#civilian military

[taxinealkaloids]

two b-list sons of God and a second-rate resurrection

[sketchyfandomgirl]

Simon Riley has a Medusa tattoo. It’s never seen since he keeps it hidden beneath his clothes at all times. But it’s small, and almost easily missed at first glance. Only a few select people know about the tattoo.

Like you.

Simon trusts you the most out of everyone he knows. Probably more than his best friend Soap. Probably even the Captain. You knew Simon the longest by almost more than a decade, as you grew up together after your family moved to Manchester.

You were there when he decided to enlist in the military. Being there to see him off, attending his graduation from boot camp and tapping him out alongside his mother.

He trusts you a lot. Enough to be an emergency contact if anything were to go wrong.

You got a call, all the way from America, in Texas if you can believe it, that one Simon Riley has been found near the Texas-Mexico border half dead and was in recovery. So you booked a flight to Texas that very night. Wasn’t Simon supposed to be on some covert mission? What the hell happened?

Simon was reluctant to talk about what happened, but he eventually opened up about the horrors he endured while he was captured by Roba.

The violence, especially the sexual abuse that Simon wouldn’t even tell his assigned therapist. You were Simon’s safety, his most entrusted person who he could be more open with.

It would take years to help him heal.

But eventually, he did start to heal from the process, and asked you to come along with him to a tattoo appointment.

It was there, Simon’s sign of addressing his pain was finally closing to an end, did he get a Medusa tattoo.

[musical-chick-13]

This is the only thing I'm going to say about the election until it's over:

Anyone who did not vote for Harris or who attempted to dissuade people from voting for Harris, you are indirectly responsible for whatever shit Donald Trump does if he gets elected. That blood is primarily on his hands, yes. But it is also on yours. I hope you can live with that because I sure as hell wouldn't be able to.

[mueritos]

i hope we continue to see more protests within the US military. i see a lot of leftists and folks who are anti-military who have such an open disdain for the people who are in the military, yet neglect to considering the conditions this country makes to produce ideology, poverty, and the illusion of choice to make all kinds of people choose to enlist in the military. You ever see those videos of ROTC kids recording each other asking why they joined the military and everyone's like, "healthcare", "it helped me go to college", "I was bored" or "free ptsd lol". I hate to remind everyone but folks who are in the military are people, too, and they are the same victims and perpetrators of violence as the rest of you, we have all been shallowly conditioned to view each other as enemies just because one person is wearing army greens and the other is not.

some of the biggest anti-war advocates are those who engaged in war. Veterans who genuinely believed they were protecting the US against "terrorism" come back with blood on their hands, and they choose to realize that it was US imperialism that forced them to carry out violence, instead of doubling down and shielding themselves from the fact that they too are capable of atrocities... This is a class of people who are intentionally conditioned to be as poor and as ideologically aligned to US imperialism so that the military has a never-ending pool to send their youth to destroy other country's youth. The only people I have ever heard say "do not join the military" are those who ARE military.

This is in no way to ever excuse or explain away any of the atrocious war crimes and violence this industry and its people have committed against others. What I am saying is that we absolutely cannot cast aside the individuals who have been victimized within US imperialism, even if they are wearing army greens. I was speaking with my Palestinian classmate last week and another classmate--a member of the US air force-- walked up to me and struck up a conversation. My military classmate showed me her new bird, bid both of us goodbye, and left. My Palestinian classmate asked me if I was close with her, and I said we talked quite often, and she said, "I never met a person who's in the military. I still hate the military, but I never knew that they did, too. I didn't realize that they were also victims."

If my Palestinian classmate--one who is actively watching her own community die--can understand that it is not individuals who are the problem but it is in fact systems, US imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism...why can't we all? And she has EVERY reason to hate any individual military member. A lot of online activism just creates more barriers. if your optics look bad, complicated, or contradictory, you are cast aside. Everyone has got the be the perfect activist, you can never make a mistake or share a half-baked thought, you should always believe every word from a marginalized persons mouth (because being marginalized doesn't mean you're not entrenched in white supremacy too!) and you should never question what you see...Do you know what you sound like? The very imperialists who are convincing poor whites to vote against themselves. Perfectionism is white supremacy. Black & white thinking is white supremacy.

