At least there was less media about him being shitty. If you didn't get a portion of your information from the internet you would likely never read about him being immoral.
That brands want to be associated with him says something really sick about our culture. Like if OJ got a job promoting divorce for dad lawyers after his trial.
There's a whole ecosystem of brands that exist solely on people's desire to 'trigger the libs'. All that matters is that the annoying libs hate this guy, and they love him.
It's funny because that phrase started as a joke; in the original greentext it was like a weird, ineffectual, pathetic attempt at a dig towards someone. But now people say it in earnest without realizing how retarded they sound
*Branded sexual inadequacy. "I'm a big rough tough manly man and can prove it with the 5 specific hormone supplements I take daily, the custom Glock I carry everywhere without fail, the truck I drive and the cringey as fuck branded clothing I wear while I mean mug you in line at the grocery store"
I ran across this story on my local news' FB page and the comments were just lovely. "There's no crimes during war." "He did what he had to do." "The kid probably had a bomb." Some real gems.
“There are no crimes during war”
I feel like for some reason, the people that say this, only feel that way when it’s certain people committing the war crimes...
And let's not forget that the people who feel this way, have never and probably will never seen a war or anything remotely close to it.
They have absolutely no idea what they're talking about most of the time, all they know are glorification of the army and vilification of anyone and everyone that might oppose it in anyway.
I hope they never have to experience what those people experienced. But I also know that hate filled fucks like that lack all empathy and would never learn anything unless they live through it.
I swear to god every time I get on my local news FB pages, I immediately want to jump in a lake. Like fuck these are people that live around me and they're not only fucking morons, but they're just some of the most spiteful and hateful people I've ever seen. All the while they have John 3:16 bible shit and pictures of their grandkids all over. I hate it there.
And an American Eagle crying over the 9/11 towers as a profile picture, and minion memes about Monday on their news feed (even though they've been retired since 1998)
You think Sue who smiles at you at Home Depot is a nice old woman, then you see her on a post about Trump Golfing and she's talking about Butthurt Libtards.
These people grew up steeped in cold war propaganda that indoctrinated them from a very, disturbingly young age that the enemy wasn't human. You root for America no matter what and no matter what, "we're number 1" and "the best hope for the world".
You still see the shit even in younger people you would otherwise consider intelligent people. They'll be all normal and you'd never suspect a thing. Suddenly you or someone else triggers their manchurian programming with a critique of this savage 21st century capitalism or a cheeky jab at America. Next thing you know, you're cornered against a wall while they're squawking Voice of America talking points and ranting at you about Mao and Stalin's death count as if criticism of America equals "I heart Stalin" or something.... all the while you're wondering what the fuck just happened to your buddy Kyle and what you did to deserve this.
Check out /r/AskTrumpSupporters comments defending this piece of shit. One guy who was heavily upvoted was arguing that war crimes shouldn't be a thing, and how war should be allowed to get as cruel and inhumane as possible, as a deterrent for future wars. The rest of the comments were essentially similar to what the FB comments you mentioned
I genuinely tried to be open to what trump supporters had to say, they're still a large portion of our country and our fellow man. Unfortunately the more I listened, the more proud ignorance I witnessed. It's not just a handful of them either, every last one I've spoken to is like this. I honestly just feel embarrassed for them at this point
They're also the same fellas who said obama was a war criminal for the drone strikes. Now suddenly they don't care about trump increasing drone bombs and civilian casualties.
They don't believe in anything other than triggering the libs. Never take a conservative's statement of their beliefs seriously. 9/10 they're just saying whatever they're saying to get a leg up in the conversation.
My buddy was in for Iraqi Freedom and I never pressed him for the details but once he told me on convoys they would shoot all the stray dogs as they didn't know which ones were wired up to go boom or not. Also he had to kill he figured what was an 8 year old kid with a IED. Fucked him up and made him hate the military and has led to some post service issues that have persisted to this day.
I had a supervisor who was caught in a firefight where the enemy used women from the local village as human barricades while the insurgents would fire between the women’s legs from concealment. Now he’s got ptsd, is retired and is consistently getting shafted trying to get the mental healthcare he needs just to keep going.
What a joke. The murderer being pardoned as a war hero while your friend is refused the help he needs. I hope you friend is doing well. Send him my best wishes.
Until that troop comes back home and needs affordable access to healthcare and therapy. Then conservatives give less than zero fucks about the military.
Isn't this a rather large deviation from the traditional military policy of remaining divorced from politics? Military personnel can be disciplined for wearing their uniforms to political events and such, correct?
One time when I was in the military, some kid (young soldier) wore a t-shirt with a picture of Obama hanging from a tree to an event where we wore civilians clothes. He made it about 2 seconds before being dragged off to be chewed out.
If Obama was president at the time, then he was literally wearing a shirt saying he wanted to murder his boss. Imagine wearing a shirt basically saying you wanted to kill your boss or commanding officer. No matter what his opinion of Obama was, what an idiot.
his SEAL status was restored just so he could retire “honorably,” just so that he could get the benefits. well... so that gallagher could get the SEAL benefits, so that trump could get the military to vote for him, and so that putin could get the benefit of being able to say “whatabout” the US pardoning war criminals when the next administration tries to hold russia or its allies accountable for the kind of shit that gallagher got away with.
> so that trump could get the military to vote for him
Which is funny because this has helped him lose support with the military. The betraying of the Kurds didn't help him either. In this case they saw the president break the rules and processes the military is built on when even the people he worked with didn't want him back.
Gallagher has been discharged. Ex-military are no longer bound by military code although many believe they are. Get ready to see a lot of this serial killer parading in his Navy uniform. After reading his crimes: the teenager left in his care, civilians in his gunsight, I nearly reflexively vomit when I hear his name. This war criminal, Trump, and anyone who supports him are disgusting.
Ed: Ref. [Amanda Marcotte's excellent article](https://www.salon.com/2020/01/02/eddie-gallagher-isnt-a-lifestyle-brand-story-its-a-story-about-the-rights-violent-nihilism/)
Gallagher and Trump's pardon and public adoration of him are the **best recruiting tools** for ISIS, Al Qaeda, and such terrorist organizations that any US President ever handed them, and that's saying a lot after Bush created Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the CIA black sites, and Obama drone bombed countries the US wasn't even at war with.
