This is my issue with people who are like “but she gave up important military secrets and put soldiers at risk!!”
And it’s like, that’s a really nice propaganda-y way to say she exposed the military committing crimes and cruel acts that should not be allowed, but that active members literally aren’t given the choice to say anything against, because “it compromises our safety everyoen″. That’s a really fucking convenient excuse imo.
The Nuremberg trials say that every soldier has the duty to disobey orders to commit war crimes and blow the whistle on any that take place. Period.
At home, US military personnel will be trained the same thing. “Only shoot in self defense/follow the rules of engagement/there are laws and rules we’re expected to follow.” Clearly, this training is immediately ignored when boots touch foreign soil, or when personnel exit the training environment and enter an actual operation.
I’m reminded of the Obama-era transgender acceptance training, and the ever-present corporate style anti-harassment/diversity/what-have-you training. “We’re allowing trans people to enlist, this is the bureaucratic process for medically and legally transitioning within the ranks, the rest of you are legally required to be nice.” “You’re not allowed to be racist/sexist/otherwise bigoted.” “These (various morally abhorrent and illegal behaviors) are bad, here’s the bureaucratic process for tattling if you see or experience this.” “This is the military version of AA, these are the consequences if you become an alcoholic or addict and don’t self-report to the rehab office.” Personnel are made to watch a PowerPoint presentation explaining the most basic things and the bureaucratic infrastructure for dealing with infractions. Then it’s forgotten as soon as they leave the classroom or log out of the computer.
The US is a wholly irredeemable institution and its military’s milquetoast attempts to deconstruct immoral behavior within the ranks is symptomatic of this. You want proof that slideshows about diversity and why sexual misconduct is bad don’t work, look at the US military’s training programs vs the lack of success those programs have.
The tl;dr is that the US tries to instill morality into its ranks through PowerPoint. It checks boxes for the liberal establishment saying “at least we tried” while not doing anything at all. This is why troops are terrible to each other and US civilians and foreign civilians and foreign combatants. More Americans should be made aware of this.
