US soldiers say they have no protection from Iranian missiles and drones targeting US bases in the Gulf

Snip:

More and more US troops deployed to West Asia are expressing doubts about fighting in the war against Iran, including having to “die for Israel,” the Huffington Post reported on 23 March.

A veteran and reservist who mentors younger officers told HuffPost that troops she speaks with are expressing a loss of faith after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped push US President Donald Trump to go to war against Iran.

[…]

Interviews further revealed that troops are worried about inadequate protection from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones targeting US bases in the Gulf region.

“Getting random indirect fire is not the same as watching the entire gym and coffee shop and some dorms get blown up from a door less than 50 meters away,” said one service member.

  • Dirt_Possum [she/her, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
    25·
    1 month ago

    You:

    empathy isn’t just a virtue, it is pragmatic.

    Also you:

    frankly, if we are speaking purely pragmatically, empathizing with victims really helps no one

    Also you:

    if you won’t be more humane, at least be smarter

    You are so all over the place and full of contradictory statements that you are incoherent. But so far as I can tell, what I’m getting is: “We need to have empathy for imperialist murderers and counterrevolutionary traitors but not for their victims.” Gotcha. You’re a reactionary.

      • Dirt_Possum [she/her, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
        16·
        1 month ago

        that’s pretty consistent all the way through

        Empathy is pragmatic. Empathizing with victims is not pragmatic. No, those are not consistent, I’m sorry you are so blinded by this us vs them framing.

        I didn’t say we shouldn’t have empathy for victims, I said it’s not helpful

        While saying that empathy for perpetrators is.

        empathy for perpetrators doesn’t mean excusing their actions and letting them go

        But rather than recognize that imperialist troops made a choice to literally become the enemy, willingly placing themselves on the opposite side of the class conflict from the working class and those of us who fight for it, we should give them a pass because free college is so tempting, and it’s cruel and not pragmatic or something to keep child murderers out of our orgs. Also purges are bad. Yeah, ok.

        it means understanding that they are still humans and not just acting as if they aren’t victims of the system that corrupted them.

        Everyone who responded to you about how ridiculous you were being fully understands that they are human and it is incredibly bad faith of you to pretend otherwise. As for the second part, let’s take out the double negative there so what you are saying can be parsed:
        “they are not just acting as if they aren’t victims of the system that corrupted them” -> “they are just acting as if they are victims of the system that corrupted them” Ok, yes, I tend to agree, they often do just act as if they are victims of the system. If what you’re trying to say is that it is their material circumstances, the system they exist within, that led them to being imperialist troops, I would say that yes, material circumstances are ultimately responsible for the shaping of social factions. But that does not preclude anyone from having any responsibility for their individual choices and actions. Once again, the logical conclusion to that argument is that as communists we should not denigrate or hold anything against cops, presidents, capitalists, or any mass murderers since they are simply the product of their circumstances.

        things can be objectively good but also not result in material change.

        You’re really reaching to try to salvage something from this dumpster fire of a position, aren’t you?

        this isn’t a hard concept to understand.

        It’s really not, which is why it’s so disconcerting (but also a little funny) to watch you flail about, trying to make any part of what you said earlier fit some sort of tortured material analysis.

        having empathy for those that cause harm allows you to see what systemic effects led them so far astray and correct it for the future.

        I am not against empathizing with the enemy, and I never said otherwise. But no, it is not necessary to empathize with them to see any of the systemic issues that play a role in producing people like them, nor is it necessary to empathize with them to correct for it in the future.

        I’m sorry you are so blinded by this us vs them framing.

        I’m sorry you think that the very basic Marxist concept of class conflict is “us vs them framing.” lol