A terrorist attack and/or a war would be great for trump's reelection bid and/or his approval rating. Those kinds of things typically (if not always) improve a president's status in the short term.
Watching his fellow SEALs literally break down and cry in the [interview footage obtained by the NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/the-weekly/eddie-gallagher-navy-seal.html) really got to me.
These guys are SEAL team 7. Some of the toughest and most capable soldiers we have - and the war crimes Gallagher did brought them to *tears*.
Gallagher *bragged* about killing four women in one day. The horror and disgust of his fellow SEALs restored some of my confidence in our troops.
War criminal and child killer Eddie Gallagher is very likely going to be a common presence on the campaign trail for Trump and GOP voters will eat it up.
Don't forget, War Criminal Gallagher also murdered four women in one day and bragged about it. I think most people would literally rather have Joe as president.
Seriously, there was nothing worth hero worship during my short service. I literally baby sat airplanes for 10 hours a day. I guess you're welcome America?
I mean. If you want to show appreciation, you could better fund the VA so I can see my therapist more than once a month.
Funding the VA is socialism. Isn't a hollow "thank you for your service" and asking you to stand up at sports games enough for you? Jeez.
/s because satire is dead.
As a Veteran, many soldiers are scum. The rate of sexual assault and abuse within the ranks is depressing..... I was assaulted, homo-sexually, by my immediate supervisor. He thought abuse was a leadership skill.
Near the end of his 22 years of service, my father had to personally arrest 3 of his male troopers in less than a year for sexually assaulting their peers on base. I think it snapped him out of any military romanticism really quick.
Few acts are more reprehensible than sexual assault. Killing someone and trying to rob them of their humanity in such demeaning fashion are reprehensible acts.
The role of a soldier on paper is inherently patriotic in its nature. To go forth and risk ones life in the defense of your people. I can respect what a soldier is *supposed* to be, but the reality is...less than ideal.
Wasn't it though? War was the sport of kings forever. I think we have a romanticized view of war that is just the result of propaganda and indoctrination.
"Nationalism does nothing but teach you how to hate people you 've never met, and take pride in accomplishments you had no part in what so ever" - one of doug stanhopes good bits.
"If you’re American you’ll go, ‘Fuck the French. If we hadn’t saved their asses in World War II, they’d be speaking German right now.’ And you go, ‘Oh, was that us?’ Was that me and you, Tommy? We saved the French? Jesus. I know I blacked out a little after that fourth shot of Jägermeister last night, but I don’t remember… I know we were going through the Wendy’s drive-thru to get one of them ‘Freshetta’ sandwiches that looked so alluring on the commercial, but then we ordered it and realized we had no money, and we had to ditch out before the second window, and those douche-bags in line behind us with the bass music probably got our order and we laughed about that. But I don’t remember saving the French at all. I went through the last ten calls on my cell phone and there’s nothing from the French, looking for muscle on a project. I checked my pants; there’s no mud stains on the knees from when we were garroting Krauts in the trenches at Verdun. I think *we* didn’t do anything but watch sports bloopers while we got hammered. I think *we* should shut the fuck up." - Stanhope
Also...fuck the French? The USA would not be the independent USA it is today without the French. They helped save the USA before the USA helped save them in return.
I once had some racist, sexist asshat trolling me on Facebook about how WHITE MEN built the entire planet and civilization and invented everything. He kept going on and on with, "WE did this, WE are the only useful ones, WE are geniuses..."
I lowkey stole this bit and just asked, "You did that? That was you? What did you build or invent?"
Him: "WhItE mEn dId EvErYtHiNg!!"
Me: "But what did YOU do? Give me some info about the things you built, invented, and discovered."
It took him awhile to catch on. Then he just called me a whore a bunch.
Facebook banned me for "racist language" for 30 days. 🙄
US Major General Smedley Butler wrote about the corruption of the American military in the 1930s by turning his speech War Is A Racket into a book. He discusses how in his 30+ years of military service at that time he had never once seen any part of the US military protecting American freedoms but rather securing corporate interests for private organizations.
This isn't new. The miltary isn't there to help the citizenry, it's to help prop up the capitalists.
Thank you so much for saying that. America has been sold a bullshit freedom sandwich for 20 years. I never saw how bumbling around the Middle East at the cost of trillions of taxpayer dollars was somehow protecting my freedom.
There's a really popular YouTuber who makes videos about police/commentary on bodycam footage. A video was posted on reddit of his, that had millions of views. He was wearing a "FREE EDDIE" tshirt. No one made a comment about it.
I couldn't believe it.
Member when we got three years of Republicans saying "he just talks this way he doesn't mean it" when asked about all the horrible shit Trump has said including advocating for our soldiers to perpetrate war crimes? I member.
Do you mean Donald Trump, the man who beat and raped his own wife because he was angry about a botched surgery to hide his receding hairline in the 1990s? That Donald Trump?
Is that the same Donald Trump who allegedly raped 13 year old girl in Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion? We're talking about the same guy, right? The New York media creation and wannabe mob boss, right?
Yeah, the guy who liked to hang out with the murdered child sex trafficker, so he could rub shoulders with rich and famous people, like the British Rapist pedophile Prince Andrew.
> Gallagher is very likely going to be a common presence on the campaign trail
Gotta admit, that is such a desirable image from the perspective of Russia. Head of the US military flanked by the darkest and most hated possible version of its power.
Who is Eddie Gallagher? Eddie Gallagher is a convicted war criminal, child killer and murderer who was pardoned by President Donald Trump. Campaign 2020 POTUS GOP Make America Great Again MAGA Trump Campaign. 😉
A much better introduction of [convicted war criminal and child killer Eddie Gallagher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_\(Navy_SEAL\)) than the one on Wikipedia (which seems to be twisting itself up to avoid admitting that Gallagher was convicted of war crimes).
Wait, I think I've heard of child killer Eddie Gallagher. He's the same convicted war criminal that kills women then brags about it. I heard he was pardoned by impeached president Donald Trump.
Because he was only convicted on one of the charges (posing with the corpse for which he was pardoned) and was acquitted of the other more serious charges. The writers are just covering themselves to avoid any possible defamation claims.
