Stronger Than You

The US Military in Hawaii

R.I.P. The 2976 American people that lost their lives on 9/11 and R.I.P. the 48,644 Afghan and 1,690,903 Iraqi and 35000 Pakistani people that paid the ultimate price for a crime they did not commit

A 10-year update to this post:

R.I.P. to the more than 4,500,000 people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and Syria, who have lost their lives as a result of American occupation.

The left never radicalized, the center has just been dragged further and further right until we became radical by not moving.

When I was 10 I asked my dad to explain politics to me and when he was done with his shockingly nuanced description of the American bipartisan system he asked me how I would structure the government if it was up to me. I described a world where everyone was paid what they needed, had a house, and enough food. He said, "Void-juice that's great, but you should know most people call that communism".

I've told this story on here before but @void--juice's story made me think of it again... My dad worked for NASA and he did a lot of work on the telescopes that went up in the late 90s/early 2000s. I was a curious kid and I knew his work really mattered to my dad so I was always asking about when things were getting launched. Often the answer was "we're waiting on Congress for funding" or similar. And one time... I was probably about 10 years old, I said "well... I guess that makes sense. I'm sure going to space is one of the most expensive things we do." And my dad looks at me... I'll never forget the look on his face. He goes "What do you think the most expensive thing we do as a country is?" And I hemmed and I hawed because I was sure it wasn't the space program even though I was sure that had to be in the top three. My first guess was education. Everyone had to go to school. Nope. Roads? Bridges? Cars were everywhere. Nope. What about... things like electricity? Phone lines? Cable? Nope. "The military. By a factor of ten at least." I was gobsmacked. It was peacetime (at least by most reckoning... this was post-Gulf War and well before 9/11). What the hell was the military doing being so expensive if we weren't doing anything with it? So that was the moment I became a "radical." Because that was absolutely stupid and continues to be.

Listen, I wanted to join the military too. I really, really did. But if your motivation for joining the military is anything except going somewhere far away and killing people, rethink.

If it is getting away from the situation that you’re in, if it’s the ability to serve your country full-time, if it’s camaraderie and wearing a uniform and the opportunity for college and/or job training, if it’s physical fitness and learning to live with other people who are really different than you, heck, if it’s fully paid-for travel and the ability to do cool things like respond to disasters and fight wildfires…

JOIN THE NATIONAL CIVILIAN COMMUNITY CORPS OR A CONSERVATION CORPS INSTEAD.

AmeriCorps NCCC is a residential, team-based national service program. It’s free. They provide all travel, lodging, food, and training. They even pay you a stipend. At the end you get money for college or job training. Almost everyone 18-26 gets in. If you want to be a team leader you can be older than that.

You travel around the country for 1-2 years with a diverse team doing anything from building parks to trail maintenance to serving with a food pantry to disaster relief to cutting fire line to building houses.

If you have any questions I was a team leader with this program. I am happy to answer them.

Remember that the calls for the national guard to intervene are calls to use state violence against Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, Muslim and other pro-Palestine students. They’re calling for deadly violence against Jews in the name of “anti-antisemitism.”

Muntadhar al-Zaidi

Continue Reading

legit the US military is probably responsible for more species extinctions than any other entity too. Found out randomly the other day that during the Vietnam War 30% of vietnam's mangrove forests were bombed out of existence

HA! The super bowl did NOT air an ad about Pat Tillman, they did NOT. Omfg. The ad is about how he left a pro football career to join the military and was killed in the line of duty, but now the foundation bearing his name is giving back to other patriotic football players.

He sure WAS killed in action! Pat Tillman joined after 9/11 after being swept up in propaganda l, but during his time in Iraq became a vocal anti-war proponent. Pat Tillman was then murdered by fellow squadmates for his stances, his murder was covered up, and he’s been used as a recruiting tool since.

Initially it was reported he was killed by enemy fire in a fight. Then it came out he was killed by friendly fire. THEN it was revealed he was shot 3 times in the back of the head at close range.

American military propaganda machine knows absolutely no bounds.

