire holidays and rituals around it romanticizing it. Most people think the wars their country fights are like the wars the military in TV shows and movies fight. But notice how in movies and TV, all the wars fought are defensive or honorable. Pick a show, any show, and 9.8 out of 10 times the military in that show/movie is fighting a righteous war - be it Star Wars or Star Trek...rarely do we see movies where the plot is this celebrated military that in actually just goes out there bombing the poorest people in the world on behalf of the empire.
That propaganda creates the myth that all these wars are for some higher, noble, liberation causes as opposed to wars of aggression and choice to secure more resources for the global West.
Well said, Ginnie 👍. Unfortunately, the addiction to that status gets passed down through generations. Trying to change the minds of such people is an uphill struggle.
Dominic, you’d like this post I wrote yesterday. In fact, there are many who served who have woken up from their mass indoctrination and don’t want to be thanked for their “service”. Totally agree with you here. Here’s the piece: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/short-thoughts-may-25-memorial-day
@franklin….. I agree. Have a lot of friends who have served (late GenX) and they don’t like what they are seeing. Ditto for the majority of .mil I follow online. The real sticking point for them is the fact we are no longer a sovereign nation (US). That is no longer debatable.
Me and my brothers never served. Youngest brother has twins almost 16. Both are good athletes but the boy is hard wired for military service. Would probably end up in Special Forces one day. He literally checks all the boxes fast, agile, strong, smart, and loves guns.
He doesn’t want to go to college. I suspect the girl will. But the boy will NOT go to the military. My brother won’t allow it after Biden and now Trump. But I think the widespread knowledge we lack sovereignty will be the overall dealbreaker.
Thanks, Franklin 😁. I’ll take a look at your piece.
Not only is military service placed on a pedestal, but it is considered "manly" to be a soldier. This indoctrination of boys starts very early. It starts with the "boys will be boys" idea when they are very young. It is mass indoctrination that starts the minute they are born. It starts when people express disappointment that their new baby is a girl and not a boy. Girls who join the military are, in many respects, even more pathetic than boys who join the army. I wish that Caitlin's perspective were taught in schools and homes.
After the Korean war, it became an immoral act to join United States military. What kind of person would sign a contract to kill whoever they were asked to kill, for gangsters, in exchange for what the military offers: training, partially paid college education, travel, and a chance to kill people legally? Most of the American boys who died in the Vietnam war were drafted, and they had no idea what the war was really about. 90% of them probably had to look hard to even find it on the globe. But the scumbags like Pete Buttigieg who went in after Vietnam and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are despicable human beings, or else they are people who were profoundly ignorant in the past, and maybe now they have learned something. But Pete Buttigieg is extremely proud of his military "service". Service to a Nazi military, basically, for anyone able to see objectively as an extra terrestrial sociologist would.
"There are no innocent civilians, so it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent bystanders."
"You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting"
"Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population"
"If we maintain our faith in God, love of freedom, and superior global air power, the future looks good."
"I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal..."
-U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War
Yep. He was a real monster. The model for the crazy general in Doctor Strangelove.
In 1999 NATO bombed Yugoslavia, including civilians, without UN sanction.
In order to understand what kind of people run NATO, read this story about U.S. General Wesley Clark and his bombing of a passenger train:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grdelica_train_bombing
***
BTW In 2004 war criminal Wesley Clark ran for president of the USA..
***
"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
-U.S. foreign policy, explained by U.S. War criminal and presidential candidate Wesley Clark
youtube.com/watch?v=6Knt3rKTqCk
"Saving Private Ryan, aided by superb cinematographic technology, draws on our deep feeling for the GIs, in order to rescue not just Private Ryan but the good name of war.
I will not be surprised if Spielberg gets an Academy Award. Did not Kissinger get a noble Prize?"
***
"It enabled political leaders - whatever miserable adventure they would take us into, whatever mayhem they would wreak on other people and on our own - to invoke WW2 as a model. Vietnam caused large numbers of Americans to question the enterprise of war itself. "
-Howard Zinn, American historian and WW2 veteran
***
Howard Zinn - War Solves Nothing:
substack.com/@thememoryhole/note/c-147094498
I flew for the first time in a long time yesterday. After the first class people boarded, and people with special needs - I'm disabled, and kicking myself for not using that privilege - they let military people board. I could understand it if they were disabled. But no - these were presumably fit enough to fight, surely they could endure waiting to board along with the rest of us ordinary folks! It makes me sick. Old people having to get on after these young, prime-of-their-lives folks, who then get the limited bin space and better seats. I found it infuriating and insulting. If I were active duty military, frankly, I would refuse to take advantage of this.