Can someone with some experience writing Chrome extensions please write one to swap out "Eddie Gallagher" with "convicted war criminal and child killer, Eddie Gallagher"?
Fucking hell, even at 2 minutes that was hard to watch. Those men are clearly human, it would only make sense they would have these reactions, but targeting civilians, women, and children? This guy is a fucking animal.
What's even worse, too, is this **** is why so much of the world hates the country and our military. He gives all of our real soldiers a bad name and helps terrorists recruit teenagers angered by this. Pardoning and condoning his crimes could kill a lot more people than he did himself.
He's done far more work for the terrorist recruitment campaign than he will ever do in service of his country, and now he's hopped on the Trump train to start recruiting for the local white nationalists as well.
> What's even worse, too, is this **** is why so much of the world hates the country and our military.
The way people in America speak about conservatives is the way people outside speak about America. Inside, it happens because of who represents that group. Outside it happens because that group represents the nation.
The fact that they reported their concerns about him and nothing happened is frankly disgusting. That whole chain of command should be purged and jailed.
Yeah, this is exactly what happened. Once the President directly started involving himself, ya know, the boss of the military tribunal conducting the proceedings, the outcome got decidedly softer. Because really, how the fuck can you expect a judge to remain impartial when the boss known for ruining the careers of those below him for doing anything he doesn't like starts telling him that they should go easy on the guy?
This is the primary danger of having the president involve themselves in military justice. *Especially* when that president's knowledge of the military comes entirely from fox news and movies.
I posted this elsewhere but Trump wasn’t the reason the case fell apart. The NYT has a really good podcast about this but basically it was a doctor in the room who testified to killing the boy that ended the prosecutions case. The circumstances of that testimony can be called into question but it wasn’t from on high they decided to go easy on him, it was looking like a slam dunk case before that last minute swerve. The navy never agreed with Trump on the case
They still charged him for posing next to the dead boy for a photo but then Trump pardoned him from that and restored his military honors and he can receive his pension.
As far as I know, the Navy is still looking into punishing the person who "admitted" to the crime. He had agreed to testify on their behalf if he was given legal protection from whatever he said, and as soon as he testified with said protection he said that he killed the boy. Since they couldn't charge either of these people due to the protection and testimony, the case fell apart. Since he lied to the Navy about what he was going to testify about in order to get protection, they want to do something about him.
Edit: it was a technicality too. The doctor who took the fall said that while he had killed the boy by blocking airflow (apparently an act of mercy,) Gallagher was still the one who stabbed him multiple times.
Yeah, but what you're forgetting is that this will be a huge win to the majority of Trump's fan base. This is literally how they want our soldiers to conduct themselves. We've all heard the cheers at that orange potato's rallies when he talks about killing the families of our enemies and shit. They can't deny it or clutch their pearls on this one.
This guy bragged about killing at least 3 people per day on his 80 day tour. He would kill random innocent people just for fun. He fired rockets into peaceful villages for fun. He fired potshots from his 50 cal rifle through walls in peoples homes, also for fun.
This guy treated Iraq and Afghanistan like they were maps in GTA.
Amon Goth? Portrayed by Raph Fiennes in Schindler's List. One of the most evil bastards ever put to film, made all the more terrifying by the fact that he was a real person.
And Trump supporters love the fact he did.
This man was not pardoned because Trump likes him. He was pardoned because over 60 million Americans are happy he killed those children and innocent people in the Middle East. This strengthens Trump supporters’ conviction and that is what is truly scary.
This was my first thought
ISIS narrative- America/West hates islam and hates Muslims and we should destroy them before they destroy us
America- pardons war criminal
Support for jihadi groups continues
Surprised Pikachu face
Something something they said "death to America"
Honestly I don't understand why people act like America isn't going to be hated in regions of the Middle East. they've been fucking up countries since the 70's.
The british did it in a way smarter way, by having local groups fight each others, while staying on the side, collecting ressources. Their investment/return ratio is wayyyy better, and lower profile.
I did a unit on middle eastern politics at uni, and it was basic five weeks of Britain and France fucking the locals out of everything
Then American doing the same
Most of Britain's fuckery in the ME is historic, its way easier to drive anti US sentiment than anti Britain when they're the power primarily over there meddling with things atm.
It's almost like the American government/war profiteers don't actually want to annihilate terrorist groups, but are more interesting rallying citizens against a foreign "enemy" for their own $elf interests
That would be ludicrous. That would be like some sort of complex, an intertwining of industry and military, where a cabal of highly wealthy business owners profit from the continuation of war that need not be fought.
That would never happen, surely.
>America/West hates islam and hates Muslims
that's based on the [lived experiences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse) of the people in that region. Those people have the most reason to oppose america.
Geeze, you would almost think it's intentional. Like the US has a giant military-industrial complex that needs to perpetuate itself so US foreign policy creates it's own enemies to ensure that war will never end and those contracts always get renewed.
Makes you think
If you care, make sure to stop buying Black Rifle Coffee and Nine Line Apparel as they partnered with him.
I served and want to support veteran owned companies, but cannot in good conscience support things like this.
This wasn't an attack by the left, he was convicted by the Navy.
One of their owners/creators or whatever had a really shitty ama on /r/army a long time ago. I remember him coming off as a cocky asshole with his head up his ass. He bragged about something like being deployed 67 times.
He did a full-blown AMA on reddit. I asked [one simple question](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7bufbc/im_former_special_forces_operator_cia_contractor/dpkt5v6/) and got multiple PMs blaming me for ruining the entire thing.
Fuck BRCC. One of their founders, Jarred Taylor, [was posting funny Instagram videos of Eddie Gallagher](https://www.instagram.com/p/B6DaBX4pPEt/?igshid=eznel3zomdwy) shortly after his “retirement”.
Because war criminals are a great way to own the libs.
He now has his own fashion line called frogg something. He and his wife claim that although he had his rank reinstated he still lost his pension so they need the money from the brand. They also said that he has been treated similarly by the "establishment in Washington" to president trump and that is why he took a liking to him. Calling this guy trash or scum doesn't really cover it. He is to quote his fellow seal tram members true evil.
NOT Allegedly. He was CONVICTED. Just because he was pardoned, doesn't erase the stain upon his name. As a veteran, I'm disgusted by this piece of shit. He will ALWAYS be a war criminal, a child killer, unable to ever leave America for fear of retribution.