I'd rather have a military member who genuinely believed in the US imperialism machine but was disillusioned after being deployed as my comrade than some leftist who cherishes the performance of "being a good person". I don't want "good people" in our movements. I want humans who care. I want humans who make mistakes and who learn from them. I want humans who accept the messiness of a person. I want humans who hold others accountable and allow themselves to take responsibility for their actions. I want people who change for themselves and others.

fight systems, not individual people. we can change each other, but if we're too preoccupied looking like the World's Perfect Activists, we will only consume each other alive. Connect to your fellow humans, forever and always.

[youredyingthatsallthereis]

civilian au simon riley and gary sanderson as construction work contractors who meet on a job site and end up working really closely because riley actually has an architecture degree and sanderson directly reports to the foreman as the project lead and they end up just pining for each other because each thinks the others not gay or not interested until one day sanderson asks riley to show him some of his old building plan ideas from before he quit architecture so riley brings them the next day and they stay late to look at them and sanderson ends up confessing first and eventually they get caught hooking up in the bathroom on site before the project ends

[dykedvonte]

Ulysses obsession with the Courier is a special type of sad to me cause the Courier’s part was so important but so unwitting. They had no idea what was in the package they delivered and neither did he. Neither had an idea of what it could’ve done and the Courier was only caring out their job (mind you the Courier could be killed via notes in the express contract if they don’t). To them it was just another regular delivery to the divide and one that they likely thought would help, just like all the ones before.

It’s so tragic for Ulysses to hold so much ire to the Courier when it really was the case of it could’ve been anyone. Anyone could have delivered that package but they did and so he focused the blame on them and it destroys what he is trying to instill in the courier on a fundamental level.

[ehhgg-art]

i hear a lot of talk about wash and a service animal but what about caboose’s service dog freckles?

after everything caboose has gone through likely without proper treatment or medical attention (i mean, we’ve all watched the show, right??) he probably has some underlying issues (“not to self diagnose but i think something is wrong” type of situation).

and so maybe once everything has calmed down and they all get back to earth tucker sets caboose up with some health professionals and helps him get a service dog (i’m thinking a shepherd of some kind. caboose could match their high energy).

and caboose loves the dog very much :) i think he might have put Freckles The Robot in retirement once he got to back earth since it’s not really acceptable to carry a gun into a grocery store like that. and since Freckles The Robot was really his support through a lot of traumatic events he had a hard time adjusting. but now he has Freckles The Dog !!! who he can play real fetch with and can go with him to the grocery store :)

[worstloki]

zionists don't realise it but saying 'this is the most jewish thing ever!' and 'people hate when jews do something clever' and and reporting it as 'innovative methods which carried out a precise military operation' and joking about ongoing attacks using everyday technology to injure thousands of civilians is not. good

[nando161mando]

'Israel' deliberately targets civilians to make up for its military incompetence

[lizzibennet]

extremely funny to me when people here make posts about completely benign, slightly interesting things that sound perfectly plausible in everyday conversation and the notes are all "i wish this actually happened" like sorry you're uninteresting and your conversations are all boring as fuck sometimes funny things really do just happen to people

[agenericplaceholdername]

Reminder that the Craglings are intelligent beings who have their own society and even poetry, and Wu and Garmadon respond to them by immediately attacking. The biggest crime the Craglings committed was walking slowly toward them WITH THEIR HANDS UP.

Will they re-form later? Hopefully, but for the Spinjitzu Brothers, murdering innocent rock people is just an average day.

You have to wonder where Lloyd got his "all life has value" ideology from because it clearly wasn't his father or mentor.

[seoul-bros]

Hobi's getting impatient!

I mean we already knew that with all his IG action over the last couple of weeks. Hang in there J-Hope less than two weeks to go.

Can't wait to see him swap his uniform for this

or this

or this

Post Date: 07/10/2024

[ghcstao3]

ghost owning a quaint, used/vintage bookshop that really is only able to continue to run mostly by a good word of mouth and the regular collectors. they all know him as quiet, a bit standoffish, kind of intimidating but really knowledgeable and passionate about the shop and its contents.