In Myanmar the trains had special cars for the military, which ruled the country. The military academy is full of identical young men in identical uniforms all carrying identical briefcases.
Now the USA is going in that direction. They no longer make anything but weapons, so they have to pay for it via an extortion racket. Well, they also print dollar bills so they also make money.
Thanks Holly. A different perspective for sure.
Yes, it’s like the country was founded after WW2. I’m tired of them wheeling out dementia patients during the propaganda portion of a pro sports event so we can all worship their “sacrifice “. I’m starting to boo them but I get dirty looks.
It's one of the oldest tricks in the book to form a Nationalistic, Totalitarian state - ruled by a dictator.
There is no glory to be had in dying for Western Imperialist Interests conjured up by policymakers of Aspen and Rand Corporation
***
youtube.com/shorts/o9jK69n7kA0
https://substack.com/profile/419890129-richard-ware/note/c-266279213
"...did you know Canadian soldiers, men and women, have trained 47000 Ukrainians to protect their own country?"
I wouldn't be so quick to trumpet your country's ill-advised participation in the training of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine - as if it was something to be proud of. Or to exhibit pride in having "actively served" as instruments of Western imperialism. But then, I am strongly anti-Fascist and am in possession of a moral compass.
After WW2 British government welcomed thousands of Ukrainian (Galicien) SS OUN/B members..
youtube.com/watch?v=UB_Gs-0dhOo
***
Between May and June 1947 the British government secretly transported 8,000 Ukrainian Nazi SS soldiers to Britain and Canada.
The "Rimini list" details their names and Ranks.
Many of them later migrated to Canada:
youtube.com/watch?v=ASPoFzmDteg
***
One of them was recently given a standing ovation in Canadian Parliament:
youtube.com/watch?v=vezCq5KcC5c
youtube.com/watch?v=ASPoFzmDteg
***
Canada admits letting in 2,000 Ukrainian SS troopers, 1997:
jweekly.com/1997/02/07/canada-admits-letting-in-2-000-ukrainian-ss-troopers/
***
Ottawa advised against releasing names of Nazi war criminals:
theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-federal-ministers-advised-against-releasing-names-of-900-alleged-nazi/
***
BTW Did you know that the reason Canadian government initially welcomed the Nazis after WW2 was to have them as "Strike-breakers" against the workers' Unions?
youtu.be/aTd8HovAG0I
The only thing I wasn't aware of was the original reason for welcoming the Nazis into Canada - to act as strikebreakers designed to ultimately diminish the power of the workers unions.
But why am I not suprised by that? Why am I not surprised by the fact that hidden behind every outrageous anti-workers decision made by any Western government is a vulgar economic / financial calculus?
Thanks for that information comrade.
bc No one ever mentions that the Socialists and Communists were the first prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, not "jews"?
Like the Communist Party of Germany, the leader of which, Ernst Thälmann, was tortured and executed by Nazi regime.
youtu.be/iI3ucytnbXo?t=1041
***
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. "
-Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pastor, arrested by Gestapo and imprisoned in concentration camp as a political prisoner
***
In Germany, at the end of the WW1, November 1918, In a stunning upheaval working people and soldiers toppled the Kaiser(King), and created councils of workers and soldiers everywhere in the country, and on November 9, a government of members of two socialist parties was built. However, the people and this government did not manage to replace the state of the Kaiser, and in a terrible civil war, the counter revolution, the workers councils were crushed, and a capitalist republic was built. Those militias later became the basis for Hitler's SA and SS whose objective was to terrorize the working class. And the Nazis never really gained dominant influence among the working class back then, unlike today.
With respect to the Socialists and Communists being the first “clients” of the Nazi concentration camps, of course I knew that. All good Communists know that. And you would have to be asleep to not have been familiar with the "First they came for the..." piece.
Have you ever read "The Informed Heart" by Bruno Bettelheim? If you have not I would recommend it to you. It deals with the role of the concentration camp from the perspective of a “client” of it's services.
I have been paying close attention to this world I have inhabited for over 5 decades - I would guess that I am at least twice as old as you are. While I find your enthusiasm endearing and commendable, you should not assume that others are not as well informed as you are.