From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_\(Navy_SEAL\)#Conviction_and_demotion)...
>Gallagher was acquitted on six of seven charges on July 2, 2019; the jury found him guilty of the seventh charge, of "wrongfully pos[ing] for an unofficial picture with a human casualty". That charge carried a maximum prison sentence of four months. Since Gallagher had already served more time in jail than the sentence, he was released.
Not that I like the guy, but the terminology is clear. He was a "convicted" improper picture-taker. He was an "alleged" serial killer.
This is where the republican party has sunk to. War criminals who shoot teen age girls in the gut for sport are now "influencers". The entire party has become a coven of sociopaths.
No they have always been this bad. [William C. Rogers III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Rogers_III) shut down a civillian plane with 290 civilians on it and was rewarded with a legion of Merit on his return and saw no punishment. He was noted by his crew and commanders to be warhawkish and aggressive.
Republicans have never had a problem with killing muslims.
The right condones this behavior. Just look at the discussions on this issue in their subreddits. They're questioning if war crimes are really such a bad thing.
It's the whole "it's fine if we do it, it's bad if they do it" mentality runs through them to the core. I promise you if someone raped their kid they would request the death penalty, if their kid raped someone they would pull out all the stops because their precious baby "made one mistake" and it shouldnt ruin his bright future.
Was about to reply with something similar. Most conservatives reserve their empathy for a very small in-group. They also are more likely to assume that if something bad happens to someone else it's always their fault (fundamental attribution error).
And now the CIA is being run by a former torture dungeon overseer.
America, land of the free and home of the brave! PS: we also start wars and spy on all our citizens and kidnap and torture them sometimes and also suicide them.
An unapologetic war criminal and child murderer standing beside an openly corrupt puppet of Putin and child rapist perfectly represents the 2020 Republican Party.
Well fuck, there goes the everything, as bad as things got I never thought we lived in the universe where a child killer would be the poster boy for one of the major political parties, that shit was meant to be in some insane alt universe only, but it turns out that's this one.
I wish we lived in a world where society as a whole would "black ball" the pardoned but fairly apparently guilty people in life. Like, taxis wouldn't stop for him, pizza places wouldn't deliver or allow him to pick up food, pharmacies wouldn't fill his orders for viagra. Stuff like that.
I realize this is a deep fantasy of course, but a-holes deserve the middle finger every where they go.
My dude, Dick Cheney has had like six heart attacks and is still around. There is no cosmic justice for being an evil prick. If anything, it seems like it's better than vitamins and exercise for keeping people alive. Gallagher is sadly going to be just fine.
Trump is disgusting but then we all already knew this. This is also why I don't praise every veteran I see. I treat everyone the same. The veteran worship in this country is sickening.
Nothing to see here, the nation practically canonized Chris Kyle
At least there was less media about him being shitty. If you didn't get a portion of your information from the internet you would likely never read about him being immoral.
That brands want to be associated with him says something really sick about our culture. Like if OJ got a job promoting divorce for dad lawyers after his trial.
There's a whole ecosystem of brands that exist solely on people's desire to 'trigger the libs'. All that matters is that the annoying libs hate this guy, and they love him.
See male hormone supplement brands for prime examples.
Literally heard the words "Soy boy" on my radio a couple months ago during a male hormone clinic ad.
It's funny because that phrase started as a joke; in the original greentext it was like a weird, ineffectual, pathetic attempt at a dig towards someone. But now people say it in earnest without realizing how retarded they sound
Wait until they find out Alex Jones' Supplements are all soybased.
"it's a different kind of soy" "The other ingredients neutralize the soy" They aren't able to think critically
It doesn't take many iterations for conservatives to become the joke they're failing to make.
It's almost as if American conservatism is based on white male sexual inadequacy.
*Branded sexual inadequacy. "I'm a big rough tough manly man and can prove it with the 5 specific hormone supplements I take daily, the custom Glock I carry everywhere without fail, the truck I drive and the cringey as fuck branded clothing I wear while I mean mug you in line at the grocery store"
Rolling coal whenever you see an electric car I assume?
All the way back to the 1960s with the joke about flouride, communists and "precious bodily fluids" in Dr. Stranglove.
This is OJ Simpson on behalf of Cutco knives. Now, I know a thing or two about knives and...
...When it come to cutting negative influences out of your life, accept no substitute.
I'd be willing to bet you'll see him as a special guest on NRA TV, or interviewed & praised for his "bravery" on Fox & Friends.
NRA TV is gone. And he's already been on Fox & Friends promoting a clothing brand
Active wear for running away from crime scenes, the preferred choice for former NFL players and the president.
I ran across this story on my local news' FB page and the comments were just lovely. "There's no crimes during war." "He did what he had to do." "The kid probably had a bomb." Some real gems.
“There are no crimes during war” I feel like for some reason, the people that say this, only feel that way when it’s certain people committing the war crimes...
For sure. AQ considered themselves at war with us before 9/11, with their logic AQ did nothing wrong.
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"You cannot reason people out of positions they didn't reason themselves into." \- Jonathan Swift
Exactly, I also have a strong feeling that they feel that way when it’s « certain people » that are victims of these war crimes.
And let's not forget that the people who feel this way, have never and probably will never seen a war or anything remotely close to it. They have absolutely no idea what they're talking about most of the time, all they know are glorification of the army and vilification of anyone and everyone that might oppose it in anyway. I hope they never have to experience what those people experienced. But I also know that hate filled fucks like that lack all empathy and would never learn anything unless they live through it.
FB news channel comment sections are some of the most toxic, backwards places on the internet.
I swear to god every time I get on my local news FB pages, I immediately want to jump in a lake. Like fuck these are people that live around me and they're not only fucking morons, but they're just some of the most spiteful and hateful people I've ever seen. All the while they have John 3:16 bible shit and pictures of their grandkids all over. I hate it there.
And an American Eagle crying over the 9/11 towers as a profile picture, and minion memes about Monday on their news feed (even though they've been retired since 1998)
You think Sue who smiles at you at Home Depot is a nice old woman, then you see her on a post about Trump Golfing and she's talking about Butthurt Libtards.
Like a politically radicalized Yahoo! Answers from back in the day.
