#Anti military

[bread-and-roses-too]

Not feminist as in "women should be included in the draft" but feminist as in "being drafted is a violation of bodily autonomy for any gender".

The draft should not exist. Drafting people into the military is a violation of human rights. You should not be able to force someone to risk their life. If you can't find enough people who care about a conflict to keep it going then it simply shouldn't keep going. You can't even force someone to donate a kidney using government power, why the fuck can you force them to donate their whole body and life to a cause they don't agree with or don't care about?

[no-passaran]

Spain lied about not selling weapons to Israel.

Even after October 7th, Spain has sold more than 1 million € of weapons to Israel. Norway and Finland make it possible.

In January, Spain made headlines word-wide when the government's Minister of Exteriors, José Manuel Albares (PSOE), claimed in Congress and later again in a radio interview that Spain had stopped selling weapons to Israel ever since October 7th. Israel's intensification of violence in Gaza following October 7th meant that, on top of decades of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, between October 7th and January 23rd Israel had already killed 28,000 people and forced 2 million out of their home. In this context, many people were demanding their governments stop arming and funding the genocide of the Palestinian people, and here on Tumblr and other social media sites like Twitter I think we all saw the many posts praising the Spanish government for this.

Well, it turns out it was a lie.

According to Albares, "Since October 7th there are no more weapons exportations [from Spain] to Israel". But in November alone, Spain exported weapons to Israel for 987,000€, as was published on the Spanish Government's official website dedicated to exterior commerce (Comex). A researcher from Centre Delàs (an independent centre for peace studies) found it and published it, and it has also been verified by newspapers such as elDiario.es.

This 987,000€ worth of weapons in November was not the only ammunition that Spain has sent to Israel in 2023. In 2023, Spain exported a total of 1.48 million € in war material to Israel.

All of the weapons sent in November come from the factory of Nammo Palencia (Castilla y León), a corporation that is 50% property of the Government of Norway and 50% owned by a public Finnish business. However, even if the owners are foreigners, the ammunition was sent from Spain and thus it had to be authorized by the an organism of the Spanish Government named Junta Interministerial de Defensa y Doble Uso, whose deliberations on whether a weapons exportation is accepted or denied are kept secret. The only cases where they have denied exporting weapons to Israel have been when they thought that Israel would re-sell these weapons to the Philippines.

Spain has had a close relation with Israel for years. As published by the Spanish Government, Spain has sold 20 million € of weapons to Israel between 2012 and 2022. Spain also buys weapons and military software from Israel (for example, the Spanish Intelligence Service has been using the Israeli software Pegasus to illegally spy on Catalan activists, journalists, politicians and civil society members and their relatives to attack the Catalan independence movement), and Spain has continued buying from Israel and allocating defense contracts to Israel even after the October 7th attacks. It is very difficult to track the concessions of public contracts such as buying weapons, but some contracts have been known. For example, on November 24th 2023, Spain bought 287.5 million € of missiles from Israel. This is not unusual: between 2011 and 2021, it is publicly known that Spain bought war material from Israel for at least 268 million €, but experts say that the real number could be two or three times as much.

Spain has also continued allocating concessions to Israel. For example, on December 15th 2023 Spain allocated a contract worth over 576 million € to Israel for a rocket launcher programme. On November 22nd, Spain allocated another another Israeli company to provide missiles for 237 million € at the same time as the Spanish army bought Israeli inhibitors for 1.4 million €. The very next day, November 23rd, Spain signed another military allocation to Israel for 82,600€. The following week, Spain signed yet another allocation with a different Israeli military corporation for 3.7 million €.

Spain also allows Israeli weapon manufacturing companies to produce weapons through their branches located in Spain. This way, Israeli weapons make their way to markets with which Israel doesn't have diplomatic ties but Spain does, like Saudi Arabia. And since Spain is a member of NATO, Israeli weapons produced in Spain are approved according to NATO standards and access it easily. In the same way, these Israeli weapons manufacturers also access European Union defense funds through their branches in Spain. (source).

