I called his son dumb because choosing to join the military to fight in the Iraq invasion was dumb when he obviously didn’t come from a poor family and thus didn’t even need to do this due to a lack of job opportunities.
As you have demonstrated, anyone is susceptible to misunderstanding. It does not discriminate by class or privilege. People join for many reasons. I wanted to get a warm meal, warm bed, and die. But others from my meps felt that they had familial or generational obligations. Some wanted the career and had great options. It’s a fantastic and debt free way of getting respectable credentials and high-speed to boot. But I don’t know a single person who honestly believed they were supporting genocide or imperialism, what have you. There were a lot of dumb people, but they risked it for their own reasons in a way you never could or likely ever will. And I will always cry for those that gave it all. Some of us are dealing with our guilt and doing what we can to prepare the next generation for the pitfalls they face. So spit at us all you want. There’s not thing one you can say that will make me loath myself more than I ever have. And I’m dealing with that too.
I hope you are never in a place that makes you tangibly consider these choices you so virulently despise. You are still someone’s compatriot and you deserve that.