-

It’s not the sort of place Soap would frequent. But then again, with work, he hardly has a home and time to find his places—so when he’s forced on a relatively longterm medical leave, he finds himself keen on exploring more of the places nearby to his flat.

That’s how he comes across the bookshop—the place intrigues him, the way it somehow looks like it’s been stuck in a certain point in history and has never changed since. And as he steps in, he’s lured further by the smell of books and used pages, and some distant undercurrent of tea and sage.

But most of all, Soap is drawn in by the store’s owner, sitting tucked into his corner with a book of his own, twisted into some (surely) uncomfortable position as he reads. He looks peaceful, Soap thinks. And strong. Steady.

(Handsome.)

Soap browses before he dare disturb the man, picking out books here and there but never quite settling. He looks through spines more than he does descriptions, like he’s afraid even gentle touch would be damaging.

Until a deep, rumbling voice informs him from the desk in the corner, “The books don’t bite, you know. Unless your hands are dirty, you won’t ruin them.”

Instead of continuing to browse with this new advice, Soap finally drifts toward the man, curious. His steps are tentative, though difficult to hide with creaking floorboards. The man hasn’t even looked up from his book.

“And if my hands are dirty?” Soap jokes.

The man looks up, one eyebrow raised, and replies as dryly as possible, “Then don’t touch.”

His eyes are a wonderful shade of brown. Something deep and soothing, the colour of black coffee and the old leather-bound books all over the shelves of the shop. Soap can’t help but stare into them, fall into the abyss.

Soap huffs. “Fair enough,” he mutters. He wills himself to look away from the hard, unwavering gaze, and back to the endless novels he has yet to choose from.

What a great first impression he’s made.

Soap sways on his feet. Clears his throat in an attempt to dispel the silence since it doesn’t seem like the man would continue to initiate anything himself. “Have any recommendations, then?”

��No,” the man says. Then he sits back, sets his book down, looks Soap over. Considers something for a long moment. Finally tells soap, “Try the poetry section.”

Funnily enough, it’s one of the few sections Soap had barely glossed over, hardly a place he would think to look for something of interest—so he’s more inclined to oblige, leaving the man to return to his novel and quiet without Soap in the middle of it all.

And funnily enough, it’s there Soap’s eye is caught by an unassuming book, its cover green and worn, the gilded text describing title and author faint and chipped.

He doesn’t look through it after picking it off the shelf—Soap just knows, somehow.

Soap moves toward the desk, silently makes the purchase. The man somehow seems at peace with Soap’s decision as he slides over the book to finally be claimed by its new owner once he’s done his checkout process.

Soap doesn’t expect the man to say anything else to him—he hardly seems the type to wish the meaningless have a good day to customers—but to his surprise, the man says, “Make sure to come back if it’s any good.”

There’s something hidden in his expression, in the few words the man has again spoken. Soap just nods, thinking he’d come back even if the pages turned out blank.

He leaves the shop feeling oddly lighter. Something swirls in his chest as he walks home, the book tucked dutifully under the arm currently without a sling.

Maybe he should go exploring more.

[antianakin]

There is exactly one criticism that I agree with my, very anti-Jedi, cousin on and that's the Jedi were TERRIBLE Generals. Generals may TRY to make sure their men mostly come back. But useless sacrifices are not only acceptable, but expected, the men are mostly expandable in war. The Jedi did not consider sacrifices like that acceptable or expected. Sure it did happen. It was WAR. But they tried their best to make sure it DIDN'T. The Jedi were terrible Generals. But they were the teachers and Leaders the CLONES NEEDED.

I'm not sure I'd ENTIRELY agree with that. I think I'd be willing to agree that the Jedi were perhaps less CONVENTIONAL Generals, and they definitely do seem to at least TRY to place the lives of their men above just tossing them away for an easy victory, but you can just as easily claim that keeping the men alive to keep fighting is a good strategy in and of itself.

The biggest piece of evidence I'd point to that the Jedi were actually perfectly good Generals is the Citadel arc and Tarkin's criticisms. The one real criticism he makes of the Jedi as military leaders is that they're occasionally too soft and will abandon a mission if it looks impossible to win without near total casualties (on either side). But he's generally fairly positive about the Jedi and if they were truly awful at their jobs, I don't think TARKIN of all people would hold back on saying so, even to the Jedi's faces.

