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Holy shit. (CW: Self immolation but it's a US troop)
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this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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chapotraphouse
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As a purely hypothetical and academic discussion...
Soldiers going Postal and killing commanders in the US armed forces is a very different level of blowback to supporting Genocide than dealing with protesters in the streets. A certain level of protest and ill-will from the population is factored in to these decisions: losing career commanders is not. If you're going to go out and set an example for how to refuse to take part in an organization that aids a genocide, you may as well do as much damage as you possibly can. There's no moral duty to go easy on genociders, even if they're one degree of separation removed.
As for your argument about whether or not it would be twisted by the media - of course it would. But with a proper letter of intent drafted and mailed to multiple media outlets and unaffiliated journalists, at least some exposure to the true messaging could be achieved. This isn't an atmosphere of unilateral control over the media like was possible in the 80's and 90's, and people are more open to dissenting voices now than ever. There's already high profile examples of officials resigning that could be pointed to as well.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-education-official-resigns-over-bidens-israel-gaza-policy-2024-01-04/#:~:text=Josh%20Paul%2C%20a%20former%20State,%22blind%20support%22%20for%20Israel
It's not some fringe crank position to be anti-israel at this point. The resignation was almost 4 months ago. That there hasn't been any escalation of resistance is more surprising than anything. I genuinely think if you're in the armed forces and have decided you're willing to die for this moral issue, we're at a point where it's both morally and strategically viable to harm the structure as much as possible on the way out.
If there was an organized group of people in the military that could carry out a targetted strike against their superiors then sure id agree, but a single man isn't going to do much.
There's no moral argument against killing members of a genocidal fascist military, sure, but there is a realistic one and its that you cant just kill people by trying really hard. It takes effort and ability that may not be avaliable to an individual to actually effectively carry out an assassination. I think that since we so often talk about these things in the hypothetical (joking about fragging and stuff), it obfuscates the fact that it takes real material work to do these things properly, and getting caught before you can do anything is incredibly easy.
Covering yourself in gasoline and flicking a lighter is far far easier to carry out alone, even if the individual will to kill yourself in such a way is not present in most people.
Gosh darn it I'm glad someone said it before me. I'll admit to a bit of red-tinged fantasies myself, but until that moment when it's my choice to pull the trigger and end a humans life i don't know that i could.
We don't know what this guy's job was. For all we know about him he not only might he not have the training to kill another soldier, he might not have the will. Maybe he values life highly. I for one give him the benefit of the doubt cuz whatever his convictions were, he held them tightly and paid for them with force and will.
Difficult maybe, but doable. And again, we're talking about someone who has already chosen to forfeit their life in pursuit of resistance. I think suicide is, all considered, a less effective form of a resistance than other paths - but if it's the one someone has chosen, one may as well go the extra mile and raise the costs as much as possible. Even if it doesn't succeed entirely, any amount of additional cost beyond cleaning your body off a sidewalk is a loss to the death machine of US empire, and the credible threat of future people finding inspiration in the action/copy-cat attempts will have to be factored into decision making as well.