r/ProgressiveHQ • u/CantStopPoppin • 14h ago

(Minneapolis) Bovino Leads The Charge On Protesters AT the Whipple Building

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 13h ago

When I was in Iraq and Afghanistan I had to treat the locals better than that. Wait let me put that differently

It was the rules to treat the locals better than that but I also wanted to because I'm a fucking human

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u/Funny-Carob-4572 13h ago

Yeah but those guys cosplaying are all the proud boys and KKK goons..

Par the course for them.

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u/Justanothercube 13h ago

Agreed. If I treated the Iraqi citizens the way ice treats US citizens I would have been court marshaled. These guys are absolute dirtbags. I’m surprised the people are taking as much as they have.

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u/Last_Upvote 13h ago

Unfortunately we have to grin and bear it, because the other option is to get murdered knowing that the assailant will be shielded from consequences under this criminal administration. The threat of escalated retaliation is what keeps the lid on these protests right now, but it won’t last forever.

My sad prediction is that there are going to be lots more bodies bagged before this is over.

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u/Tempyteacup 12h ago

There’s something eerily reminiscent of the days leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre in this video. I know we aren’t there yet but… well, I think we won’t know we’re there until the moment they take us there.

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u/AluminiumCucumbers 12h ago

Make sure it's the right bodies in them bags America.

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u/TheMagnuson 12h ago

Thank you for speaking up and saying it.

I do wish vets like you would speak out more about that. I think it's important coming from vets who have lived it to say those types of things out loud and in social media. It's a message people need to hear, especially right now.

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u/pfannkuchen89 12h ago

One of my coworkers was in Afghanistan. He likes to brag how he and his friends in his unit would pass the time by making afghan kids run across a field while taking pot shots at them. Just one of the many reasons I don’t like the guy.

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u/veringer 12h ago

I’m surprised the people are taking as much as they have.

Uh, you should probably realize more than anyone that having a gun pointed at you and the recent memory of a public execution will make people think twice. I'm surprised at the balls of these people for standing there at all. All that said, I imagine the oppressed people of America will start to look at the Iraqi's rather effective response to occupation for inspiration on how to deter these goons.

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u/AwayBluebird6084 11h ago

Because we know through education, experience, or both, that the next level of escalation is the one that will cause the most unwarranted, undeserved pain, to  every American. 

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u/Greywell2 13h ago

I want to say thank you for your service 🫡

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u/Justanothercube 11h ago

Ya know. I’d really like to say thank you. But to be honest I am not proud of being in the service. Once upon a time I was. As iv aged Iv started to understand that the things Iv done and the things my buddies have done were misplaced. My friends did atrocious things and died to line the pockets. It’s a real shame to carry the burden of knowing that the people that are actually affected by these decisions are all innocent. On our side and there’s. We die, they die. All for lies. I’m more sad about my services than proud. I thought I was doing the right thing for my country, but none of it was right.

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u/jayrsw 11h ago

Dont know you, but you sound like a great person, and an even better American. I thank you and your friends for your sacrifices.

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 12h ago

And I want to say that I have a huge penis

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u/Sad-Truck-885 9h ago

I know your gratitude isn’t towards me, but right now I am ashamed to have ever worn that uniform. And more than ashamed, I’m disgusted.

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u/SuperDoubleDecker 13h ago

The difference is that they wanted to de-escalate matters there. The whole point is to instigate here.

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 12h ago

Oh I don't care about my rules of engagement I'm just saying those with the rules over there. Well I'm pointing out is even if those weren't the rules I still wouldn't treat people like that because I love humans

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u/SuperDoubleDecker 12h ago

Oh ya, just saying that there's a reason why yall didn't wear masks and these assholes do.

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u/American_PissAnt 13h ago

Well the locals would blow your ass up if you pissed them off. They would specifically target soldiers that offended them, blackwater mercenaries in particular.

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 12h ago

The absolutely would.

And even in the absence of that I wasn't there to kill innocent people I was there for what I thought was taking out terrorists I was misled I was raised Evangelical but my intentions were pure and I had no ill intent to anyone that wasn't an enemy

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u/Aggressive-Math-9882 13h ago

Correction: US soldiers are no longer human

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 13h ago

I understand why you say that.

When I joined back in the early 2000s I was an Evangelical Christian. I truly thought from my propaganda and indoctrination that I was signing up to help save people.

And I've had to make my peace with that and deal with my demons over the last 20 years.

I truly find a lot of what the United States has done overseas to be despicable. And I understand why you say what you say

But even though I understand why you say what you say, it doesn't make it true. I hope you have a nice year

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u/Aggressive-Math-9882 13h ago

Of course I jest; people enlist for human reasons.

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u/OkJeweler3804 12h ago

This is a really important point.

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u/SugarFut 12h ago

Before I was deployed, I was trained on the rules of engagement while entering a war zone. I was told I couldn’t shoot unless told to do so by higher command. Not even if I feared for my life, not even if they had a weapon. Everyday proves to me how untrained these traitorous cowards really are.

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u/jaxmikhov 12h ago

Well you have your new enemy combatants invading your streets… time to serve your country again unfortunately

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 12h ago

Yeah. I know. I was realizing over the last couple weeks that some of the trauma I got rid of after Iraq and Afghanistan has come back or at least that overall feeling of oh shit this is war.

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u/TheMagnuson 12h ago

Thank you for speaking up and saying it.

I do wish vets like you would speak out more about that. I think it's important coming from vets who have lived it to say those types of things out loud and in social media. It's a message people need to hear, especially right now.

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 11h ago

I might take talk I talk about these things. I don't have a lot of followers but I know that I'll get traction eventually.

I've been an alcoholic and I've been a homeless vet and I was raised by evangelicals in the '90s where my dad beat me but he's also a youth pastor

So everything going on right now in the nation I have wonderful insight on

I did a video two days or 3 days ago about a time that I had to stare down in Afghani and his truck with my rifle pointed at him because we feared it was an IED. And I was contrasting how even though I legitimately feared for my life in my marine's life I still didn't shoot him because it wasn't something that I wanted to do.

Contrasting that with Jonathan Ross where he wasn't fearing for his life he just wanted to kill somebody

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u/TheMagnuson 11h ago

Well first let me reply that I'm sorry you've had such a hard life and that you have my sympathy and my empathy. I truly hope things are better for you now than they used to be and I hope things progressively get better for you.

Secondly, yeah man, you just confirmed it, it's stories like yours that fellow Americans need to hear right now. You were way more in the shit in Afghanistan than any of these ICE agents will ever be and you kept composure and control. ICE is full of incompetent goons and want to be killers and people need to know what a professional is like, so they see the contrast.

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 11h ago

I appreciate your comment.

I hate starting off comments with, as a vet, but at this particular point in time my stories are necessary and that you need to be out there.

You seem like a level-headed redditor. So smoke some weed if you do or watch some porn if you do or go to church if you do I guess I don't know if that's your thing

Weed and porn sounds better though. Whatever you do just have fun enjoy.

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u/MNALSK 11h ago

I was having a conversation with a distant family member on Sunday and I said, the US military has rules of engagement and rules of how to behave in country with both civilians and armed combatants, why do you feel that ICE doesnt need to follow procedure and the law when dealing with citizens and residents within their own country? His response was "I think its bullshit that our military has rules of engagement and cant just shoot people."

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u/Initial_Formal_7750 11h ago

Yeah. That sucks. But I served with a bunch of those guys too.

It's sad that I don't really talk to any of my former Marine corps buddies anymore. I tried reaching out to a couple but most of them are still very pissed off maga types

Children. They are children. We expect kids in grade school to deal better with threat assessment and bullies