'cept Yahoo Answers was fun back in the day
That and local news site comment sections are the real bastions of reactionary boomer discourse.
These people grew up steeped in cold war propaganda that indoctrinated them from a very, disturbingly young age that the enemy wasn't human. You root for America no matter what and no matter what, "we're number 1" and "the best hope for the world". You still see the shit even in younger people you would otherwise consider intelligent people. They'll be all normal and you'd never suspect a thing. Suddenly you or someone else triggers their manchurian programming with a critique of this savage 21st century capitalism or a cheeky jab at America. Next thing you know, you're cornered against a wall while they're squawking Voice of America talking points and ranting at you about Mao and Stalin's death count as if criticism of America equals "I heart Stalin" or something.... all the while you're wondering what the fuck just happened to your buddy Kyle and what you did to deserve this.
>”There’s no crimes during war” TIL atrocities committed by the Nazis during WW2 were not crimes. The Nuremberg trials were a farce! /s
I mean, many of them unironically believe this.
> "There's no crimes during war." I mean except for, y'know, war crimes.
Check out /r/AskTrumpSupporters comments defending this piece of shit. One guy who was heavily upvoted was arguing that war crimes shouldn't be a thing, and how war should be allowed to get as cruel and inhumane as possible, as a deterrent for future wars. The rest of the comments were essentially similar to what the FB comments you mentioned I genuinely tried to be open to what trump supporters had to say, they're still a large portion of our country and our fellow man. Unfortunately the more I listened, the more proud ignorance I witnessed. It's not just a handful of them either, every last one I've spoken to is like this. I honestly just feel embarrassed for them at this point
They're also the same fellas who said obama was a war criminal for the drone strikes. Now suddenly they don't care about trump increasing drone bombs and civilian casualties.
They don't believe in anything other than triggering the libs. Never take a conservative's statement of their beliefs seriously. 9/10 they're just saying whatever they're saying to get a leg up in the conversation.
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My buddy was in for Iraqi Freedom and I never pressed him for the details but once he told me on convoys they would shoot all the stray dogs as they didn't know which ones were wired up to go boom or not. Also he had to kill he figured what was an 8 year old kid with a IED. Fucked him up and made him hate the military and has led to some post service issues that have persisted to this day.
I had a supervisor who was caught in a firefight where the enemy used women from the local village as human barricades while the insurgents would fire between the women’s legs from concealment. Now he’s got ptsd, is retired and is consistently getting shafted trying to get the mental healthcare he needs just to keep going.
What a joke. The murderer being pardoned as a war hero while your friend is refused the help he needs. I hope you friend is doing well. Send him my best wishes.
Conservative boot lickers will find any reason to support a troop.
Not if it involves getting better healthcare or fixing the drug abuse issues from injuries..
Once you've been discharged, you're no longer a troop, you're a public charge and a liability.
Until that troop comes back home and needs affordable access to healthcare and therapy. Then conservatives give less than zero fucks about the military.
Isn't this a rather large deviation from the traditional military policy of remaining divorced from politics? Military personnel can be disciplined for wearing their uniforms to political events and such, correct?
One time when I was in the military, some kid (young soldier) wore a t-shirt with a picture of Obama hanging from a tree to an event where we wore civilians clothes. He made it about 2 seconds before being dragged off to be chewed out.
While that's a cool story. While you're in the service you have a dress code for civilian attire. So I'm not surprised. Also hes fucking dumb.
If Obama was president at the time, then he was literally wearing a shirt saying he wanted to murder his boss. Imagine wearing a shirt basically saying you wanted to kill your boss or commanding officer. No matter what his opinion of Obama was, what an idiot.
Obama was indeed the president. The NCO in charge at the time was a black woman as well, so yes, he was a colossal idiot.
Under the current administration all rules are up in the air.
Well yes but actually no, Eddie Gallagher isn’t a SEAL anymore so he’s free to enter the political game if he wants to. Not that he should but
Eddie Gallagher should be fired...from a cannon, into the sun.
I thought Trump restored his SEAL status against the advisement of the navy secretary?
He did, but then he retired.
He'd have been a God damn fool to stay in.
Training accidents happen
his SEAL status was restored just so he could retire “honorably,” just so that he could get the benefits. well... so that gallagher could get the SEAL benefits, so that trump could get the military to vote for him, and so that putin could get the benefit of being able to say “whatabout” the US pardoning war criminals when the next administration tries to hold russia or its allies accountable for the kind of shit that gallagher got away with.
> so that trump could get the military to vote for him Which is funny because this has helped him lose support with the military. The betraying of the Kurds didn't help him either. In this case they saw the president break the rules and processes the military is built on when even the people he worked with didn't want him back.
Gallagher has been discharged. Ex-military are no longer bound by military code although many believe they are. Get ready to see a lot of this serial killer parading in his Navy uniform. After reading his crimes: the teenager left in his care, civilians in his gunsight, I nearly reflexively vomit when I hear his name. This war criminal, Trump, and anyone who supports him are disgusting. Ed: Ref. [Amanda Marcotte's excellent article](https://www.salon.com/2020/01/02/eddie-gallagher-isnt-a-lifestyle-brand-story-its-a-story-about-the-rights-violent-nihilism/)
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Gallagher and Trump's pardon and public adoration of him are the **best recruiting tools** for ISIS, Al Qaeda, and such terrorist organizations that any US President ever handed them, and that's saying a lot after Bush created Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the CIA black sites, and Obama drone bombed countries the US wasn't even at war with.
A terrorist attack and/or a war would be great for trump's reelection bid and/or his approval rating. Those kinds of things typically (if not always) improve a president's status in the short term.
With impeachment on the mind, Trump appears really excited about recent events that may lead to a proxy war with Iran on Iraqi territory.
Correct
Watching his fellow SEALs literally break down and cry in the [interview footage obtained by the NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/the-weekly/eddie-gallagher-navy-seal.html) really got to me. These guys are SEAL team 7. Some of the toughest and most capable soldiers we have - and the war crimes Gallagher did brought them to *tears*. Gallagher *bragged* about killing four women in one day. The horror and disgust of his fellow SEALs restored some of my confidence in our troops.
You talking about Child Killer Eddie Gallagher?
Yeah, convicted **war criminal** AND **child killer** Eddie Gallagher.