How comes you ignore the fact that the people of Iraq never had asked for your help?Same goes for Ukraine which is being sacrificed for evil aims and cashflow in the pockets of those you presuambly follow blindly.
It's amazing how many bots still pretend to believe that anglo-murican imperialist oligarchy wants to "help the people" of Iran/Cuba by bombing and starving them…
Bootlicker,aye
Informed,huh
I never said that you-or others who have served in the military or other forces-have no value. We all have value, including people who never served. Be offended if you like. I was simply pointing out my own perspective.
You will be glad to know that conscientious objections have skyrocketed in the US recently, by a factor of ten: https://www.dawn.com/news/1990665
Wow - didn't know that. Encouraging.
Encouraging, yes, but still not enough.
just because some guys have come home with legs in front and in a coffin...
Most likely!
that's good to hear, encouraging at least in my view
$7.25 minimum wage, 7% of jobs unionized, college costing big bucks, healthcare unaffordable and political/historical conscientiousness virtually non existent. It is not surprising desperate kids “volunteer “.
Becoming a war criminal who helps bomb and murder the poorest people on the planet on behalf the of the ruling pedo billionaire class, so you can get free healthcare or college is never ok. There are certain lines you never cross. 'I became a killer to feed my family" is not an excuse. The legal system does not accept desperation as an excuse to let someone off the hook who committed murder "I was hungry and needed tuition money, so I murdered this family, your honor" would be a preposterous defense in a court of law. But when it comes to the military, we take it for granted and just accept it.
I dont think you are condoning this, but I am trying to say that even making it such a statement gives validity to why someone may join the military. As if being poor enough justifies anything.
People want to pay for college and need healthcare? Yeah, do what everyone else is doing: take out loans, hustle, get a fucking job. Anything is better than taking this ugly step scarring your own soul and serving evil, bombing helpless children and civilians who have done nothing to you on behalf of bloodthirsty immoral psychopaths. To call any of this defensive is an insult to those who lost their lives actually defending their nation (i.e. WW 2).
I also would say that most volunteers are joining to be part of the military that is non combat. However, I don’t excuse people for joining large companies that do terrible things to people or are unethical.
The narrative that everyone joins the military because they are so desperate is simply not true. It infantilises the vast majority of people in the military who are not in extreme poverty, and have other options. These people are choosing to murder for money.
Not in extreme but only moderate poverty? We have to keep in mind that careers like military and police are attractive to people who cannot otherwise afford housing, healthcare, education, etc. The capitalist system itself ensures that there will be masses of people with no other viable choice, and thanks to jingoist indoctrination and the shittiness of our underfunded public education, they don't know any better. It is true that becoming a professional murderer and cannon fodder on behalf of the ruling class is a horrible career choice. And yet, we should not be so quick to judge.
Two things can be true. SOME join for each of those reasons.
Very true Iggy.........but what are they signing up for: killing and decapitating leaders/bleeding sovereign countries! There is absolutely NO moral reason to fight.
If soldiers fought for social injustice instead of each other, nuclear Armageddon would become a footnote in history books.
Of course, but they are signing up out of desperation for college benefits , health care for their children and a shot at a decent standard of living…
That’s true but at some point, personal responsibility does have to come into play. How would you feel if we applied this standard to fictional or historical villains? Would you be willing to excuse the actions of a stormtrooper serving aboard the Death Star by saying, “Hey, he joined the Empire because he needed money for college” or “He enlisted in the Wehrmacht because it was the only job available that offered decent wages?”
Or would you be more likely to say that, “Yes, everyone deserves healthcare, college, and decent wages, but that still doesn’t change the fact that they knowingly enlisted into a monstrously evil organization and committed crimes on behalf of this organization, which makes them a war criminal regardless of their initial motivations?”
Because good intentions only matter so much. Anyone who enlists and doesn’t immediately put down their weapon and refuse to comply or desert is complicit in everything the military carries out whether they like it or not. In fact, since we do not currently have an official draft AND thanks to social media, no one can claim plausible deniability regarding the realities of what the US war machine does all over the world, to a certain extent you wonder about anyone who voluntarily enlists in the US military.
They are still mercenaries.
"Desperate kids." Do they know they are cannon fodder?
So true!
Exactly. It has nothing to do with "serving" anything other than oneself - the military is for most the fastest way out of a dead town into relative financial security and benefits otherwise unavailable to those with no education. The fact that they have to murder brown people in some country they know nothing about doesn't bother them, because our media works overtime to dehumanize our victims, and some of the more psychopathic among our soldiers - I should really call them mercenaries - actually enjoy the killing. Plenty of video evidence has surfaced about that too.