And we DO see the Jedi willing to make sacrifices and accepting that this is a necessary part of war. The Citadel arc is, again, a perfectly good example of this. Obi-Wan and Anakin go in with like 3-4 men each I think and they come back with a grand total of 3 (Rex, Cody, and Fives). A LOT of clones die on this mission that they all KNEW was basically a suicide mission because the Jedi themselves decided that getting the information about the hyperspace lanes was vital enough to the war that it was worth losing multiple lives over (including their own).

So it's not that the Jedi don't understand that sacrifices are necessary in war or even that they avoid it entirely, they just avoid what they see as UNNECESSARY sacrifice for what might amount to a fairly minor victory. Keeping more of their men alive might, in the long run, be a better strategic choice than losing all of them on one campaign, especially if it's over like one uninhabited moon or something like that. There's nothing to say that the losses the Jedi deem acceptable are things that would've changed the entire tide of the war had they chosen to push forward instead.

The other good evidence that the Jedi acting this way would've been the WORSE choice is the Umbara arc. We are told and then see that Krell IS the kind of General who is willing to lose a lot of clones in order to gain victories in battle, and the clones do recognize that he has a lot of victories under his belt. But never once do they discuss whether those victories really MEANT anything or had a large impact on the war effort. It certainly never seems that the Republic is majorly pushing back the Separatists because of Krell's victories, nobody ever mentions that Krell gained them a major advantage with those victories or took out anyone of any consequence on the Separatist side with his strategies. And by the time he gets to Umbara, he's explicitly using this strategy to WEAKEN the Republic side and cause a loss. Several of his strategies WOULD'VE meant the Republic lost on Umbara and it's only the clones utilizing different strategies that put fewer of them at risk that they actually end up continuing to HAVE victories at all.

I'll also point out that the Jedi continuously getting their men killed en masse would've bankrupted the Republic a LOT earlier because they'd have to be paying for more clones a LOT more often than they did in canon and I can't imagine anyone would've considered that a particularly sound strategy and at some point I'm sure the Senate would've felt obligated to put a stop to it anyway and insisted on strategies that kept more clones alive for longer. So I'm not sure it's fair to claim the Jedi were utilizing BAD strategy by not just exclusively using tactics that meant most of their men were killed for every single victory.

So the ONLY criticism we EVER see of the Jedi's ability as military leaders is Tarkin claiming they're "too soft" and Tarkin is the kind of person who would likely say that until the Jedi started carpet bombing entire Separatist planets. Would it give them a victory? Yeah, sure, maybe, but that's the exact same strategy the Separatists are using and look how well that works out for THEM. Everything else we ever see seems to showcase that the Jedi are in fact perfectly good Generals, not just in that they're kind to the clones and are unwilling to carpet bomb Separatist planets, but also because they're just... good at this. They CAN be strategic, they CAN run wars if they want to. And I think that's the whole point of the Jedi in some ways is that yes, they CAN make war when they need to, they just actively choose NOT TO every time they can. THIS is why Qui-Gon tells Padme that he and Obi-Wan are there to protect her but that they can't win this war for her and they end up going off to fight off a Sith while Padme has to actually win the war with her own people and the Gungans instead. The Jedi don't WANT to be in the position of doing nothing but fighting, but they're absolutely capable of this kind of work.

That's the tragedy of the war in some ways, the Jedi ARE good at this no matter how much they wish they weren't sometimes. But being good at it means they can actually protect the Republic, their own men, and even the Separatist civilians better, so they're not going to just sit there and do things that will screw over a bunch of people. Yes, they're going to fight the war in such a way that they reduce casualties as much as possible, but reducing casualties also requires doing enough to not LOSE the damn war, too. It's a delicate balance they're trying to hold on to and I'd argue they manage it better than anybody else would've ever done in their position.

[illustratus]

The Camp Follower by Anthonie Constantijn Govaerts

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Had a conversation with a very warm and earnest liberal explaining that well cluster munitions aren’t good but at least ukraine is mostly going to be using them on Ukrainian soil so it’s the country’s own civilians that are going to be getting exploded a few years down the line so its them making a self-sacrifice rather than using them on another country and I had to suppress the urge to chidiyouunderstandhow.jpg