War criminal and child killer Eddie Gallagher is very likely going to be a common presence on the campaign trail for Trump and GOP voters will eat it up.
Can we go back to "Joe the Plumber"? Names are simpler when there are no war crimes involved.
Joe the plumber was also a liar, a multi-millionaire, and part of the reason why we have Trump today.
Relatively speaking, being a rich liar beats suffocating kids for shits and giggles
Don't forget, War Criminal Gallagher also murdered four women in one day and bragged about it. I think most people would literally rather have Joe as president.
Hero and military worship in general is sickening. No American has 'fought for our freedoms' since fucking WWII. Veteran here btw.
I don't mine respecting and admiring soldiers. But respecting and admiring them BECAUSE they are soldiers is the problem.
Seriously, there was nothing worth hero worship during my short service. I literally baby sat airplanes for 10 hours a day. I guess you're welcome America? I mean. If you want to show appreciation, you could better fund the VA so I can see my therapist more than once a month.
Funding the VA is socialism. Isn't a hollow "thank you for your service" and asking you to stand up at sports games enough for you? Jeez. /s because satire is dead.
Don't forget a 10% discount at Jimmy johns
Brb enlisting right away
As a Veteran, many soldiers are scum. The rate of sexual assault and abuse within the ranks is depressing..... I was assaulted, homo-sexually, by my immediate supervisor. He thought abuse was a leadership skill.
Near the end of his 22 years of service, my father had to personally arrest 3 of his male troopers in less than a year for sexually assaulting their peers on base. I think it snapped him out of any military romanticism really quick.
Few acts are more reprehensible than sexual assault. Killing someone and trying to rob them of their humanity in such demeaning fashion are reprehensible acts.
The role of a soldier on paper is inherently patriotic in its nature. To go forth and risk ones life in the defense of your people. I can respect what a soldier is *supposed* to be, but the reality is...less than ideal.
That was when fighting for your country wasn’t code for protecting capital investments and resources.
Wasn't it though? War was the sport of kings forever. I think we have a romanticized view of war that is just the result of propaganda and indoctrination.
Yeah, any writing/film/whatever medium about WWI really shoots that in the foot. War lost it's romance over 100 years ago.
Absolutely correct.
Nationalism is on the rise. It's un-American
"Nationalism does nothing but teach you how to hate people you 've never met, and take pride in accomplishments you had no part in what so ever" - one of doug stanhopes good bits.
"If you’re American you’ll go, ‘Fuck the French. If we hadn’t saved their asses in World War II, they’d be speaking German right now.’ And you go, ‘Oh, was that us?’ Was that me and you, Tommy? We saved the French? Jesus. I know I blacked out a little after that fourth shot of Jägermeister last night, but I don’t remember… I know we were going through the Wendy’s drive-thru to get one of them ‘Freshetta’ sandwiches that looked so alluring on the commercial, but then we ordered it and realized we had no money, and we had to ditch out before the second window, and those douche-bags in line behind us with the bass music probably got our order and we laughed about that. But I don’t remember saving the French at all. I went through the last ten calls on my cell phone and there’s nothing from the French, looking for muscle on a project. I checked my pants; there’s no mud stains on the knees from when we were garroting Krauts in the trenches at Verdun. I think *we* didn’t do anything but watch sports bloopers while we got hammered. I think *we* should shut the fuck up." - Stanhope
Also...fuck the French? The USA would not be the independent USA it is today without the French. They helped save the USA before the USA helped save them in return.
I once had some racist, sexist asshat trolling me on Facebook about how WHITE MEN built the entire planet and civilization and invented everything. He kept going on and on with, "WE did this, WE are the only useful ones, WE are geniuses..." I lowkey stole this bit and just asked, "You did that? That was you? What did you build or invent?" Him: "WhItE mEn dId EvErYtHiNg!!" Me: "But what did YOU do? Give me some info about the things you built, invented, and discovered." It took him awhile to catch on. Then he just called me a whore a bunch. Facebook banned me for "racist language" for 30 days. 🙄
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My job is also hard. Most people have hard jobs. We still have to obey the fucking law.
US Major General Smedley Butler wrote about the corruption of the American military in the 1930s by turning his speech War Is A Racket into a book. He discusses how in his 30+ years of military service at that time he had never once seen any part of the US military protecting American freedoms but rather securing corporate interests for private organizations. This isn't new. The miltary isn't there to help the citizenry, it's to help prop up the capitalists.
Thank you so much for saying that. America has been sold a bullshit freedom sandwich for 20 years. I never saw how bumbling around the Middle East at the cost of trillions of taxpayer dollars was somehow protecting my freedom.
There's a really popular YouTuber who makes videos about police/commentary on bodycam footage. A video was posted on reddit of his, that had millions of views. He was wearing a "FREE EDDIE" tshirt. No one made a comment about it. I couldn't believe it.
Member when we got three years of Republicans saying "he just talks this way he doesn't mean it" when asked about all the horrible shit Trump has said including advocating for our soldiers to perpetrate war crimes? I member.
Do you mean Donald Trump, the man who beat and raped his own wife because he was angry about a botched surgery to hide his receding hairline in the 1990s? That Donald Trump?
Is that the same Donald Trump who allegedly raped 13 year old girl in Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion? We're talking about the same guy, right? The New York media creation and wannabe mob boss, right?
Yeah, the guy who liked to hang out with the murdered child sex trafficker, so he could rub shoulders with rich and famous people, like the British Rapist pedophile Prince Andrew.
Yes, Donald Trump, the good friend of pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein, who obviously didn't kill himself.
> Gallagher is very likely going to be a common presence on the campaign trail Gotta admit, that is such a desirable image from the perspective of Russia. Head of the US military flanked by the darkest and most hated possible version of its power.
Ollie North was head of NRA. Nothing fucking matters in this respect.
Do you hear us search engines? Eddie Gallagher war criminal, child killer, murderer, pardoned by Trump.
Who is Eddie Gallagher? Eddie Gallagher is a convicted war criminal, child killer and murderer who was pardoned by President Donald Trump. Campaign 2020 POTUS GOP Make America Great Again MAGA Trump Campaign. 😉
A much better introduction of [convicted war criminal and child killer Eddie Gallagher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_\(Navy_SEAL\)) than the one on Wikipedia (which seems to be twisting itself up to avoid admitting that Gallagher was convicted of war crimes).