People from underprivileged communities - that come from poverty, and that suffer victimization and brutalization from their police force - make the calculation that by joining the army and accepting a small amount of controlled war crimes they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty and make a life for themselves.
Somebody ought to show these vulnerable people that participating in the crimes against humanity perpetuated by the elites - and the various monopoly business interests of their country - is not the answer to their problems. They need to be made aware of how their country treats them after they are done with them (for those that are unaware, it's not very well). They need to understand that by participating in the system that has immiserated them they become culpable in it's crimes.
Western Imperialism is a complex of moving parts that grinds the vulnerable - both at home and abroad - into fuel for the system. Don't be the fuel. Be the friction. You aren't going to vote your way out of this mess, but you might just friction your way out.
They knew what they were doing when they got rid of the US draft.
The Powers That Be don’t become better; they become smarter. Having an official draft like they last did during Vietnam, forces the public to reckon with the possibility that they might be sent off to fight in whatever war is raging which forces them to pay attention to what is going on in said war. The US war machine functions better when the public can safely turn a blind eye to the crimes being committed on their behalf.
Hence why a poverty draft serves their purposes better than an official one.
Ralph Nader said getting rid of the draft was his biggest mistake.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Find out what they’re doing here:
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
The least we can do is donate to help them:
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
If I hear one more "ultimate sacrifice" or "fought for your freedom" trope, I'm gonna slap someone.
On Memorial Day, I honor the victims of war. The victims include, not only the innocent people killed, but those who pull the trigger and kill them, for the actual combat soldiers are immature boys, whose brains and full adult judgment will not mature for another 10 years. They are, as in Vietnam or Israel, 18 or 19 yrs old, too uneducated to understand the narrative they are told is a lie, too reckless to stop and consider, and so the victimizers are also victims, for if only those with mature brains, let's say 30 yrs or older were allowed to fight, there would be no wars. For the mature mind knows that combat is insane while war itself is profitible, AND so those who send young boys into war are older and stay safe, and those who command them are also older, staying in back and pushing them into the madness of war.
And so there are two levels of victims: the innocents caught in the crossfire, or sometimes deliberately killed to force regime change by causing mass suffering, the collateral damage are pure sacrifice for the gods of war, which are the financial elites which finance wars, the politicians paid to promote wars, the fossil fuel tycoons who fuel war, and the merchants of deeath who grow fat producing killing machines.
The boys (sometimes girls) sent to kill and be killed are the second level: chosen because they lack the mature brain to see thru the lies and because they are too young to have gained the authority to say no.
They kill both the innocents and those, on the other side, about whom they know nothing, who have been manipulated to kill them.
This is a level of victimhood compromised by the fact that it is conditioned by coming to kill.
So on Memorial Day, I remember the boys sent to slaughter and be slaughter but I not glorify them; I pity them and reserve my mourning for those they come to kill, 3/4 being civilians, innocents.
I AM lying. On Memorial day, I grow angry at the insanity of war, at the sacrifice of our youth, at the obscene evil of the old men who profit from war. I cringe when I see the flag; I shirk in horror when I see people saying, "Thank you for serving." I draw back into myself, an utter stranger in world where killing each other is normal. I shudder at the very idea of honoring those who "died so we could be free" knowing that if I openly expressed my dread of this day in the presence of those executing the ritual, I would be erased with a violence that is the hidden message of Memorial Day.
Well said, thank you!
The murderers are the victims? So until someone gets to 30’years of age they are excused from blowing humans to bits? Your intent may be noble but dead wrong. Millions of dead wrong. I believe most human beings have a conscience that is activated long before 30 like 20!years or more before.
Why limit victimization to military service? How about the jilted lover that kills? The employee that does not get promoted and kills his superior? Endless reasons why young people kill. Should they have immunity from consequences?
I would, based on the features of the immature brain, also ban gun ownership to anyone under 25 and apply to other issues that require a mature brain. I am not limiting by any means but violence, in war and domestically, is the key issue with immature brains: "The human brain finishes developing around the mid-20s to early 30s, with the rational centers maturing last.
