Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Agree completely, but (a) we shouldn't glorify the Chris Kyles of the world -- they are the collateral damage of going to war, and (b) when we decide to use military force, we are decided not only to kill foreigners and blow up their stuff, but also to turn more Americans into Chris Kyles, and we ought to own up to this. Pretending that he is a saint is an exercise in massive denial that's not fair to those who serve.
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I couldn't agree more. The notion that our soldiers invading an innocent nation like Iraq are somehow victims when Iraqis fight back, and heroes when they kill Iraqis indiscriminately, is beyond stupid. First, the USA is not always on the side of good. We are on our side, fighting for what benefits us, which is not an automatic synonym for "good." Second, the Iraqis who fought back are not evil. ISIS, which grew into a massive power after we left Iraq, is evil. It kills innocent Iraqis, journalists, and just about everyone else with whom it comes into contact. But the Iraqi soldiers (formal and militia) - even the worst Baathists who supported Hussein - were not evil merely because they fought back an invader. When you invade a non-aggressor country and people shoot at you, they have a right to do so. You as the invader have assumed that risk. And we at home may not judge forces defending their own nation as "evil" or "wrong" or anything else. They are soldiers, no different than the ones we sent over to their sovereign territory. And to the extent they are being forced to take up arms to defend their own land, they are a hell of a lot closer to heroic than the invaders compelling them to do so.
Why the average American doesn't grasp this irrefutable logic confuses the fuck out of me. I'm guessing it's because, silly religious sorts we remain, every military endeavor is couched as a battle of morally right versus morally wrong.
(Afghanistan, OTOH, is a different story. They poked us first and assumed the risk by harboring AQ. ISIS is also distinguishable because they are objectively evil.)
