For like, the war crimes and stuff. Because that seems like quite a significant factor. (Maybe this is common knowledge for people more plugged-in to US politics)

Edit - seems the answer is a resounding NO lol. I should have guessed on account of none of his defenders bringing it up.

Another edit - people, if a veteran-turned-politician said ‘I regret my time in the armed forces, and the shit I saw turned me anti-imperialist’ that would actually count for something. Please stop pretending that it wouldn’t.

      • fannin [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        3 months ago

        I didn’t think he was running as a fiscal conservative but I haven’t really been following it. Why did Bernie endorse a guy who wants to slash benefits?

        • Huldra [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.net
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          Not fiscal Conservative broadly but specifically in the sense that he’s like, we are wasting money on pmcs, we need to retvrn to making recruitment for the real military attractive and beneficial instead of wasting tax payer money.

          He has some statements from I think like 2021 where he asserts that the perception that PMCs are unaccountable death squads is a myth and that they’re basically just a taxpayer grift that does mall cop defensive shit. That’s his problem with PMCs, not that they commit massacres.

          • fannin [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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            3 months ago

            Oh I get what you mean, he’s only against imperialism insofar as he thinks it’s a waste of money. If he thought murdering afghans would get him some healthcare he’d do it in a second

            • Huldra [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.net
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              3 months ago

              Yeah, and that also makes me suspicious that his anti Israel rhetoric has any weight behind it.

              The cynical refrain of American Zionists is that spending money on armaments for Israel is a great investment, so why wouldn’t he just change his mind once he gets into office and gets that whole spiel?

              Just regress to a standard dem fingerwagger who keeps giving the funding and then insincerely hoping that Israel and Palestine just become friends.

              • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                3 months ago

                He had a Reddit comment from quite a few years ago saying he opposed the occupation but in the comment he was also trying to justify Israeli soldiers firing heavy weapons at Palestinians (because according to him that’s what soldiers do) so I’m guessing he’s a two stater that thinks Israel is a bad as a strategic ally because of their fascism.

  • chgxvjh [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    I think he regrets getting that Nazi tattoo. If for no other reason than because of the current discourse.

    But him talking about how he would volunteer for various imperialist wars including Vietnam really tells us all you need to know.

      • stink@lemmygrad.ml
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        3 months ago

        Yeah but there was an even playing field duding those wars, it’s not fun unless you can napalm an entire village from the comfort of your jet

        • fannin [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Yeah, the more I think about it the more I think he might actually be telling the truth about the tattoo and he’s a complete dipshit stereotypical crayon eating enlisted marine and he’s so incurious about the entire world he couldn’t be bothered to reflect on it for a single moment in 20 years. Even if all the blackwater shit and masturbating over the massacre in Fallujah wasn’t disqualifying I think this would be.

    • Yeah idk how old these statements are, but at the time he wrote that, he very clearly viewed war as a game. There’s not only this element of getting a thrill out of putting his life on the line, but also the same excitement about the fact that the life of other people in his unit depended on his decisions, and of fucking course the people he shot are not even mentioned at all. It’s a terminal case of main character syndrome. Real serial killer shit.

      If you have ever been like that and do not work night and day to become somebody else than that callous, murderous, vile unperson that went to Iraq and treated it like the world’s most realistic co-op FPS, you are not fit to exist in anything that can call itself a functional society. You are particularly not fit to run for any public office that isn’t president of the assassin’s guild. But this is Amerikkka we’re talking, which is not a functional society in any sense of the word and were every public organisation is a branch of the assassin’s guild.

  • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    If somebody proudly uses their status as a veteran of both the united states military and blackwater for social clout during a political campaign then no they are not repentant at all for their direct complicity in the white-supremacist mass-murdering us invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • loathsome dongeater@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 months ago

    I have no idea but most probably not. He displays “combat veteran” proudly on his Twitter bio.

    Edit: according to wikipedia he did three tours of Iraq and one of Afghanistan before working for Blackwater. That does not sound like repentant behaviour.

  • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    If he had any taste for decent foreign policy, even from a liberal perspective, he would be hammering hammering hammering “why is trump going to war in Venezuela?”

    But he doesn’t.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    Libs would have serious issues with an ex-military dem pol who was at all negativist about their military service. They want the person to be gung-ho about what they did. Whatever they did. As TheBroodian said - Platner “loved infantry combat” which is perfect.

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    3 months ago

    He should be able to show it himself if he really was. A person who repents shows it by the result of their actions. What he’s shown me is that he’s the same person he was in the past, an immature person, someone who makes decisions out of peer pressure. Unfit for a leadership position, easily corruptible, no principles.

    I would have find it profoundly comedic how ill equipped politicians tend to be, if it wasn’t for the vast amount of beauty and joy of the world, being lost, due to the cowardice of losers like him. The world could be so much more beautiful.

  • Huldra [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    Every argument I have seen so far in regards to this is the standard class reduction fare where him vaguely fighting for healthcare at home is him making up for mass violence abroad.

  • Chana [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    He covered the Totenkopf with a Fenrir. Still a Nazi thing.

    And he isn’t actually critical of imperialist mercenary activities, including his own part, as he doesn’t advocate against them in any way. But even if he did he’s still a Nazi.

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    He was chud-coded from the start.

    I don’t trust anyone that uses progressive talking points but just doesn’t seem like someone I’d want to be in the proximity of.