An immature brain is characterized by:Emotional Processing: Driven by the emotional center (amygdala) rather than the rational center. Low Impulse Control: Due to an unfinished prefrontal cortex.Slower Connections: Lacks complete myelin insulation to speed up signaling.High Adaptability: Possesses high neuroplasticity, making it flexible but vulnerable. Poor risk assessment. I intend no limits but focus on the most significant areas where immature brains cannot function rationally. Thank you for prompting me to expand.
When the entire weight of a society and your family tells you as a child this is good and right and a correct path? It’s understandable. Not right. Understandable.
There is no uniform response: "Summary of Family Responses to EnlistmentFamily agreement when a son decides to join the military depends on several distinct factors: Family History: Households with a military background tend to agree and offer support more readily. Safety Concerns: Deep anxieties about physical danger and active deployments frequently trigger initial parental resistance .Alternative Plans: Parents who prioritize a traditional college path often prefer their son to earn a degree first. Financial Incentives: Families often welcome the enlistment because it offers guaranteed career training, stable income, and healthcare.Legal Age: Parental consent is legally required at age 17, but at age 18, the decision rests entirely with the son."
"Recent polling reveals that 54.4% of Americans would actively discourage a young person from enlisting as an regular soldier.
Declines Within Military Families: Historically, families with a legacy of service have been the strongest proponents of enlistment. However, recent data shows a major shift: only 32% of active-duty military families would now recommend that their children join the service. This is a sharp drop from 55% recorded in 2016."
Thank you. It feels good to be in company in my grief over this.
25 million soldiers spend life practicing killing. If all practiced saving lives instead of taking lives, nuclear Armageddon would be relegated to the archives of human history.
Some people just don't know how to have real fun.
Yes, I’m surely one of them… Real Fun? In a fake , unhealthy world, must be a rare occurrence… at least for me..
And if you mention any of this, it's like you just stabbed the most sacred cow of all.
Hell, the loopy-ass QAnon conspiracy theory prominently featured the military supporting Trump.
It really has become a sacred cow. Look how much of a backlash there has been to suggest US soldiers have a duty to disobey an Unconstitutional military order? Even though every American soldier swears to uphold and defend the US Constitution.
Oh come on, you know that "duty to disobey" is a moral figleaf.
lol
As a vet, makes me sick how the military lust has infected the sports world, with flyovers and flags the size of fields, etc.
Whenever someone gives me the ‘thank you for your service’, I hit the ‘serenity now’ button and say ‘appreciate it, but I hope that the next time you thank someone for their service, you’re addressing a teacher, or a nurse, or a janitor’.
When I point out that Americas wars do not make us safe or protect our freedom- quite the opposite, Americans look at me like I just killed Mickey Mouse.
Given the opportunity, would you devour Mickey?
Depends on how big he was.
Dear Caitlin,
I am writing to you as an ally. I have spent my life advocating against the Western empire, often at a physical cost that most will never understand. I have supported your voice because, like you, I want to see this machine dismantled. But I must speak plainly: your recent call to stigmatize everyone who has worn a military uniform is a tactical and moral error that alienates the very people you need to reach. By drawing a line in the sand against a massive, diverse group of people whose only shared commonality was survival, you aren’t weakening the empire—you are deepening the tribalism that allows it to thrive.
You call us "stormtroopers" and "mindless," but you are ignoring the biological and social reality of who you are attacking. Neuroscience tells us that the teenage brain is not fully developed; the prefrontal cortex—the seat of reason and long-term consequence—is still a work in progress. The military machine knows this. They hunt these underdeveloped minds in our poorest communities, knowing exactly which buttons to press.
I speak from the experience of being one of those hunted. I did not join for an ideology. I was a teenager working three jobs, yet I remained homeless, unable to qualify for a basic lease because I had no credit, no cosigner, and no family support. I had no access to healthcare or education. I reached a point where I had to sell my own body just to afford a shower and bread. When you have faced that level of absolute social abandonment, the military is not a "career choice"—it is a survival trap. If you had stood where I stood, you would have chosen the cot and the bread, too. To mock that choice as "mindless" is a luxury of the comfortable.
Today, I am visiting the grave of my elementary school best friend, Marine Lance Cpl. Dominic C. Brown. He died in 2004 at the age of 19 while serving overseas. He was just a child—his mind, like mine, was underdeveloped, and he was a victim of a society that lacked the awareness to protect him from being fed to the machine. He wasn't a "stormtrooper." He was my friend. When you use these pejoratives, you aren't just attacking a political entity; you are spitting on the graves of children who were exploited by the very empire you claim to despise.
