You know, I am not at all much interested in fire-arms, although I have been taught to use one. I notice that for some, fire-arms are almost like some fetish.

But lately I have been thinking maybe I should own one and do a little practice shooting. It makes me nervous that it is far-right reactionaries who are the ones so well armed these days.

I almost joined the army/marines back in the late 80s, but coming from an upper middle class family with real language skills, the recruiter wanted to rush me through college and into Officer Candidate School and then onto intelligence work. My recruiter was honest enough to let me know the downsides to my future assignments and I decided not to join, in the end. I wanted the martial training, but especially in the wake of Bonzo going to Bitburg, I wasn’t going to actively support US imperialism.

However, I was very active in the scouts throughout my childhood and teenage years, and our troop was pretty paramilitary, with many of our “graduates” going on to military academies, becoming officers, etc.

Even now, I go to the gun range and train in martial arts. However, then and now, I’ve had a healthy dose of left influences, and have been on the organized left for 20 years.

Your essay really brought home the indoctrination of recruits and the process of turning them into soldiers for imperialism. I think even the stalinist soldiers of other countries, by and large, were better behaved than what we’re seeing from U.S. troops in the middle east. Sure, the resistance are no angels, and I can see their actions in part feeding the paranoia and abuse from US soldiers, but we shouldn’t be there in the first place.

I really feel for these soldiers, I almost went there myself. Thankfully, I knew people on the left who helped provide balance against the warmongering culture with which I’ve grown up.

Veterans rights and reparations to countries the US has destroyed should be at the top of the list of any Green politician running for office.