2026-03-06 The US military and its war crimes
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What I don't understand is how the military has such high approval
ratings in the USA.

What good have they ever accomplished after the second World War.
Vietnam? Afghanistan? Iraq? Iraq again? Remember the Abu Ghraib
torture and prisoner abuse? I do. Remember the Guantanamo Bay
detention camp? I do. Whenever I hear about the US military going
somewhere, I think of that. And if the US military isn't going there
in person, I think of how they think killing a whole wedding gathering
is OK. Like the Wech Baghtu wedding party airstrike. Or now: Killing
kids going to school. And double tapping! Waiting for civilians and
medics rushing to the rescuee and killing them, too. How much human
sacrifice is deemed acceptable?

And so every generation carries its memories. I wasn't born for the My
Lai massacre.

What I don't understand is how anybody could look at all that and say:
"I'm going to work for these guys."

When the US attacked Iraq, people all over the world were wondering:
What's the plan for peace? How to prevent a civil war? How to rebuild
the country? Nobody knew what the plan was and I guess these days we
still don't know. What's the plan for Iran?

Today I was talking with my wife and wondering. Are they planning to
reinstall the monarchy? The Shah? The SAVAK?

And what do we learn from the history of negotiations between the US
and Iran? That the US will attack during negotiations? That the US
will unilaterally break agreements? Renege on their commitments? Alter
the deal further?

> "In 2015, the United States led successful negotiations for a
> nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) intended to
> place substantial limits on Iran's nuclear program, including IAEA
> inspections and limitations on enrichment levels. In 2016, most
> sanctions against Iran were lifted. The Trump administration
> unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions
> in 2018, initiating what became known as the "maximum pressure
> campaign" against Iran. In response, Iran gradually reduced its
> commitments under the nuclear deal …" -- Iran–United States
> relations

What a shit show.

I get that there is a lot of poverty and that the military offers
careers and education. And at the same time, the thought that this is
reasonable moral trade-off people make is revolting; the thought that
the situation in the USA is so bad, economically, for this to be a
reasonable trade-off to make, is revolting; the thought that education
might be so dysfunctional that this is seen as a reasonable choice is
revolting. The fact that this is how so many live like that is
revolting. Heartbreaking, really, if the outcomes for so many others
weren't so terrible.

I remember how shocked I was after seeing Winter’s Bone (2010).

Then again, there is so much veneration for the troops. It's baffling.
Sure, veterans deserve all the help they can get. But if you know the
veterans still suffering from the wars that broke them and sign up –
then … uh … I don’t know. What I hear of recruitment in podcasts and
the like makes it sound like very different areas. The recruitment
focuses on values and opportunities and totally ignores the veterans
and the hurt, I think. But I’m also too far away to understand that
aspect. Perhaps it's the media. Or video games. Not because they are
violent but because they are so uncritical of violence.

I’m a bit unclear on the details but I remember liking Blackhawk Down
(2001) and then hearing that the US military was “sponsoring” movies
with props if and only if they supported certain messaging (an
emphasis on nobody being left behind instead of warcrimes) – so the
seeds were certainly there before 9/11 (also 2001, I had to look it
up). This glorification of the army is the strange part. Over here, my
impression has always been that doing mandatory basic training in the
army is a waste of time. But perhaps that is related to your point
about the draft. Here in Switzerland it feels like the draft is always
on. At least that was the feeling in the nineties. I didn’t go because
I was an Austrian living abroad and I only got Swiss citizenship when
I was too old to go. And I certainly didn’t want to go!

When I saw Warriors (1999), the two-part drama by the BBC then that is
my image of soldiers. They are shopping and dancing and talking at
home, they get called up and end up in the madness of war and when
they come back, they scream at kids in the shopping mall, they commit
suicide … they are broken by the war.

When I hear about the Russian veterans returning home from the war in
Chechnya, the domestic violence, the criminal gangs, then that is what
I think when people are going to war. What will you with the people
that come back?

My dad told me that the professors at the university after the Second
World War were all veterans. Many had psychological problems.

What I don't understand is how the military has such high approval
ratings in the USA.

And then the US withdraws from naval exercises hosted by India at the
last minute and then sinks the unarmed Iranian ship that had
participated in those very same exercises, and lets the sailors drown
without clear and imminent danger, then you know what monsters are in
command.

Would you want to work for such monsters? To participate in Operation
Epstein Fury?

#USA #Iran