As I said, I saw a lot of positive posts around when Albares said Spain was going to embargo, but I haven't seen any post about how they didn't do it. I also (personally) haven't seen anything on international media, and barely anything on Spanish media, which is already busy with the PSOE covid material corruption scandal. So I share this in the hope of helping put pressure on Spain to cut all ties with Israel immediately.

SHAME ON EVERYONE WHO GIVES ISRAEL THE MATERIAL AND MONEY THAT WILL BE USED TO MASSACRE THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. SHAME ON SPAIN, NORWAY, AND FINLAND.

[nando161mando]

People power ✊

[thisthat-ortheother]

Maybe I lose some followers along the way but that is okayyy I am not sorry to see them go ✌️

[merkredonn]

I knew MRAs were full of shit when they'd rather include women in the military draft instead of abolishing the draft entirely.

[djuvlipen]

[randooffthestreet]

While Call of Duty is still very much military propaganda, it is also ironically a very good criticism of the military.

We have Ghost, who is known as one of their best soldiers for his proficiency in the field. He's given everything to the military, he's the perfect soldier.

What we see from both the comics and the games, however, is that while Ghost tries his best in his work, the military hasn't given him shit back. He was captured and tortured for months on end, and after surviving all of that, his family is slaughtered, and was framed as their murderer.

What does the military give him in return? "Oh yeah we won't arrest you, but you have to work for us and and oh btw you're legally dead :3"

(I mean, they don't even give him a higher rank than Lieutenant for fuck's sake???)

Then in the games, we meet someone who finally brings Simon out of Ghost, and his name is John Soap MacTavish. Finally, Ghost gets one good thing out of the military, someone he can trust to watch his six.

AND WHAT HAPPENS??

Soap, Johnny dies. He's cruelly ripped away from Ghost because on military orders, Soap wasn't allowed to kill Makarov. There's no big ceremony for Soap, there's no flags or procession, his ashes are spread on the mountains to be forgotten by everyone but those closest to him.

No matter how much you give to the military, no matter how efficient you are, they do not give a fuck about you. You are just another body they can throw at the bullets to keep the fire away from them. You are a human shield that they do not view as a person.

Ghost deserved better. Soap deserved better. Every young person that the military roped into serving deserved better.

[missdayst0na]

forgot to write a small memorial message for the victims of the Marias massacre, which occurred in Montana around this time 155 years ago (on january 23rd 1870).

173 members of the Blackfoot tribe, primarily women and children, were killed by the US army

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

Poor women in border areas are victims of mass rape. The soldiers posted there abuse their authority to violate women's bodies. Numerous women of Kashmir have come out against this gang rape yet the intellectuals of India remain silent. Women's issues are merely an afterthought to politicians.

[icedsodapop]

Hey, maybe instead of performing for the US troops, celebrities/entertainers (cough adam driver cough) should bring the arts to prisons instead 🤷🏻‍♀️ At least majority of the prisoners in the US didn't commit war crimes on Black and Brown pple from developing countries.

[vividdreamer]

im actually losing my mind GAJSGAJSH why is the united states acting like they're about to set the military on their own people 😭

[mourntomidnight]

Yt feminists, r*dfems: “Women are incapable of violence and rape, I swear it’s just men that do it!”

Also yt women:

[things-from-strings]

every day i want to grab service members by the shoulders & scream "aren't you sick of it?? aren't you fucking SICK of our country's bullshit?! get OUT get OUT for fucks SAKE, do smth BETTER w/ ur life!!"

[nando161mando]

A 16-year Air Force airman with an evangelical background who joined the army after 9/11 is resigning amid US support for 'Israel''s genocide of Gaza. This comes amid a wave of resignations and internal opposition from US government, including some senior officials.

