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Comment by anonexpat | Hacker News Reader

The military is held to a much, much higher standard than regular law enforcement. Their rules of engagement are much stricter.

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> The military is held to a much, much higher standard than regular law enforcement. Their rules of engagement are much stricter.

I respect the military much more than I do the police, but it would still be a good idea to cut down on the fetish made at least of militarism for its own sake (a big, though probably not the main, part of the problem with US police forces).

Sometimes I wonder where military fetishism comes from. Early on it was toys. Then film. The last couple decades, the Call of Duty franchise has represented a kind of militarism fetish brain rot, at societal scale.

What I find funny if not sad is when both law enforcement and militia types follow suit, or at least try to.

There's nothing more pathetic than overweight law enforcement that can't even run a mile decked out in camouflage tactical gear they barely know how to use, with the wrong attitude thinking they're an operator or some such.

It's like institutionalized stolen valor almost, they want the honor and respect without the level of hard work actual Special Forces put into it.

That depends on whether they are exposed and even then the "rules" don't always apply:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_Lai_massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstri...

Right, but the military can change the entire planet by invading Iraq (or wherever) based on a lie tomorrow leading to the destabilisation of entire regions and ramifications that will last not just for decades but potentially centuries. And it's arguable that much military abuse is actually 'held' to the higher standard as opposed to ignored covered up, or redefined (e.g. definitions of combatants), but I suppose that's another discussion.

I think that’s a political problem, not a military one.

All political problems of sufficient gravity become military problems.

Bingo.

The military is a tool wielded by the government. They don't go anywhere without being ordered.

Do coups not exist?

No.

not in america, unless you count the recent bay of chuds attempt

Name a successful coup of the American government by an armed force

> The military is a tool wielded by the government. They don't go anywhere without being ordered.

I don't see (the United States of) America being referenced at all. Even with the context of the parent comments, it's fairly easy to mistake this typical HN comment as referring to wider in scope at a first reading.

Your sarcasm also isn't in line with the HN commenting guidelines.

It's a story about a US police department. Also check the top comment:

> I can't possibly imagine how anyone thinks this is a good idea. US police are already over-militarized and under-accountable. We as Americans need to stop worshiping "men in uniform" including all levels of law enforcement and military and hold them to the same standard as any other member of society -- stop giving them everything they want and stop spoiling them when they call us unpatriotic.

Maybe Ctrl + f next time

This is true until it isn’t. Read up on the torture following the Invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The accountability was really minimal, and a lot of people guilty of the horrible crime of torturing got away scot-free.

See also quite a few murdering of civilians conducted by private military contractors such as Blackwater (now Constellis; in particular the Nisour Square massacre). Some were charged for the crime they committed (or for a lesser crime of manslaughter) but were later pardoned.

Since this is HN it is also obligatory to mention Chelsea Manning who leaked many crimes committed by the military (in particular the murdering of the journalists Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen from an attack helicopter). She was the only person convicted for that incident. Nobody was charged with the murder of the journalists. (But they did [finally] charge Julian Assange for helping Chelsea Manning reveal these crimes to the public).

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