I don't think that person was saying that soldiers need to be wiped out of existence, just that the US should train people how to make their countries better instead of how to kill people better. Or that's what I got out of it anyways.
Sure but the point is that nations have hierarchies of need just like people do. If you don't have the equal rule of law, a military that is dedicated to the people (in America that's "We the People"), a civil service that is relatively corruption free, peaceful transfers of power after clean elections, and probably some other stuff (free elementary education? contracts? intellectual property...?), it's foolish to TRY to establish STEAM (including the arts) programs and higher social goods.
So countries that have been ravaged by colonialism need to be repaired from the bottom up. That really does start with a well trained military dedicated to the people.
If you don't have the equal rule of law, a military that is dedicated to the people (in America that's "We the People"), a civil service that is relatively corruption free, peaceful transfers of power after clean elections, and probably some other stuff (free elementary education? contracts? intellectual property...?), it's foolish to TRY to establish STEAM (including the arts) programs and higher social goods.
It's also really foolish to give the officials in that society a society lacking all those things a bunch of guns and training on how to use them because they said they saw Boko Haram in the bushes, which is what we did
e; better phrasing
I wasn't privy to the details of the training, but the US military is very much couched in the military serving the people, so I would hope and expect that's what any training we provided included. Maybe you have specialized knowledge that we just went in and gave them guns and taught them how to use the guns and fucked right off so they could start shooting bushes...?
just that the US should train people how to make their countries better instead of how to kill people better
That's exactly what they were being trained to do, they were being taught how to fight the very real terrorist threat that exists in and around Niger.
Also soldiering is a whole lot more than just the "killing people" part, especially for NATO and NATO trained soldiers, hell the war fighting portion of a good logistically sound military like the US is only around 25% of that military, the army, air force and navy all have doctors and nurses that pitch in to help with any crisis, the same with the engineering corps, and most other portions of the military including infantry who get to do stuff like fill sandbags and other grunt work necessary to help.
Also just for you and the other person commenting, the US helps train and fund doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, they help feed these countries through shipments of food and farming supplies and equipment, their diplomatic corp works tirelessly to resolve situations like the one Niger is in, how much more do you want them to do?
It's just ridiculous how much some of you people don't even realize the US is doing constantly to uphold global security, and the only time we have stopped doing it in this century is when Trump chose his isolationist policies, which absolutely let those terrorist and militant groups grow and fester.
Soft power is the key to global security, far more than armies, but armies are unfortunately still very necessary.
I don't think that person was saying that soldiers need to be wiped out of existence, just that the US should train people how to make their countries better instead of how to kill people better. Or that's what I got out of it anyways.
Sure but the point is that nations have hierarchies of need just like people do. If you don't have the equal rule of law, a military that is dedicated to the people (in America that's "We the People"), a civil service that is relatively corruption free, peaceful transfers of power after clean elections, and probably some other stuff (free elementary education? contracts? intellectual property...?), it's foolish to TRY to establish STEAM (including the arts) programs and higher social goods.
So countries that have been ravaged by colonialism need to be repaired from the bottom up. That really does start with a well trained military dedicated to the people.
It's also really foolish to give the officials in
that societya society lacking all those things a bunch of guns and training on how to use them because they said they saw Boko Haram in the bushes, which is what we dide; better phrasing
I wasn't privy to the details of the training, but the US military is very much couched in the military serving the people, so I would hope and expect that's what any training we provided included. Maybe you have specialized knowledge that we just went in and gave them guns and taught them how to use the guns and fucked right off so they could start shooting bushes...?
That's exactly what they were being trained to do, they were being taught how to fight the very real terrorist threat that exists in and around Niger.
Also soldiering is a whole lot more than just the "killing people" part, especially for NATO and NATO trained soldiers, hell the war fighting portion of a good logistically sound military like the US is only around 25% of that military, the army, air force and navy all have doctors and nurses that pitch in to help with any crisis, the same with the engineering corps, and most other portions of the military including infantry who get to do stuff like fill sandbags and other grunt work necessary to help.
Also just for you and the other person commenting, the US helps train and fund doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, they help feed these countries through shipments of food and farming supplies and equipment, their diplomatic corp works tirelessly to resolve situations like the one Niger is in, how much more do you want them to do?
It's just ridiculous how much some of you people don't even realize the US is doing constantly to uphold global security, and the only time we have stopped doing it in this century is when Trump chose his isolationist policies, which absolutely let those terrorist and militant groups grow and fester.
Soft power is the key to global security, far more than armies, but armies are unfortunately still very necessary.
Sometimes lemmy is a care bear circle.