It seems to me that there is a pretty common sense and logical way to tell, generally and in most cases, which side of a conflict is in the right morally speaking.
As a general rule, with some clear exceptions, whichever side is invading is the aggressor and is "in the wrong" and whichever country is defending/fighting in their own country is in the right.
Whichever force is occupying is the "bad guy".
The only exception would be if the occupying nations provoked the invasion by a real attack in the other nations country.
By this rule we can see that virtually all American Military actions including Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have been clearly on the side of moral wrong.
9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq or Afghanistan. There were no Iraqi WMDs. The Viet Cong never attacked on American soil.
Soldiers who are traveling to another country to kill people in a far away land who never attacked their country are ultimately doing something morally wrong.
There are hypothetical situations where this might not be true, like if a full blown genocide was occuring and we intervened to stop it. But this doesn't apply to any recent US military operations.
And of course Canada is also guilty for sending troops to participate in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the end of the day if you are on your own soil fighting against the uniformed troops of an invading and occupying country, you cant be blamed.
If you are in your own home you have a right to defend it from invaders. If you are in someone elses home you ARE the invader and you have no right to go into someone elses home and start killing people.
Another rule of thumb is that whichever side is killing more innocent people (non-combatants) is the bad guy.
By this rule also America has always been the bad guy in all recent wars. The USA is the invader and the USA kills far more innocent people.
If you are part of the army and you participate in any of these was or invasion and occupation and you end up killing people, especially non combatants, even if it is an accident- you have to recognize that this is morally wrong.
And because as a soldier you don't get a choice about whether or wear you are deployed or who you have to fight, you should think twice about joining the military because you may have to do something very morally wrong.
And "just following orders" has never been a legitimate excuse. So if you do join freely and end up killing an innocent in a foreign country, that is on you.
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Everything I post is fiction.
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