Question for other HN users - would you use a product built by an officer of the Russian army who was part of the war in Ukraine?
Edit: Those downvoting me, did I say anything that is not true?
to say it another way:
veterans should never be ashamed they are veterans, the government and voters should be ashamed they're creating veterans.
Most people are, fortunately, also able to distinguish between a soldier, his army policy, and the regime ruling over that army at a given time.
Would you blindly congratulate a participant in the Bucha massacre on the launch of their new app?
Would you congratulate a former ISIS member?
Surely even the most amoral person on HN would draw the line somewhere?
I mean, neither was her choice? Soldiers go where they are sent.
Or do you think people shouldn't join the armed forces of a country in case a future regime deploys them in a way they disagree with?
It's easy to highroad everyone when you sit back reaping the benefits of what others have done.
But yes, you certainly can talk about your misguided views! And people can call out your misguided views as well!
All because of the 1A which is protected from outside forces with the strength of the US military.
Soldiers have little to do with policies such as the endless Middle East wars.
Your moral crusade should be aimed at the defense contractors and their congress buddies.
It's not the soldiers choosing proxy wars in Ukraine or the Middle East, it's congress.
I think you calling someone a war criminal is way outside of what is legitimate on this forum.
If you do want to see my response about the endless wars:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34249354
But comment you replied to is about the 1A and the military that makes that possible.
And then let's not forget that the American war in Iraq (and Afghanistan) has been ironically labelled as "democracy export" for a reason. Yes, it didn't work, yes it was probably a bad idea from the start, but at least it wasn't "autocracy export". Which the war on Ukraine is. The goal of the Russian leadership (read: Putin) has been to remove the democratically elected Ukrainian leadership and install a puppet government. This is a bit harder to support than the US narrative of toppling a dictatorship and help the people to start a democracy. (Again, even if the latter was doomed to fail.)
Sure, the Russian soldiers and society were also sold a nice (horror) story about the Ukrainian leadership (or maybe Ukrainians in general) being 'nazi'. You can hear in some captured phone calls from the early days of the war that the soldiers try to explain to their relatives that there are no 'nazis' there just normal people.
On I side note, I would use a product built by a Russian soldier who participated in the war if he made it clear that he didn't want to participate and didn't commit (or maybe even opposed/prevented committing) war crimes.