Honest question: do people really think that attacking a third world country, thousands of kilometres away from your home, that hasn’t attacked you, is “risking your life for the country”?
We’re not talking about defending yourself from an invading attack, but going far away to invade a foreign country
GI Joe did not join the military to attack a third world country. Members of the armed forces, once signed up, have to go wherever they are deployed. So yes, many service members are brave folks who are willing to risk their lives to defend their country. But likely the majority are completely average people who enlisted because they didn’t see many other career opportunities available to them. Either way, they agreed to follow orders.
And then they are sent to stupid wars where they are traumatized (and they traumatize civilians of the hostile country) for no good reason. That doesn’t mean they are inherently evil or aggressive people, or even that they want to be at war.
If you don’t want to be at war, signing up for the military is probably the wrong career choice.
Sure, some of the teenagers are just plain stupid, but at this point, America has been attacking third would countries for their whole lives without justification. Either they’re fucking idiots, or they’re complicit. Either way, when one of them dies in their invasion, it’s just a win for the invaded.
The question was, how can Americans view the death of their soldiers a tragic event. I think it’s trivial that the attacked enemy views the invading soldiers’ deaths as win.
Honest question: do people really think that attacking a third world country, thousands of kilometres away from your home, that hasn’t attacked you, is “risking your life for the country”?
We’re not talking about defending yourself from an invading attack, but going far away to invade a foreign country
GI Joe did not join the military to attack a third world country. Members of the armed forces, once signed up, have to go wherever they are deployed. So yes, many service members are brave folks who are willing to risk their lives to defend their country. But likely the majority are completely average people who enlisted because they didn’t see many other career opportunities available to them. Either way, they agreed to follow orders.
And then they are sent to stupid wars where they are traumatized (and they traumatize civilians of the hostile country) for no good reason. That doesn’t mean they are inherently evil or aggressive people, or even that they want to be at war.
If you don’t want to be at war, signing up for the military is probably the wrong career choice.
Sure, some of the teenagers are just plain stupid, but at this point, America has been attacking third would countries for their whole lives without justification. Either they’re fucking idiots, or they’re complicit. Either way, when one of them dies in their invasion, it’s just a win for the invaded.
The question was, how can Americans view the death of their soldiers a tragic event. I think it’s trivial that the attacked enemy views the invading soldiers’ deaths as win.
It also doesn’t mean that they are heroes or even worthy of respect.