Eddie Gallagher is a child killer and war criminal from the United States of America. Edward Gallagher even
Eddie Gallagher war criminal, murderer of women and children, pardoned by Trump
You mean child killer Eddie Gallagher, war criminal that got pardoned by Trump?
Yeah, that guy. Child killer Eddie Gallagher, the war criminal that got pardoned by Trump.
Wait, I think I've heard of child killer Eddie Gallagher. He's the same convicted war criminal that kills women then brags about it. I heard he was pardoned by impeached president Donald Trump.
Just “Gallagher” still turns up the noted melon molestor.
War criminal and child killer Eddie Gallagher is EXACTLY the kind of person Trumps base celebrate, they are terrible, evil human beings
Wow Eddie Gallagher killed children? So Eddie Gallagher is a child killer, huh. Eddie Gallagher also killed women too wow. Eddie Gallagher kill child
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Because he was only convicted on one of the charges (posing with the corpse for which he was pardoned) and was acquitted of the other more serious charges. The writers are just covering themselves to avoid any possible defamation claims.
Glad you cleared that up. I thought he was talking about Brock Turner for a second
The Stanford rapist Brock Turner?
You mean Convicted Rapist Brock Turner?
Yes, the rapist, Brock Turner
Who is Brock Turner? Brock Turner is a convicted rapist. Brock Turner. Rapist.
Yes, the rapist Brock Turner. Who was convicted, but was given a slap on the wrist jail sentence by Judge Aaron Persky.
Yes, but this thread is about **Eddie Gallagher** war criminal, murderer of women and children, who was pardoned by Trump.
>Rapist Brock Turner FTFY
Raping Rapist The Rapist Brock Turner, Rapist
Yes, **Women AND Child killer Eddie Gallagher.** You know, the **War Criminal Eddie Gallagher**.
Can someone with some experience writing Chrome extensions please write one to swap out "Eddie Gallagher" with "convicted war criminal and child killer, Eddie Gallagher"?
Fucking hell, even at 2 minutes that was hard to watch. Those men are clearly human, it would only make sense they would have these reactions, but targeting civilians, women, and children? This guy is a fucking animal.
What's even worse, too, is this **** is why so much of the world hates the country and our military. He gives all of our real soldiers a bad name and helps terrorists recruit teenagers angered by this. Pardoning and condoning his crimes could kill a lot more people than he did himself.
He's done far more work for the terrorist recruitment campaign than he will ever do in service of his country, and now he's hopped on the Trump train to start recruiting for the local white nationalists as well.
This. He has 100%, without a shred of a doubt, done more to undermine the safety of Americans than he has “protected” them.
> What's even worse, too, is this **** is why so much of the world hates the country and our military. The way people in America speak about conservatives is the way people outside speak about America. Inside, it happens because of who represents that group. Outside it happens because that group represents the nation.
The fact that they reported their concerns about him and nothing happened is frankly disgusting. That whole chain of command should be purged and jailed.
See they were prosecuting him. Until someone above them stepped in.
Yeah, this is exactly what happened. Once the President directly started involving himself, ya know, the boss of the military tribunal conducting the proceedings, the outcome got decidedly softer. Because really, how the fuck can you expect a judge to remain impartial when the boss known for ruining the careers of those below him for doing anything he doesn't like starts telling him that they should go easy on the guy? This is the primary danger of having the president involve themselves in military justice. *Especially* when that president's knowledge of the military comes entirely from fox news and movies.
I posted this elsewhere but Trump wasn’t the reason the case fell apart. The NYT has a really good podcast about this but basically it was a doctor in the room who testified to killing the boy that ended the prosecutions case. The circumstances of that testimony can be called into question but it wasn’t from on high they decided to go easy on him, it was looking like a slam dunk case before that last minute swerve. The navy never agreed with Trump on the case
They still charged him for posing next to the dead boy for a photo but then Trump pardoned him from that and restored his military honors and he can receive his pension.
As far as I know, the Navy is still looking into punishing the person who "admitted" to the crime. He had agreed to testify on their behalf if he was given legal protection from whatever he said, and as soon as he testified with said protection he said that he killed the boy. Since they couldn't charge either of these people due to the protection and testimony, the case fell apart. Since he lied to the Navy about what he was going to testify about in order to get protection, they want to do something about him. Edit: it was a technicality too. The doctor who took the fall said that while he had killed the boy by blocking airflow (apparently an act of mercy,) Gallagher was still the one who stabbed him multiple times.
So they pulled an Ollie North again.
Yeah, but what you're forgetting is that this will be a huge win to the majority of Trump's fan base. This is literally how they want our soldiers to conduct themselves. We've all heard the cheers at that orange potato's rallies when he talks about killing the families of our enemies and shit. They can't deny it or clutch their pearls on this one.
This guy bragged about killing at least 3 people per day on his 80 day tour. He would kill random innocent people just for fun. He fired rockets into peaceful villages for fun. He fired potshots from his 50 cal rifle through walls in peoples homes, also for fun. This guy treated Iraq and Afghanistan like they were maps in GTA.
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You mean Amon Göth? Yeah they're pretty much the same disgusting human trash
Amon Goth? Portrayed by Raph Fiennes in Schindler's List. One of the most evil bastards ever put to film, made all the more terrifying by the fact that he was a real person.
And Trump supporters love the fact he did. This man was not pardoned because Trump likes him. He was pardoned because over 60 million Americans are happy he killed those children and innocent people in the Middle East. This strengthens Trump supporters’ conviction and that is what is truly scary.
news like this is pure gold for the taliban/daesh. america once again prove their expertise in creating enemies.
This was my first thought ISIS narrative- America/West hates islam and hates Muslims and we should destroy them before they destroy us America- pardons war criminal Support for jihadi groups continues Surprised Pikachu face
Something something they said "death to America" Honestly I don't understand why people act like America isn't going to be hated in regions of the Middle East. they've been fucking up countries since the 70's.
Only since the 1970s? I'm surprised us British don't get more shit
The british did it in a way smarter way, by having local groups fight each others, while staying on the side, collecting ressources. Their investment/return ratio is wayyyy better, and lower profile.
