United States | News & Politics

Yes.

My only caveat is that I understand some recruits are ignorant (as in, can't point out USA on a world map), exploited by recruiters, and are capable of coming to their senses. One example of what I'm talking about, a former Navy officer who joined to avoid homelessness and unwittingly took part in the horrific blockade of Yemen, eventually understood that they were part of a blockade only once they returned to the US, and later became a socialist anarchist.

In case anyone needs this said plainly: Fuck the empire, and fuck the people who signed up to enforce it. My point is that some of the signups who are committing these atrocities are capable of deradicalizing themselves and educating themselves once they understand what they're doing to other people and why they were doing it. I am not saying this as some silly moral appeal - again, fuck the troops, ignorance is not an excuse, they are legitimate targets - but rather to point out pragmatically that those who leave the force may still be able to fight for a good cause despite their past actions, a fact that is sometimes lost in slogans.