Fuck these people

[Leftsolidarity]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/307767_2711101977548_1256824428_33236137_737890140 _n.jpg

[ВАЛТЕР]

I hope they get left maimed and wounded by an IED. Then returned home to live like shit without adequate care. Then they can have people tell them to quit asking for handouts and get a job.

[Charlie Watt]

Fuck 'em indeed. I'd tell them to get back to work, but seeing as their job is essentially to be a murdering fuckbag, I'd rather not give the ****s any encouragement.

[Marxaveli]

You have to pity them almost. They think they are doing a great service by fighting for their country....even though their country could give two shits or a flying fuck if they get their heads blown off. Little do they know they are just fighting to uphold our system of crapitalism, to enrich the oil companies, politicians, military industrial complex, and so forth. False consciousness is one of the biggest problems the proles face right now, and these guys and the Tea Party exemplify it.

[Franz Fanonipants]

A Troops think a thing.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I just see six dudes engaged in a little trollin'.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

They need to talk to the soldiers who have taken part in the Occupy protests.

[ВАЛТЕР]

They have no clue that they are as expendable as the uniforms they wear...

[Zostrianos]

I think they're complete scumbags, but then again (like most US rightwingers) they're probably half-wits (and as soldiers, they are tools of the system) who only get their news from Fox News, and the only book they ever read (or own) is the Bible, so they just swallow all the bullshit that they hear and end up believing it. While this doesn't absolve them of any responsibility, they should get a real education (not bullshit football or basketball "scholarships") before opening their mouths to criticize something they know nothing about.

[Tim Finnegan]

I hope they get left maimed and wounded by an IED. Then returned home to live like shit without adequate care. Then they can have people tell them to quit asking for handouts and get a job.
It would be good for you, I think, to work alongside a former soldier who is in just such a situation. Maybe he has barely treated PTSD. Perhaps he's developed alcoholism as a desperate coping mechanism. Perhaps he ends up stealing alcohol from the store, because that's the only way he can support his habit without starving to death on the piss-poor wage they pay him. Perhaps he gets found out. Perhaps that gets him fired. Perhaps he's found two weeks later on the end of a rope. Perhaps then you'll learn not to say fucked up shit like this.

I mean, it worked for me, is all I'm saying.

[Zostrianos]

It would be good for you, I think, to work alongside a former soldier who is in just such a situation. Maybe he has barely treated PTSD. Perhaps he's developed alcoholism as a desperate coping mechanism. Perhaps he ends up stealing alcohol from the store, because that's the only way he can support his habit without starving to death on the piss-poor wage they pay him. Perhaps he gets found out. Perhaps that gets him fired. Perhaps he's found two weeks later on the end of a rope. Perhaps then you'll learn not to say fucked up shit like this.
I mean, it worked for me, is all I'm saying.

This is a very valid point, but keep in mind that US troops were not forcibly conscripted, they chose to join the army knowing they might be sent off to fight in one of their countries' periodic wars

[Nox]

Wankers

[Franz Fanonipants]

This is a very valid point, but keep in mind that US troops were not forcibly conscripted, they chose to join the army knowing they might be sent off to fight in one of their countries' periodic wars

economic "choice" in capitalism isn't really as simple as you're making it out to be. it's no draft, but still.

[Tim Finnegan]

This is a very valid point, but keep in mind that US troops were not forcibly conscripted, they chose to join the army knowing they might be sent off to fight in one of their countries' periodic wars
I'd say it's more complex than that. There's been some very important work done into the concept of economic conscription (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_conscription) which blurs the lines rather. A lot of military service is, when push comes to shove, the same old wage slavery in a different uniform.

[ВАЛТЕР]

It would be good for you, I think, to work alongside a former soldier who is in just such a situation. Maybe he has barely treated PTSD. Perhaps he's developed alcoholism as a desperate coping mechanism. Perhaps he ends up stealing alcohol from the store, because that's the only way he can support his habit without starving to death on the piss-poor wage they pay him. Perhaps he gets found out. Perhaps that gets him fired. Perhaps he's found two weeks later on the end of a rope. Perhaps then you'll learn not to say fucked up shit like this.

I mean, it worked for me, is all I'm saying.

Probably not, when I was in the US I met some troops like this, who were previously patriotic asshats and were now fucked up real bad. I really didn't feel much pity for them and I told myself that "they had it coming." I literally see groups of soldiers in these pictures and think to myself "Man I hope they get killed."

