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How can Americans view their soldiers' deaths as tragic events, despite the U.S. initiating wars and killing other countries' civilians without justification? (piefed.world)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/questions/p/1282913/how-can-americans-view-their-soldiers-deaths-as-tragic-events-despite-the-u-s-initiating

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[–] 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The soldiers duty to refuse to carry out illegal orders such as slaughtering civilians notwithstanding, yes I think volunteering to fight for your country, even in an unjust war, is service.

The saying goes that the fish rots from the head down. There are stops all down the chain of command that could prevent soldiers from fighting unjust wars, and that’s where the blame should lie.

Sadly the US military has a lot of corruption and pushing back on a CO or refusing an illegal order can end your career in the military or worse. That doesn’t mean I blame the people at the end of the chain, I blame the people at the head. This includes Obama’s illegal drone strikes on targets in Syria and Yemen and various other atrocities and not just Trumps latests

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    You think soldiers ar absolved of responsibility just because their superiors are corrupt? Ultimately they're the ones pulling the trigger, so a massive chunk of the blame with America's crimes lie with precisely them. They are not innocent, they are murderers.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    If the soldier is pulling the trigger on civilians then yes they are responsible. If they are pulling the trigger against enemy warfighters in an unjust war, then the buck stops at the CiC. It should not be up to individual soldiers on whether a certain operation is just or not.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago

    Sorry, I can not agree given how the USA systematically engages in unjust wars. The USA has bombed almost 500 schools in Iran this year. Even if you're just the cook at a US air base, you're complicit. The whole machinery depends on people signing up and dedicating lots of effort into making it work. You can't claim ignorance in this day and age, and you can't say you're just following orders when you're there voluntarily.

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