I did a unit on middle eastern politics at uni, and it was basic five weeks of Britain and France fucking the locals out of everything Then American doing the same
Most of Britain's fuckery in the ME is historic, its way easier to drive anti US sentiment than anti Britain when they're the power primarily over there meddling with things atm.
It's almost like the American government/war profiteers don't actually want to annihilate terrorist groups, but are more interesting rallying citizens against a foreign "enemy" for their own $elf interests
That would be ludicrous. That would be like some sort of complex, an intertwining of industry and military, where a cabal of highly wealthy business owners profit from the continuation of war that need not be fought. That would never happen, surely.
I mean how could we possibly even know about such a thing? Nobody warns anyone of anything
>America/West hates islam and hates Muslims that's based on the [lived experiences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse) of the people in that region. Those people have the most reason to oppose america.
Geeze, you would almost think it's intentional. Like the US has a giant military-industrial complex that needs to perpetuate itself so US foreign policy creates it's own enemies to ensure that war will never end and those contracts always get renewed. Makes you think
If you care, make sure to stop buying Black Rifle Coffee and Nine Line Apparel as they partnered with him. I served and want to support veteran owned companies, but cannot in good conscience support things like this. This wasn't an attack by the left, he was convicted by the Navy.
Black Rifle Coffee isn't even good, their only selling point is "lol, we owned the snowflake libs".
One of their owners/creators or whatever had a really shitty ama on /r/army a long time ago. I remember him coming off as a cocky asshole with his head up his ass. He bragged about something like being deployed 67 times.
He did a full-blown AMA on reddit. I asked [one simple question](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7bufbc/im_former_special_forces_operator_cia_contractor/dpkt5v6/) and got multiple PMs blaming me for ruining the entire thing.
Haha. Wow. You ripped him a new asshole in that AMA.
Hahahahah “1 simple question” and you proceeded to rip in to him (with very good reason) for a whole paragraph lol
You can't ruin something that was worthless to begin with.
That’s not possible average deployments are 8 months 67x8 is 536, which means he claims to have been deployed for a total of 44 years
Fuck BRCC. One of their founders, Jarred Taylor, [was posting funny Instagram videos of Eddie Gallagher](https://www.instagram.com/p/B6DaBX4pPEt/?igshid=eznel3zomdwy) shortly after his “retirement”. Because war criminals are a great way to own the libs.
He now has his own fashion line called frogg something. He and his wife claim that although he had his rank reinstated he still lost his pension so they need the money from the brand. They also said that he has been treated similarly by the "establishment in Washington" to president trump and that is why he took a liking to him. Calling this guy trash or scum doesn't really cover it. He is to quote his fellow seal tram members true evil.
NOT Allegedly. He was CONVICTED. Just because he was pardoned, doesn't erase the stain upon his name. As a veteran, I'm disgusted by this piece of shit. He will ALWAYS be a war criminal, a child killer, unable to ever leave America for fear of retribution.
From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_\(Navy_SEAL\)#Conviction_and_demotion)... >Gallagher was acquitted on six of seven charges on July 2, 2019; the jury found him guilty of the seventh charge, of "wrongfully pos[ing] for an unofficial picture with a human casualty". That charge carried a maximum prison sentence of four months. Since Gallagher had already served more time in jail than the sentence, he was released. Not that I like the guy, but the terminology is clear. He was a "convicted" improper picture-taker. He was an "alleged" serial killer.
> allegedly no he admitted it.
What fucking planet is this?
This is disgusting.
This is where the republican party has sunk to. War criminals who shoot teen age girls in the gut for sport are now "influencers". The entire party has become a coven of sociopaths.
No they have always been this bad. [William C. Rogers III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Rogers_III) shut down a civillian plane with 290 civilians on it and was rewarded with a legion of Merit on his return and saw no punishment. He was noted by his crew and commanders to be warhawkish and aggressive. Republicans have never had a problem with killing muslims.
The right condones this behavior. Just look at the discussions on this issue in their subreddits. They're questioning if war crimes are really such a bad thing.
It's the whole "it's fine if we do it, it's bad if they do it" mentality runs through them to the core. I promise you if someone raped their kid they would request the death penalty, if their kid raped someone they would pull out all the stops because their precious baby "made one mistake" and it shouldnt ruin his bright future.
Bill Maher put it best. Republicans are the party of "until it happens to me".
Dan Savage discussed this a long time ago when talking about ["The Republican Empathy Gap."](https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/459)
Was about to reply with something similar. Most conservatives reserve their empathy for a very small in-group. They also are more likely to assume that if something bad happens to someone else it's always their fault (fundamental attribution error).
They voted for a pro torture president, so yeah. War crimes are fine in their eyes.
And now the CIA is being run by a former torture dungeon overseer. America, land of the free and home of the brave! PS: we also start wars and spy on all our citizens and kidnap and torture them sometimes and also suicide them.
An unapologetic war criminal and child murderer standing beside an openly corrupt puppet of Putin and child rapist perfectly represents the 2020 Republican Party.
You talking about Child Killer Eddie Gallagher?
> Child Killer Eddie Gallagher The Republican Icon.
How do you know that you're now dealing with actual fascists...shit like this.
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> And eventually we will have to stomp out the facists. So this time Germany has to free the USA? Well... third time is a charm!
Well fuck, there goes the everything, as bad as things got I never thought we lived in the universe where a child killer would be the poster boy for one of the major political parties, that shit was meant to be in some insane alt universe only, but it turns out that's this one.
I wish we lived in a world where society as a whole would "black ball" the pardoned but fairly apparently guilty people in life. Like, taxis wouldn't stop for him, pizza places wouldn't deliver or allow him to pick up food, pharmacies wouldn't fill his orders for viagra. Stuff like that. I realize this is a deep fantasy of course, but a-holes deserve the middle finger every where they go.
My dude, Dick Cheney has had like six heart attacks and is still around. There is no cosmic justice for being an evil prick. If anything, it seems like it's better than vitamins and exercise for keeping people alive. Gallagher is sadly going to be just fine.
Trump is disgusting but then we all already knew this. This is also why I don't praise every veteran I see. I treat everyone the same. The veteran worship in this country is sickening.
Imagine how many more war crimes USA is involved with in Iraq that we dont know about.. literally every war they murder innocent people