• Edelgard [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    No. They had the option to desert. Giving anyone who complied with the draft a free pass minimizes the bravery of everyone who was either imprisoned or fled the country.

    They had a choice, just like every nazi soldier during World War 2. The Korean and Vietnam wars were genocidal campaigns waged against the workers of those countries for daring to throw off their chains.

    He could maybe make ammends later in life if he switched sides, but he'd have to accept what he'd done over there was objectively fucking evil.

    Edit:

    I still remember him telling me the story about how a 3-4 year old girl came running up to his platoon with a grenade in her hand and how he had to shoot the girl before she blew up right in front of him

    Gee, I wonder what could drive a group of people to such horribly desperate measures?

    the agent orange destroyed his health and eventually the cancer from it got him

    "the zyklon B destroyed his health and eventually the cancer from it got him"

    Aww poor dude. Why was he surrounded by that much Agent Orange, though? Oh yeah, because he was probably using it on innocent men, women, and children.

    • 7DeadlyFetishes [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      No. They had the option to desert.

      Don't like capitalism? Starve and become homeless.

      Don't like the war your fighting? 5 years in prison, then starve and become homeless.

      Easier said than done.

      -7DeadlyFetishes

      • Redbolshevik2 [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Literally the only reason you are saying this is because you, like most Americans, are a chauvinist who sees foreigners as subhumans, and their deaths as an acceptable price for getting a leg up.

        Thank you for demonstrating why Americans can't be trusted by anyone in the Global South.

          • Brak [they/them, e/em/eir]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            You can in fact, recognize the simple fact the most US soldiers put themselves before the Vietnamese, and who can really blame them?

            :I-was-saying:

            I can and so can Mohammed Ali and so many other people who stood up against the death machine. You are apologizing for imperialism right now.

            The people who were drafted to work the concentration camps during WWII knew what they did was fucked up, why do you think most concentration camp workers after being caught apoligize for their crimes and ask for forgivness? You don’t do that if you were proud of your work or believed the fascist project. Once again, not all Germans were Heinrich fucking Himmler, they were coerced through the violence of the state and had their literal livelyhoods on the line to run the german war machine, and though they have been victims to this system, we still activly pursue these individuals to seek justice years after the fact.

            tfw you literally defend the fucking nazis

            • Tapirs10 [undecided,she/her]
              ·
              3 years ago

              And even among American soldiers there was people who were not down with massacring civilians. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr. This guy saw all of the dead people from a helicopter and told the other people in the helicopter to shoot the us soldiers if they didn't stop murdering and raping people. Like he was still a us soldier fighting for imperialism, but saving some people's lives then testifying against the murderers so they couldn't cover it up is good.

              • DeathToBritain [she/her,they/them]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I sincerly doubt people were lining up at the ready to dig mass graves for jewish people or gun down innoncent civilians in Mai lai

                YES THEY WERE. THIS IS LITERALLY DOCUMENTED HISTORY

      • Swoosegoose [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        This comment is especially dumb because you'll be homeless and stave as a vet anyway, with ptsd as an added bonus, but whatever you got to say to justify participating in genocide I guess

        • 7DeadlyFetishes [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          fucking lol did you expect the soliders to have magic crystal balls to predict their futures? Fuck off with your gotcha comment

          -7DeadlyFetishes

          • Vncredleader [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            You need a crystal ball to know what happened after WW1 with the Bonus army?

            • 7DeadlyFetishes [he/him,comrade/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              There was a literal world war between WWI and Vietnam along with vastly wealthier United States and welfare state post-GI bill, Apples and Oranges Comparason.

              -7DeadlyFetishes

              • Vncredleader [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                I'm not making a comparison, I'm saying that this was not some foreign notion to people. The idea that you'd be left out to dry after serving wasn't something you needed a crystal ball to conceptualize. You're the one laughing at the idea that someone could conceive that the government wouldn't take care of them after their service.

    • BeamBrain [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I'd like to think I would've gone to jail rather than be drafted, or deserted, but I remember being 18 and dumb, and living in a pre-internet era where left-wing dissident media was even less accessible probably wouldn't help my chances. It's not something that I like to admit, but it does make me the slightest bit hesitant to dunk on vets myself.

      Anyone who lives in a country that suffered under US imperialism gets an unlimited dunking pass as far as I'm concerned though

      • star_wraith [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Right, I get what both sides of the argument are saying. I think both make good points, I feel there has to be some synthesis that takes into account how personal choices are limited in these situations, while also not just handing out free war crime passes. Not sure what that is myself.

      • Tapirs10 [undecided,she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Material conditions don't erase free will, so even if you fell for propaganda and never heard alternatives, it's still bad to be a troop

      • modsarefascist [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        finally someone gets it. I mean what the fuck do these idiots think a rural southern person would do? them being forced into a war they didn't want to go to doesn't make them monsters

        there is a huge difference between drafted ones who hate what they went through and volunteers that glorify what they did, or even draftees that glorify it