this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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Guys, chill for a second.
He was a kid who enlisted in the Reserve before Trump was even in power, and deployed to Kuwait with a logistics unit without knowing wtf was going to happen.
Instead of being mad at the dead pawns, be mad at the people in power who started this shit. Be mad at the officers at the highest levels who didn't push back against Trump's orders to attack Iran without just reason. I think they deserve hate more than anyone.
Did he think he would be delivering tickles? Because if he did, the military seems like an odd choice.
Tbf the national guard recruits with videos of putting up sand bags during floods and digging through rubble after earthquakes and tornadoes looking for survivors. They tell them they're there to help the state in emergencies and the army reserves is who goes to fight to fill in gaps. I spent my 4 years in the army helping to train new recruits. Basically I did nothing in the regular army. Then I spent 2 years in the national guard and got deployed. During my year in Baghdad I saw regular army, navy, marines and national guard, as well as soldiers from too many other countries to count. What I never knowingly encountered? An army reservist.
Ok, so I'm not saying this kid was good or bad, there's no way to know his intentions. I'm just saying it's certainly possible he was just a naive kid who wanted to help but didn't do his homework. He should have known plenty of Iowa vets that could have told him. At one point Iowa national guard had over 140% deployment rate. Meaning that many had gone multiple times, which is fucking bullshit. The national guards recruiting is far more sinister and predatory than the army. Because with the army you likely know you're getting your ticket stamped at some point. These kids often just haven't done their due diligence.
It seems that Americans, who spend all their time online, are completely unable to ascertain that the US military complex exists primarily for killing people outside of America. Before the internet, I could excuse young people falling for the propaganda. It was possible that they didn't have access to information. Now you have to want to fall for the propaganda and purposely ignore all evidence to the contrary to believe joining up isn't a ticket to eventually be called on to kill someone outside of the US and possibly be used as cannon fodder yourself.
This might be a hot take, but the US military was shit long before Trump.
Really nothing Trump is doing is new to the US. He just gave up any pretense of it being for good or to help anyone. Also he's even more inept at implementing anything so the outcome is worse even quicker than in the past.
If you choose to join the military regardless of when you chose to join it. You still chose to join the military.
I can be mad at both.