We were fed a lifetime of propaganda. From our first day in school, the education system functioned as an indoctrination machine. We were lied to about history, and post-9/11, we were conditioned to believe we were the "good guys" defending against a second attack. We were blind right up until the moment we were handed a rifle and told to shoot.
But look at the reality of those who "see the light." You don't have to look further than Aaron Bushnell. He was an active-duty soldier who realized the true nature of the empire and, in a final act of radical dissent, gave his life to protest the atrocities he was being forced to facilitate. Does the label "stormtrooper" or "mindless" apply to him? If you acknowledge his sacrifice, you must acknowledge that the individual inside the uniform is not the enemy—the system that forces them to choose between their humanity and their survival is.
Many of us never fired a weapon, and many of those who were asked to participate in harm refused, risking our lives against our own squads to do so. We aren't your enemies; we are your most battle-tested allies because we know exactly how the beast operates from the inside.
It is rare to meet a self-aware veteran between 18 and 45 who doesn't agree that this system is the real evil. By using blanket pejoratives, you are not holding wrongdoers accountable; you are attacking the people who have already emerged from the fog. Tribalism is a destructive ideology, and your approach mirrors the very "us versus them" mindset the empire uses to keep us fighting each other.
I am one of your strongest allies, and I have done more in my life to fight this empire than many who are cheering for your divisive rhetoric. I am not asking you to apologize for being anti-war; I am asking you to be more effective. Stop attacking the victims of the recruitment machine and start aiming your fire at the power structures that thrive when we are busy tearing each other apart. We are the ones you need to win this fight. Don’t push us away.
Anybody who joined the military after Vietnam was ignorant. Anybody who joined after Bush's insane speeches in the days following 9/11 was *profoundly* ignorant, and even *criminally* ignorant, because by then everybody had the Internet, and it would have only taken a few minutes to find out about the American Holocaust in Vietnam and about the lies being seamlessly generated by the Bush administration to manufacturer our consent for a new Vietnam.
I realize that for poor people the military is way out, a way to get training and education, but in the richest, most powerful country in the world, there is no excuse for ANYBODY signing up to be a slave, a murderer slave whose job is to murder poor people in other countries for gangsters. Fuck that.
Your comment is a perfect example of the intellectual laziness I’m talking about. You are projecting 2026 connectivity and a middle-class 'leisure' lifestyle onto a reality that didn't exist for those of us on the bottom in the early 2000s.
The idea that a homeless teenager, working three jobs and struggling to find a shower, had the 'access' or the mental bandwidth to conduct independent research into geopolitical 'opposing views' is a fantasy. When you are fighting for basic biological survival, the 'web' isn't a tool for critical inquiry—it's a luxury you don't possess. We were trapped in a closed loop of state-sponsored propaganda, and for a kid on the street, the only 'world' that existed was the one immediately threatening to kill him.
Suggesting that we should have simply 'researched' our way out of indoctrination is a classic display of activist privilege. It’s the comfortable person’s way of blaming the victim for failing to solve a structural trap they’ve never had to endure.
You’re focusing on how you wish the world worked for everyone, rather than how it actually works for the people being hunted by recruiters. If you want to engage in this discussion, drop the armchair analysis and recognize that your 'critical research' requires a baseline of stability that millions of people in this country are systematically denied.
Are you implying that most of the idiots who signed up for the Iraq war were desperately poor? And didn't your hypothetical kid know a single smart person? Ever? The Internet is not the only way to learn. The military most likely wouldn't have even let that kid join up anyway! Most poor people in the US are obese and have smartphones. There were plenty of dumb, middle-class and lower-middle-class kids who joined up out of an infantile sense of patriotism. And even rich guys like Pat Tillman, with his multimillion dollar NFL contract joined up. (And then learned what Caitlin and I know, about manufactured consent, and was then killed by friendly fire.)
That pathetic starving kid working 3 jobs you mention had 18 years to have at least 1 good conversation about Vietnam, if he cared. At the moment, over 1/3 of American adults love Trump, proving statistically that we are a hardhearted, selfish, ignorant country lacking empathy. Imagine if 1/3 of the cells in your body were metastasizing cancer cells.
I dropped out of high school and hitchhiked from Los Angeles through the South to the keys of Florida and then up to Tennessee when I was 17. In doing so, I met hundreds of people, including many veterans of the Vietnam war, who set me straight. An 18-year-old who doesn't know that murder is wrong, and who hasn't yet realized that he's already a tool for rich people, is oblivious to reality.