[gwemmieee]

Hey, have you ever examined the deep fear, paranoia, and shame you feel whenever you try to examine or voice something you feel deep down that you're worried someone else might take issue with? Don't you feel bad about all the subtle ways it renders you less able to know yourself, love yourself, express yourself, and advocate for yourself? If you're thinking about all that social anxiety horror that Super Eye Patch Wolf just talked about, and if you're so utterly afraid of standing out or going against the crowd--this is related to that.

It's probably because you think it's good to call someone out before it's proven that they are knowingly and willfully causing harm. It's probably because you think people should be punished if they harm someone period, even if it was by accident or without knowing. Even if it might have just been a misunderstanding and no real harm done was anyone's fault. And it's only fair that the same standard applies to you as well, isn't it?

It's probably because you've internalized that your value as a human being deserving of love and community can be reduced or eliminated if you say something wrong enough loudly enough. It's probably because, even if you do not ascribe to thought crime, and you agree that we should not demonize ourselves or each other for our own thoughts and feelings as long as we put in the work to be good with our actions, you tripped at the finish line when you forgot about the basic fact of human psychology that we can't translate negative thoughts into positive action without being able to speak about it openly in a space where others will truly understand how we feel, and not just skip straight to the part where feeling that way is already cringe before you've actually fully internalized your own growth past it.

It's probably because you have privilege as someone who has ever had access to real friends/family who stand by you no matter what heinous shit you say or do, and that privilege has enabled you to learn a lot very quickly about how to appear as a good person in society, because those friends/family allowed you to actually feel supported as a human being with feelings before you knew better, which is a hard prerequisite to ever knowing better, and you have not examined that privilege.

It's probably because you think you can sniff out who's good or bad just on vibes and act as judge, jury, and executioner, instead of focusing on harm reduction for anyone who you know was hurt and learning some hard realities about human interaction. For example, being ignorant is not the same as acting on that ignorance. Voicing ignorance without aggression and then being willing to learn something is actually a good thing for others to view in public, because it teaches valuable lessons to everyone paying attention, and anyone who feels validated and empowered to be shitty from such an exchange was just looking for an excuse.

I think this knowledge is something that we feminists should stand for. Anti-militancy. I know it's hard to tell here on this gremlin-ass modern internet for many of us due to circumstances beyond our control, but when you actually go outside and have friends IRL, you'll notice that feminine people out there already understand most of this.

Remember when we used to talk about being tolerant of everything except intolerance? Well, this is part of that. You're not supposed to dehumanize someone and ignore their feelings just for sounding racist one time. You're supposed to try to educate them or, failing that, practice harm reduction (which can escalate into a callout if they're truly a bad actor). Punching nazis is for when you literally fucking know that someone is willfully being harmful (perhaps because they're platforming hate). Most of them don't just cosplay as nazis in easy ways to pick out. That's why fascists are so insidious and good at infiltrating spaces. Each of us has a desperate hope that I am the one, it's me, I can be able to know at a glance who is good or bad, without taking the time and effort to get to know them first. And they prey on that. They use that to make us fight each other instead of them.

"Oh, but Gwemmie, does this mean you're defending X or Y person?" I dunno, how does their situation compare to what I just said? This post was inspired by the many times I have been dogpiled and ostracized for openly using language in autistic ways that have been confused for bigotries or insensitivities that just weren't in my speech or my thoughts (usually because those doing the dogpiling put words in my mouth, didn't parse a sentence correctly, or just decided to be ableist and go off vibes instead of what I very openly say). If you come in here thinking I'm making this post to subtweet about anyone else, you're part of the problem.

[queer-cosette]

SICK of army guys thinking my 80s horror girlie ass is gonna find their lil cuck uniform sexy. You're not exactly settling my beef with the people who made my teenage life hell by racking an AK-47 and using it to bully civilians in one of the many countries fucked over by America's 20th century anti-communist paranoia now are you