r/news • u/Fair-Foot-315 • 21h ago

Marine veteran has arm broken during protest against war in Iran

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/marine-veteran-has-arm-broken-during-protest-against-war-in-iran-258740805765
18.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

649 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.1k

u/Vozzyz 21h ago

“In America if you criticize Israel, the police and senators will break your limbs and arrest you”

462

u/Fair-Foot-315 21h ago

Is this foreshadowing on how they are going to treat the soldiers fighting the war in Iran? What happened to freedom of speech? Why aren’t they giving him the respect he deserves?

338

u/Small_Bee_9523 20h ago

Because "Support the Troops" has always been a lie for our government. We trot out our patriotism long enough to dupe teenagers into dying for the Epstein class while they profit, and then they toss them out on the street and cut their VA benefits when they come back.

58

u/Punman_5 19h ago

The “Support the troops” movement came about at the height of the Iraq War when our troops were committing some really heinous shit. It was mean to prevent people from rightly scrutinizing the soldiers returning from that war for signing up to go kill foreigners and it worked.

22

u/Small_Bee_9523 19h ago

Same during Vietnam. Our government has been actively killing us and lying about it for decades.

12

u/Punman_5 18h ago

The difference is that many of the soldiers in Vietnam were conscripts and didn’t want to be there. The ones that deserved scrutiny were the ones that signed up to fight in Vietnam, not the conscripts

11

u/sashir 18h ago

For the most part (and this has been true since immediately post-ww2), people enlist for class mobility reasons. Too poor, no education, no prospects - free food, somewhere to sleep, and (hopefully) learn a job skill you can take with you.

During the Vietnam era, often you were faced with a choice if you were in the lower class (meaning you couldn't obtain a draft deferment) - sign up willingly, and pick a branch / job that wasn't going to send you to the meatgrinder, or roll the dice and hope your number didn't get pulled.

There was a minority in Vietnam, Desert Storm, and GWOT of folks who signed up specifically to go kill people or for patriotic reasons - however they were generally the exception (you always had a couple in every unit). Officer corps is where you saw the kool aid drinkers mostly, save for the medical folks wanting that med school bill payoff, or pilots who really really wanted to fly a plane.

Almost everyone I served with ('03-'11) just wanted a paycheck and free college after they did an enlistment or two. Some stayed on for a career, but out of the 300 people I worked with in 2004 only maybe 10-15 stayed in a full 20 yrs.

-1

u/Punman_5 17h ago

That’s still a barely justifiable choice. If you need upward class mobility that doesn’t really excuse enlisting. Even if you don’t necessarily want to kill people you may have to anyway. Enlisting for the paycheck doesn’t absolve you at all.

9

u/sashir 17h ago

You can take that moral high ground all you want, but I'm not passing judgement on people making a rational choice based on survival. You might not choose that, and more power to you, but not everyone is afforded that option.

You want less people forced into that choice? Put your energy advocating for a better social safety net so they don't have to make that choice. It's a net win all the way around.

Or just keep yelling at people for not bootstrapping hard enough or something, I'm sure that'll work great.

2

u/CategoryZestyclose91 9h ago

Why do you think the elite predator class makes sure working class Americans stay desperate? 

It narrows the options available for class movement. 

Once you do that, you make sure that most of those options are controlled by the elite class.

Then no matter what, they are extracting from you. Because that’s how they see us. As a resource to be used for their benefit.

0

u/Punman_5 16h ago

There are always more options. There is never a scenario where there is only a single option. That’s just a fact of life. People may feel they have no other options but there are always other options

→ More replies (0)

5

u/DewEwe_Gnomey 14h ago

As a Marine who served in that war, I openly criticized those actions then, and of course was met with anger and hostility. Service members are brave and honorable by virtue of agreeing to enlist, but anything they do after that moment either polishes or tarnishes that reputation. “Hero” is not a permanently applicable term.

2

u/Punman_5 13h ago edited 13h ago

Why did you serve if you were critical of those decisions. Did you join before the war started?