Exactly, and to even address if it WASNT murder, the best case scenario is that a man deeply deeply disillusioned with and disturbed by the Iraq war was killed by friendly fire in a big whoopsie and then the gov lied to the nation to continue using him as a poster boy, and WORSE, lied to his family about what happened, and the family only got SOME answers after they went digging and urged public pressure. And EVEN WITH this information that IS confirmed, they drag the poor man’s corpse out to recruit people into a military he was against and got him killed. Fucked

Why should Americans care about Palestine?

Oh and Bid-n just signed off $735 million weapons sale to Isr***l.

735 million. Imagine what the government could be doing to better your lives with all this money , instead it’s funding murder of innocent civilians.

This post isn’t to make anyone pick a side. Just highlighting where the government’s priorities lie.

Source to the OG post if anyone’s interested

Anti war activist Harvey Milk. That Harvey Milk. Cool cool cool cool cool

Fun fact. Harvey milk was dishonorably discharged from the military for being gay. Years after his death, the military sought to make amends and change the status of his discharge, however, Harvey Milk’s family refused. They preferred that Harvey’s dishonorable discharge stay on record indefinitely so no one would forget the military’s history of discrimination.

he said what he said

[id: a video shot in the audience of a George W. Bush lecture. A man stands up, being recorded by the person by his side. He points at the stage where Bush is sitting and says “Mr. Bush, when are you going to apologize for the million Iraqis that are dead because you lied.” As soon as he starts talking, the crowd starts to boo. He continues “you lied about weapons of mass destruction, you lied about (Iraq’s) connection to 9/11, you lied about Iraq being a threat. You sent me to Iraq. You sent me to Iraq in 2003.” At this moment, two women who were by his side in the audience stand up and try to wrench him back into his seat, grabbing him forcefully by the shoulders and arms. He continues, reading from a sheet of paper. “My friends are dead. Joshua Casteel.” One of the women wrenches the paper from his hands and puts both hands around his shoulders, pulling him back on the seat. He continues “You lied. You lied about killing people. You lied about WMDs. A million Iraqis are dead because you lied. My friends are dead because you lied. You need to apologize. Apologize.” The women push him onto the hall and he is carried off by security. The people in the row before him sit with empty expressions, looking forward. / end id]

Here’s Mike Prysner’s Twitter. He’s a very outspoken activist and produced Gaza Fights for Freedom and Earth’s Greatest Enemy.

all these people who are like ACAB AND PUNCH NAZIS are gonna see Biden lift the "trans ban" on the military and are gonna cheer his praises not comprehending their irony and idiocy

here we go

Listen I hate the military as much as the next guy but like. Thomas Sanders NEVER said this. I follow him on Twitter, and scrolled through his account dating back weeks. I never saw a SINGLE post or comment about the military. He has only mentioned the new administration’s recognition of climate change and belief in science. And from looking at the format of this image, it seems to be edited.

noo he did tweet this, he just deleted it. i saw it earlier when i was in class, my feed didn’t refresh so i went back on twt to take a sc. if u look thru thomas sanders tag on twt some ppl are talking about it

Oh I didn’t see that. Well since he deleted it, I hope that he realized the statement was in poor taste, and that he has become more informed on the topic (or will be in the future)

if you are in high school and you follow me idc if you learn nothing else from me, but learn this: do not join the fucking military. they will promise you all sorts of things in exchange for joining their muder-system for a few years. do not listen to them. you won’t find a sense of purpose, you won’t find an adventure, you might not even get the money they promise you for college. if you survive, you’ll come back with blood on your hands, feeling just as aimless as before except knowing you’re a killer. the government will drop you like hot potatoes the second you are not useful to them, and you will be on your own with nothing but some ptsd and a more intimate understanding of the phrase “blood for oil.”

They also have a way of targeting POC as well as those who are in a family that isn’t doing well financially. Be wary of any and all recruiters.

Read this thread if you wanna know what the military does to people

Just so everyone knows -- that WAS Octotron’s point. The tweet is anti military.