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What about the U.S.? Just because people are disconnected from the actions of their military doesn't mean they're not responsible


Sure, the US too. But they don't put hundreds of thousands of citizens in jail just for voicing decent, and then work/starve them to death. NK is my go-to example of an evil government, doesn't mean there aren't other ones.

I'd add to the people replying to this comment, about US citizens' responsibility, they have more responsibility than the average North Korean citizen, but not much. From what I understand, challenging the status quo in the USA is pretty difficult!


There are other ways to suppress when you control the mass media, and as far I know they do put lots of people temporarily in jail for voicing decent / showing up to peaceful protests.


They are not responsible for the actions of the military. Just because they are born in US doesn't make them responsible for the actions of the US military any more than someoe born in Canada, Brazil or Japan.

People who have power over the actions taken are responsible, pretty much the person itself and also the higher chain of command for the said person who commits whatever act to be held responsible for.


I think they do take responsibility, just not as much as those people higher up the power ladder.


The military gets orders from politicians who get elected by US citizens.


Not to delve too deeply into a political debate, but I think a counter-point is fair:

1. Those elected officials are not elected by everyone - in the case of GWB's first term (which many probably think of in this military context) it wasn't even a majority that elected him.

2. Those that do elect officials have a very small choice (lets say 2-3 people who could practically be elected). Further, I'd argue that most only vote on a few key issues, while the elected official has dominion over a vast number of issues.

I don't hold citizens as not at all responsible, but I think its at least fair to argue (in the above context) that the elected officials bear more responsibility - and blame - than the everyday citizen.


You're quite right in your counter-point. And besides it's not always clear beforehand what the key issues are going to be during a politician's term. I reacted more to the wording "Just because they are born in US doesn't make them responsible for the actions of the US military any more than someoe born in Canada, Brazil or Japan." I'd say US citizens are more responsible for US military actions than Canadians, however this definitely does not make the ordinary citizen responsible in the same way as an army general or prominent politician.


Then change the election system..


US citizens(as citizens everywhere) vote for whatever the media feeds them, and media is at least to some extent controlled by the US government(as in every country) or other political influence.

I would also disagree with politicians controlling the military -- perhaps the people in charge do have political power too, but I would argue that the political power and power over the military are rather indirect, it's not the same entity controlling the two, there are multiple people and entities with indirect relationships.


Every taxpayer is partly responsible for funding the actions of their country's military.


Funding someone does not make one responsile a single bit.

I am not responsible for an act you do with the knife I sold you last week, unless I did it in consent of you commiting the act. My parents aren't responsible for the acts I do.

Only when there's power, there's responsibility. Taxpayer does not have power over military, hence why taxpayer has no responsibility.


I see it differently. Without the tax money, the military could not operate. When I choose to pay our taxes, I am choosing to give money in support of the military's operations. I may disagree with the military's actions, but I choose supporting them (a little bit) over putting my life at risk by not paying. In that case it is a lose-lose situation.


So what do you propose as an alternative to this? Not paying isn't really an option. Move and renounce citizenship? (Remember, US has global taxation for citizen.) Not really a viable option to affect change, as you lose your right to vote, etc.


I do not think there is a nice alternative. I think we should accept that we share some responsibility for the actions of our home countries. If a political group could organize enough people to withhold their tax payments as part of a protest against a certain military action, that might cause enough of a disruption to stop it. Alternatively, it might just get everyone involved thrown in prison.




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