I obviously do not know this man's mind, but it is just so painful to read about such pointless waste and consider it as heroic. He was brave, courageous, loving, compassionate, but ultimately his death was a huge pointless tragedy in yet another war fought for assholes.
Show me more heroes who stand up against this nonsense. Heroes who save lives by objecting to taking them. That's where our mindset needs to be to stop the horrors we constantly project to far shores to prop up our corrupt insidious military industry and line the pockets of dire schmucks.
</rant>
RIP, sorry for hijacking a sad story to vent.
Until the military is seen for what it is, war will be continual and cyclical until we destroy this planet and make it all but inhabitable.
Every country needs a military and whether you think that they are heroes or not, these are still people making a necessary sacrifice. Someone has to do it.
Oftentimes, the media likes to only show the wartime aspect of the military, making people think that those who join the military are there because they want to kill. Nothing could be any further from the truth.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-deployments-may-...
In the military, it is not your position to question the government. It is your duty to follow orders.
> The war in Iraq was pointless and based on dubious logic which turned out to be a lie.
It was certainly not "pointless". It was based on the following:
- Saddam was a bad actor who hated the US, and would readily provide materiel for use against the US
- Iraq was known to have stockpiles of WMD
- It was thought possible to transform Iraq from a dictatorship to a democracy that appreciated the US
None of those points is in doubt. Aside from a possible nuclear program, Iraq was known to have weaponized anthrax and various chemical agents. Our allies including Britain endorsed the same intelligence.
You might remember the celebrations in Baghdad when the US forces arrive and Saddam fled. Or the jubilation Iraqis showed after voting the first time. Time will tell how things work out in the long run, but it's hard to argue that Iraq is worse off today than it was under Saddam Hussein.
Has everything worked out perfectly? No, but there have been many sub-optimal moves since the war started, including BO pulling out prematurely and on an announced schedule.
Just remember, it's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback...
First - it's well known that no WMDs were found in Iraq[1], and with the publication of the Downing Street Memo[2] there is evidence that Bush's presidency went in likely knowing that. Bush just wanted war, with whatever justification he could find.
Saddam and his hatred of the US is no justification of war. Plenty of nations rather dislike the US, but you can't just go in and 'make' them like you with guns. As bad as Saddam was, the death toll and utter hell brought upon Iraq's citizens by the invasion to 'bring democracy' is at best as bad as Saddam's regime. Some studies suggest half a million civilian deaths as a result of the war[3].
And let's be honest, Iraq was a huge catalyst for complete chaos in the middle east, which to this day is ongoing. ISIS grew out of the vacuum left by US forces 'liberation' of Iraqi's people.
Jesus, what a fucking mess. Seriously, why am I even having to spell this out?
Possible nuclear program??!!?! Give me a break. They found corroded, unusable chemical weapons which the UN mostly already knew about. And all that crap was probably best left rotting in Iraq than burning, and harming US forces as they tried to move it.
Celebrations in Baghdad? I want to puke. Those poor people sold another lie, they were destined to suffer more.
Now, down to following orders. I get that the military only works if everyone follows orders, I really do. However I will not be ordered to murder children for 'the greater cause', be that my country or god. There is a line any man/woman should refuse to cross, in my opinion, and as long as men do not question those who give the orders you cannot claim to have principles.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMD_conjecture_in_the_aftermat... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_memo [3] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/iraq-death-toll_n_...
The military does something weird to people.
Dedicating yourself to fight for your country is just as fucked up as fighting for your god. Both ideals are a sham propagated by people who sit comfortably and take much relish in the ego boost that is commanding cannon fodder. Make no mistake, many of these people are legitimate borderline psychopaths who want nothing more than their name in history books.
The same people legislate for the sake of getting their names on a successful bill. They care not for anyone but their crony group and themselves. They bray in parliament like demented asses, and bark and howl in Congress like the pack of wolves they pretend to protect you and I from.
The whole show is a shameful fraud, and it's shame on us for not identifying the lot of them for who they clearly are. We are all heading toward calamity once again, lead by the same psychopathy that has polluted the human condition for thousands and thousands of years. We can all see it coming day by day and yet we think the water isn't yet hot enough to do something about it before we become soup.
To put things into perspective, about 4000 americans died as a result of the iraq war. Over a million iraqis died.
Hundreds of thousands of children died in the iraq war. And hundreds of thousands of iraqi children grew up without a father because of the iraq war. I guess it's all perspective. But I doubt most of the world would consider him a hero.