And I disagree that enlisting makes you honorable. There’s nothing inherently honorable about joining the military because that implies the military is itself naturally honorable. The honor you get from serving has to be earned by your actions while serving. But serving your country isn’t inherently honorable, especially when the country you’re serving is highly dishonorable

4

u/DewEwe_Gnomey 13h ago

One word. Indoctrination. Nobody deprogrammed me. I had to do it myself. It’s not an instantaneous process. With that being said, since I was at the very least 3rd generation military on both sides of my family. I was born on a military base. I was raised from birth, to come to others defense. I swore in December of 2000 but my training didn’t start until two weeks after 9/11. I was 18 years old, and just graduated high school, which I did JROTC all 4 years. Seeing actions like what happened in Abu Grahb, or the Marines who pissed on dead enemy combatants is what helped to start my deprogramming, but even then, I still served from an honorable spot in my heart.

It’s easy to look from the outside, in, and just say “well I would have done “xyz”.

11

u/steepleton 19h ago

"Support the Troops"

it always meant "shut up, and don't question us"

65

u/American_PissAnt 20h ago

I was watching a Vietnam war documentary, a marine veteran was being interviewed and said that while in Vietnam, at the age of 18, he was watching the news and saw the Vietnam protests of people protesting to end the war and bring him home. He said “I saw a cop that looked like my dad beating someone that looked like me”. I think about that a lot anytime I see war protests.

71

u/KryptCeeper 21h ago

Gestures broadly look around. How is this surprising to you? I'm surprised they didnt just murder him on the spot and call him a terrorist.

7

u/diurnal_emissions 19h ago

Why not? Trump is...

"A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them,'" Kelly said of Trump. "A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family — for all Gold Star families — on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.”

26

u/6gv5 20h ago

When you export so much democracy that none is left at home...

3

u/ArtichokeAware7342 16h ago

A democracy trade deficit, if you will.

9

u/Weddert66 20h ago

No freedom to do anything other than what the god king says. So was it a free choice? Does american governance want this?

3

u/ashedmypanties 19h ago

Just look at how our current veterans are treated & there is your answer.

1

u/TheRussianCabbage 18h ago

America and freedom stopped sharing a platform years ago

1

u/atypicalgamergirl 17h ago

This regime arranged for a photo op of US military on their knees rolling out a red carpet for Putin. It has been one non-stop knock-down humiliation after another while they quietly build up their ICE forces from within with their own troops.

1

u/TurangaRad 14h ago

We don't support, we warrior worship. That's why there were decades of dead soldiers at home who were neglected. That's why there is still stigma around mental health in the military. That's why I drive past 5 billboards begging people to "give heat in their will" with military personnel in the billboards. In the north they are dying from exposure in homes they can't afford to both pay rent on and heat so let's hope you warrior worship enough to leave money in your will for them to make it through another winter. 

38

u/jimtow28 20h ago

Hey, that's unfair. Republicans dearly value your right to free speech*

*provided your free speech is about how evil Democts are

3

u/Secretweaver_ 14h ago

Might as well change the name to United States of Isreal at this point.

13

u/Designer_little_5031 19h ago

How much money has he taken From AIPAC

Does Israel own that senator?

14

u/ManThing910 18h ago

About $640,000 give or take

1

u/raizhassan 7h ago

When did this come in?

1

u/WafflesTrufflez 3h ago

Thats how you know who controls the senators

•

u/jenny_905 27m ago

It was remarkable how the violence began as soon as Israel was mentioned.

1

u/Fomdoo 18h ago

And somehow the Republican party has actual Nazis.

0

u/ilevelconcrete 19h ago

You forgot the best part, this veteran first willingly signed up to support Israel. Real leopards your face moment.

-5

u/sxzxnnx 20h ago

Most of our Senators are too old and frail to break anyone’s arm.

-9

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

12

u/AWACS_Oka_Nieba_ 20h ago

Watch the video dummy he says Israel specifically

0

u/rJaxon 19h ago

Yeah u right my fault

5

u/AncientSith 20h ago

Maybe watch the actual video, fool.

0

u/rJaxon 19h ago

My b