Basically I don't see these "gung ho" "Patriotic" troops as people.

[Tim Finnegan]

Well, it must be nice that you live in a world where poor people are simply not something you encounter on a regular enough basis for their existence to in any way complicate your preconceptions. I hope your good fortune continues.

[ВАЛТЕР]

Well, it must be nice that you live in a world where poor people are simply not something you encounter on a regular enough basis for their existence to in any way complicate your preconceptions. I hope your good fortune continues.

My "preconceptions" are built upon watching US troops terrorize the globe for as long as I can remember. Sorry if I can't look at them as anything worthy of pity. I look at them with nothing but contempt.

[Susurrus]

Not only economic conscription, but the values and worldview they come from. They probably think they are fighting to liberate the oppressed people of the countries they invade, without realizing their true objectives.

[Tim Finnegan]

My "preconceptions" are built upon watching US troops terrorize the globe for as long as I can remember. Sorry if I can't look at them as anything worthy of pity. I look at them with nothing but contempt.
I didn't ask for pity, I asked for perspective. It's not a big demand.

[Zostrianos]

I'd say it's more complex than that. There's been some very important work done into the concept of economic conscription (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_conscription) which blurs the lines rather. A lot of military service is, when push comes to shove, the same old wage slavery in a different uniform.

I know, that's a pretty repulsive capitalist strategy: "You're poor? No problem, just join the army and you're set for life!"
It's essentially a pact with the Devil. Instead of setting up employment programs and social aid for the poor and destitute, they fool them into becoming the tools of their military system, promising them a good life but sending them off to die in one of their wars, using them to do their dirty work. It's slavery under another name....
Most of their troops however are "God and country" Bible belt patriots who weren't necessarily poor but willingly joined so they can go and make America proud by killing innocents overseas. I have nothing but contempt for them,

[ВАЛТЕР]

I didn't ask for pity, I asked for perspective. It's not a big demand.

I can understand some of them joining the Army and whatnot for economic reasons, as many of them do.

However, when I see their self-righteous cocky attitudes I immediately wish the worst for them. As a result when I see or hear about dead or wounded soldiers I simply cant relate, or frankly give a shit.

It is difficult for me to show any kind of sympathy, or understanding for them. Knowing what they represent and stand for. It would be different if they were soldiers of some nation which does not send troops around the world enforcing its own agendas. However NATO troops, I absolutely do not care what happens to them.

Also, you have to realize I spent a lot of time in the US living in Oklahoma of all places. So I am sick of seeing flag waving patriotic fucks cheering on their boys to go overseas to kill the bad guys. It simply developed in me to not view them as people. The second I see a uniform I just immediately refuse to even accept them as people in my eyes.

[Rocky Rococo]

they're being well programmed and prepped for dealing with situations that might get too big for the police.

[Marxaveli]

As I said before, patriotism and Nationalism are just short words for saying "mobilize the poor man's children to fight the rich man's war".

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

my rightwing roots say "you tell them"
my leftwing senses say "Go Fuck your couch"

[redwog]

I understand the hate but there are subtlties. I just don't think the anomosity is very political. There is clearly pattern replicated with prison stats. black, latino, poor overrepresented. sure there is no conscription for all but if you're black on community;) legal rep facing a sentence ot war, its tantamount to consctiption for some. not to mentiom mexicans getting citizenship or the poor getting college, healthcare (the things europeans, canadians or australasian have however shit or dissapearing)

[Triple A]

Daisy me trollin' they hatin'

[Jimmie Higgins]

This is a very valid point, but keep in mind that US troops were not forcibly conscripted, they chose to join the army knowing they might be sent off to fight in one of their countries' periodic wars

True, but in the US we aren't even told what the weather looks like in Canada or Mexico when they show us the TV forecast for San Diego or Minneapolis, let alone what the history and people are like in the countries the US is actively trying to demonize to sell its wars. People join for various individual reasons from nationalism, to not being able to afford college, to just being in a rural dead-end town with no other seeming way out.

As far as the attitude of rank and file soldiers, well it should be no wonder that on the surface we see nationalism, machismo, and right-wing attitudes from soldiers since this is encouraged from the top-down while other opinions are forced into the closet. But when military discipline begins to break-down, historical examples show it can crumble quickly and GIs will get together and a whole range of ideas more along the lines of ideas in the general society emerge.

If 6 US GIs held up a sign in support of the OWS and posted it, they'd probably face a lot of formal and informal shit from their superiors and other soldiers.