Your argument relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of socioeconomic stratification, which leads to a series of logical errors.
First, you continue to frame my history as a 'hypothetical.' My lived experience—homelessness, the lack of credit, and the necessity of trading my body for basic needs—is a factual record of the precise socioeconomic conditions the recruitment machine targets to function. By labeling these systemic realities 'hypothetical,' you are not engaging in debate; you are engaging in denial.
Second, there is a clear contradiction in your stance: you claim to be an anti-imperialist, yet you are currently punching left. You are directing your fire at a fellow traveler who actively advocates for the dismantling of the Western empire, simply because my path to that realization—born of survival and necessity—does not align with your own. By alienating those who have seen the machine from the inside and emerged as your most informed, battle-tested allies, you are prioritizing your own ego over the efficacy of the anti-war movement.
Third, your insistence that a child on the street 'should have had a conversation about Vietnam' is a profound display of privilege. You assume that a teenager fighting for basic biological survival has the time, the social access, and the mental bandwidth to discuss historical geopolitics. When your existence is defined solely by securing a cot and bread, historical analysis is a luxury of the comfortable. I was not 'infantile' or 'patriotic'; I was starving. I had no ideology because survival requires a singular focus on the present moment, a reality that seems to escape your armchair analysis.
Fourth, your choice to dehumanize children by labeling them 'idiots' or 'metastatic cancer cells' is revealing. You claim to despise a society that lacks empathy, yet you employ the exact same dehumanizing rhetoric that the state uses to justify its own violence. When you reduce victims of a predatory recruitment system to cancerous cells, you aren't acting as a critic of the empire; you are replicating its core methodology: the dismissal of human lives that do not fit into your narrow, privileged framework.
If you are serious about dismantling the machine, I suggest you stop 'punching left' at the people it devours and start analyzing the structural mechanisms that make that devouring possible. The former is merely an exercise in ego; the latter is how change is actually initiated.
Appreciate your clear and moral voice here.
He is lying, you braindead moron.
When I turned 18, I was living in a trailer in a field with no electricity or plumbing, and I worked all night baking donuts for minimum wage. I was historically illiterate and only literate politically from listening to musicians like Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. But still, I had the sense to look up a draft counselor and ask if I should register for the draft.
It was 1972 and the war would continue for 4 more years. The counselor explained that the draft had been drastically reduced, replaced with an insane level of bombing by Nixon, and that while the war was immoral and criminal, I could go to prison for failing to register. I agreed that it was logical to register, but I also resolved to hitchhike to Canada if I got drafted. I was sure they had donut shops in Canada.
Obviously a country that will give a boy only 2 choices -- murder poor rice farmers on command or take your chances in an American prison -- is a fucked country.
Your whole argument is basically that poor kids should sign up to be murder slaves because they can't help being stupid and poor. True, they are victims: their ignorance and consent has been manufactured by the corporate-military-industrial complex. Still, their starvation isn't remotely close to the starvation faced now by Gazans. They have days when they eat well. Their lives force them to come into contact and talk with councilors, volunteers in a food line, food stamp bureaucrats, and ER doctors. They don't have even 1 smart uncle? 1 Korean War veteran grandpa?
You're like a Trumper, "splitting" from Caitlin over an issue because of how your feelings feel. There should be no split, here. If you like Caitlin, then you know how basic and foundational her belief is that JOINING THE US MILITARY TODAY SHOULD BE TABOO. She loves and feels for the poor fools that do it. But at some point, like if they built a concentration camp right across the street from your house in 1942 Germany, you should be able to realize, like I did at 18, that you don't kill people for a Hitler. Ever.
Your privilege is showing. And yes, they were ignorant. Ignorant means lacking knowledge and there is no shame in that. People that learn better and do better should be celebrated.
You poor childkiller, forced to prostitute while working three jobs. What a crock of shit.
Thank you for your service to HUMANITY in speaking against the murderous system and sharing your story. I agree entirely.
Reminds of the french poet Paul Valery's quote: "“War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.” I read it recently re worded as: "war is fought by people who do not know each other and kill each other on behalf of people who know each other very well and do not harm each other"
The problem here is that joining the military is for young adults from low-income families the only feasible way to escape poverty. In our wars of aggression we send our poor to kill the poor of victim nations.
But the large majority of recruits come from middle class families, low-income recruits are largely underrepresented.
