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I work for the Air Force right now. As far as I can tell, much of the Hacker News "meta" seems to be in agreement that the US and especially its military are mo

I work for the Air Force right now. As far as I can tell, much of the Hacker News "meta" seems to be in agreement that the US and especially its military are more or less a force for evil, but given the type of world I prefer to see personally, I still believe air supremacy on the part of a western liberal superpower is better than the plausible near-term alternatives. So I am sufficiently proud right now of the overall mission, though as a fairly low-level software platform guy, I'm pretty disconnected from it. But if you take money completely out of the picture and let me do anything at all, I would definitely be a youth athletic coach and teacher.

solardev 4y ago
Even as someone who's pretty left-of-center and thinks the US uses its armed forces for all the wrong missions, I still don't think you can blame any individual servicemember for that (except maybe high-ranking generals). Having the tools and capacity for violence doesn't mean we have to use them indiscriminately, under false pretenses, against fabricated threats. And when we do, that's more the fault of the political class -- and the voters and financiers who enable them -- not rank-and-file career civil servants. It's one thing if you're purposely slaughtering civilians or turning a blind eye to genocide. And sometimes the waters are deliberately muddied by propaganda and the incessant hawkish drumming. But in the day to day, I think you're just making a living like anyone else. Whether you're a software dev or a drone operator... if you're following reasonable orders, I don't think the blame can rightfully fall on your shoulders. Otherwise, where do you draw the line? Every taxpayer funds our war machine, many funds invest in arms, every campaign donation is partially responsible for every war, etc. That's the other side of democracy, eh? If we're all in charge to some degree, we're all guilty to some degree. You're no more guilty than any other regular joe. We just outsource our dirty work to you.

solardev 4y ago

Even as someone who's pretty left-of-center and thinks the US uses its armed forces for all the wrong missions, I still don't think you can blame any individual servicemember for that (except maybe high-ranking generals). Having the tools and capacity for violence doesn't mean we have to use them indiscriminately, under false pretenses, against fabricated threats. And when we do, that's more the fault of the political class -- and the voters and financiers who enable them -- not rank-and-file career civil servants. It's one thing if you're purposely slaughtering civilians or turning a blind eye to genocide. And sometimes the waters are deliberately muddied by propaganda and the incessant hawkish drumming. But in the day to day, I think you're just making a living like anyone else. Whether you're a software dev or a drone operator... if you're following reasonable orders, I don't think the blame can rightfully fall on your shoulders. Otherwise, where do you draw the line? Every taxpayer funds our war machine, many funds invest in arms, every campaign donation is partially responsible for every war, etc. That's the other side of democracy, eh? If we're all in charge to some degree, we're all guilty to some degree. You're no more guilty than any other regular joe. We just outsource our dirty work to you.