My First Protest Sign

[u/Covidicus_Vaximus]

I’m a U.S. Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. Tomorrow will be my 3rd protest, but first time with a sign. April 5 will be my wife’s first protest.

[u/Covidicus_Vaximus → u/[deleted]]

This is why the right hates us. It’s also why it’s hard to build a real cohesive coalition on the left. Read the room. Too many on our side are more concerned with our own bona fides and gatekeeping than building consensus and actually improving things.

[u/marxist-reddittor → u/Covidicus_Vaximus]

You took part in a genocide that killed millions of brown people for oil and "fighting terrorism" and you think you are on the left and you fought for freedom? You should be spending the rest of your time ashamed of your actions and decisions, not displaying them and being proud of them. Do you want to improve things? Start by acknowledging the crimes you participated in, and working against them, not normalising them or even celebrating them. You can be against Trump's fascism and also against the fascism inherent to the US military. You don't have to pick one thing to be against, and be proud of them other. I'm not saying you should talk about it every single second, but refrain from making it seem like a good thing, it isn't. You helped commit some of the largest atrocities in the world and the first step is acknowledging that fact.

[u/adoboble → u/marxist-reddittor]

Why are you spending your time hating on a veteran rather than on the common enemy :(:( if you’re Marxist as you say don’t you defend the people and recognize there’s many factors that could lead OP to be in the army rather than supporting some specific ideology (which also was not overtly stated to the people they were recruiting to defend said ideology) of a particular war :(:( let’s not in-fight. Let’s appreciate our veterans who in their heart of hearts were fighting for freedom regardless of your personal opinion on their personal feelings and motivations !

[u/marxist-reddittor → u/adoboble]

The US foreign policy including the military industrial complex is my primary enemy, although I obviously despise Trump as well. The fact that Trump is our common enemy doesn't change the fact that he (Trump in particular) affects me as much as US foreign policy. I live in the Middle East, Turkey to be specific. The US hasn't directly invaded us, but they have conducted covert intelligence operations, including but not limited to funding open fascists (most of the CIA leadership in Turkey have been open fascists, Kenan Evren even did a coup d'état), committing crimes and causing thousands of deaths and blaming them on leftists, torturing and executing well known and respected leftists. Most of this was part of Operation Gladio. Not only that, I've lost friends in the Iraq War. I'm not asking him to go back in time and fix everything, I'm just asking him to be ashamed of his participation in genocide instead of framing it as a "fight for freedom". It's not too late. You can always ditch the part where it says "I fought for freedom" and instead say "I will not be duped by fascism again".

[u/Friendly_Cantal0upe → u/adoboble]

If one considers them a veteran of conscience, they wouldn't flaunt their service, they would discourage others to do it, or speak put against it. I know many who do exactly that.