I ain't no Senator's son.
Yeah, there is a pejorative term for people who join the military in the West. We're called 'SUCKERS'!
I was a Sucker once. Whenever I can, I tell everyone who intends to join the military to think carefully about their decision. We're not really defending our country, and the threats we face are pretty much our creation. But it's hard to argue with Hollywood...
Now, let me tell you about a real hero who joined up to defend her country...
Lyudmilla Bolilaya joined the Russian Ground Forces as a medic, and was one of the first people to accompany the units engaging the invading Ukrainians (and NATO 'volunteers'/mercenaries) at Kursk. Corporal Bolilaya went in to evacuate the wounded during an intense Ukrainian artillery barrage. Suddenly one soldier set off a mine, and he was set to be finished off by a Ukrainian kamikaze drone when the medic threw her body over him. The drone exploded nearby, causing serious injuries to Corporal Bolilaya, but she did save the wounded soldier's life. Her injuries were severe and, of course, career-ending, and she is now undertaking state-sponsored study for a new career in civilian life. For anyone who watched this year's Victory Parade in Moscow, you would have noticed a woman in ceremonial dress uniform behind President Vladimir Putin. And you would have also noticed a well-earned decoration pinned high on the left side of her chest. For her actions that day, Corporal Bolilaya received the highest decoration in the country; Hero of the Russian Federation.
You might enjoy Donovan’s song “Universal Soldier” if you don’t already know it. Someone commented on my page this week that the highest guide we have is ethics, especially the rule: do no harm. If soldiers listened to that there’d be no war, but young men and women usually believe that they are invincible and that war is thrilling. Until that changes things will remain the same.
That's just it isn't it? There is this myth of invincibility when youth join the military. Everyone else will die, but God will protect me (and is on my side) and I won't die.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine alone, over a million souls have perished, from both sides of the conflict. Was it worth it?
That song was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie (something I just learned).
Heck when I was a kid I played army. I had a toy .50 caliber machine gun with a tripod, not a wimpy submachine gun. All the other boys did it too. I think it's instinctive. Even ants have a war instinct. That's very basic.
Oh yes. Spot and and so well put. In the current Western context, joining the military is for psychopaths, rapists, pillagers and the like - doing the bidding of a satanic cult.
On a slightly digressory note, I feel like posting this again from the archives:
Don’t be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there’s no poverty to be seen because poverty’s hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you; and even if it seems that you never had so much; that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don’t be taken in when they pat you paternally on the shoulder and say there’s no equality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight; because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and their granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they’ll send you out to protect their gold in wars who’s weapons’ rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can, with a flick of their fingers, tear a million of you to pieces.
Jean Paul Marat (1743 – 1793)
Well dang, that's an accurate prediction. As was George Orwell's 1984.
This article is perfect.
And I always let people know on a daily basis that that is exactly the reason why we have to suffer thru the fake "Hero of the Day" bullshit during the local news half hour segments, every single day of our lives. I suspect that every U.S. locality/region does this now, where they purposely waste our lives with a few minutes out of a 22-minute "half-hour" local news segment, with a local hero of the day that anyone living in the area/region can nominate someone as a "Hero", and they will plaster that person's name all over the TV screen and give a short military bio of that person. They've been doing this for well over five years now, even though that segment of that news slot is promoted with a generalized phrase of "Hero of the Day", the slot has always and ONLY been used for a military person... the obvious question here... Isn't the school teacher, isn't the nurse, isn't the person that serves us food when we eat out, the ambulance driver, etc, etc, etc, and on and on and on... FAR more of a "Hero".
The entire charade is just so disingenuously manufactured solely as a way for all of us to be constantly conditioned to love the military, and, by extension, all the killing the U.S. gov't (and its vassal states) do all around the world... and which will then, of course, justify the trillion and a half dollar killing/military budget, and ensure that the power structure never experiences any meaningful mass protest/push-back.
Here's a thought... if the power structure is really so interested in honoring the military personnel, instead of these bogus "Hero" news/TV displays, how 'bout this... don't start any more fucking wars/aggressions all over the world.
I think along the same lines whenever they name (or rename) a building, bridge or some other entity, usually after a politician who’s done nothing but grift off the public. My neighborhood barber used to be my hero (for example), and I’m sure many other’s were deserving of recognition. But it is with outlooks like this that our real hero’s become ignored and our values manipulated
You're so absolutely right smack on target.