c/news · by dude@lemmings.world · 162d

Youngest US soldier killed by Iran strike was Eagle Scout who helped homeless youth

https://nypost.com/2026/03/14/world-news/youngest-us-soldier-killed-by-iranian-strike-was-an-eagle-scout-who-helped-homeless-youth/

205 points · 76 comments · view on lemmy.world

76 Comments

theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 114 pts · 162d (6 replies)

He helped make many more youths homeless with his service than he helped homeless youths.

shawn1122@sh.itjust.works · 29 pts · 162d

Yeah, but the youths he hurt were on the other team so doesn't count. /s

forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · -4 pts · 160d (4 replies)

How do you know what he did while he was in?

theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 160d (3 replies)

Even if he was only "logistics" what do you think he is helping organize and supply?

forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 158d (2 replies)

So we don't know what he did?

theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 158d (1 reply)

We know he helped America operate as the imperialist power it is by choice.

forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 0 pts · 158d

That's not really specific.

For instance: we're all part of a species that's slowly destroying the ecosystem. But are we just buying extra pencils (example for something essentially inconsequential) or are we running the put-microplastics-in-the-water-supply machine (example for something that's purposefully running the environment)?

Or in the case of the military industrial complex: how guilty is someone if they pay taxes that go towards it, compared if they signed up for engineering work, or signed up because they wanted direct combat experience?

LodeMike@lemmy.today · 95 pts · 162d (6 replies)

Ok?

Youngest girl killed day 1 by U.S. was as young as the other 150

MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 162d

They were mostly in the 7-12 years old range. And the death count has exceeded 160 now.

AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 160d (1 reply)

I get what you're saying but posts like these are crucial to waking up Americans. Shove the death of white people in their faces and they actually recoil sometimes.

Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d

It's true and terrible. It ways rubbed me the wrong way that whenever there was a natural disaster or terror attack overseas, the news would always make sure to mention the deaths of American tourists. There's ads for new Jeeps that mention that you'll be able to SAVE OTHER AMERICANS with it. Annoying as hell.

Soulg@ani.social · -4 pts · 161d (2 replies)

They're both bad?

Jankatarch@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d

Self-defense is bad?

freeman@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 160d

No. He was a soldier, volunteered to be one and put his life on the line. The girls didn't.

etherphon@piefed.world · 53 pts · 162d (7 replies)

[ removed ]

SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 17 pts · 162d (5 replies)

I don't know a ton about scouts, but they've always felt like literal military preparation cults to me.

Jesusaurus@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 162d (1 reply)

Not really... they teach you how to be a decent human within a community

Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d

And the military co-opted those feelings in their recruitment ads. That and college tuition.

variablenine@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 18 pts · 162d (1 reply)

Having experienced both environments they are nothing like each other at all

King_Bob_IV@startrek.website · 10 pts · 161d

But the roots of scouting come from the military. Lord Baden-Powell called them scouts at they were literally using training for military scouts as a basis for their organization. It is definitely different but it is based from a military mindset

ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 162d

You've never been in the Scouts. It's community building and becoming a better, more able person through skill development and mentoring. When it works.

ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 161d

Scouting was invented to prepare children for military service.

mrdown@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 162d (4 replies)

I don't care. He died in a war of agression, he is a terrorist to me

ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 162d

This is the point that isn't being clarified: this war reputation washes anyone who participated into a terrorist.

ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · -14 pts · 162d (2 replies)

Its hilarious how people will say stuff like this, and then in practically the same breath say “how can the federal government call anyone antifa terrorists?!?”

Like, youre doing the same thing that they are by watering the word “terrorist” down to a point where it somehow applies to normal people that are obviously not actual terrorists. The protesters convicted of being terrorists are obviously normal people who didnt set out to inflict violence for the purpose of terrorizing anyone. Even if they themselves were in contact with people who intended to harm others that wouldnt make them terrorists. Only actually being (or aspiring to be) a terrorist makes someone a terrorist

The same is probably true of the (likely) clipboard jockey kid youre calling a terrorist. Most people in the military work in logistics. A lot of people do a lot of nothing the majority of the time they are deployed. Many of them probably joined mostly for the benefits. The military is a fucked up institution controlled by some fucked up people, arguably terroristic for sure, but that does not make every person in the military some kind of radical terrorist individual. That same logic is exactly what the US government uses to label entire countries of people as terrorist targets…

0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 161d

The only thing hilarious is equating calling a protestor a terrorist with aggressive actions of a military.

It's also pathetic how concern trolls like you come out of the woodworks when your side is on the receiving end of it.

You don't mind families and civilians getting wiped out for being at the wrong place and label them as cost of war but are "concerned" when people label a military who enable the same atrocity machine as a terrorist?

I don't think this is where "let's be civilized while they bludgeon us to the ground" narrative works.

Reddit is that way. 👉

mrdown@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 162d

Any soldiers who is accepting to participate in any shape or form in that war is a terrorist. The soldiers who refuse are not. I do not water down the word terrorist. It is not similar to trump calling an antifacist a terrorist

You are just another racist who only think muslims can be terrorists

BradleyUffner@lemmy.world · 39 pts · 161d (1 reply)

Not to be a dick, but maybe he shouldn't have joined a military force known for extreme violence.

Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 160d

When I was called to serve in Bush II's wars, I refused. It should be a way easier decision this time.

magnetosphere@fedia.io · 34 pts · 162d (2 replies)

How do people not understand that they’re volunteering to be used as cannon fodder? The more exceptional a person is, the less it makes sense.

Sludgeyy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 160d

Draft Dodgers by Escape from the Zoo

mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 160d

It a lot of ways the military is a means to escape poverty, of course you run the risk of dying to have the chance at some fleeting semblance of middle class life.

Major_Tsiom@fedia.io · 32 pts · 162d (1 reply)

He was the modern equivalent of a Nazi soldier. Too fucking bad.

NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io · 4 pts · 162d

I was more thinking British soldier, but potato potato I guess.

inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 161d (1 reply)

It was a sacrifice that Trump and the Iowan Republicans were willing to make.

jaemo@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 160d

"What a sucker, heh. I mean, people are saying that he kinda didn't really help out much. We're probably stronger, militarily, now that this dead weight isn't bogging down the rest of the brave troops who aren't dead yet."

-Trump, probably.

Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io · 26 pts · 162d (12 replies)

Guys, chill for a second.

He was a kid who enlisted in the Reserve before Trump was even in power, and deployed to Kuwait with a logistics unit without knowing wtf was going to happen.

Instead of being mad at the dead pawns, be mad at the people in power who started this shit. Be mad at the officers at the highest levels who didn't push back against Trump's orders to attack Iran without just reason. I think they deserve hate more than anyone.

ObtuseDoorFrame@lemmy.zip · 26 pts · 162d

I can be mad at both.

titanicx@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 162d (1 reply)

If you choose to join the military regardless of when you chose to join it. You still chose to join the military.

Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io · -1 pts · 160d

Sure. That makes them legitimate targets in a war, and you don't have to be sad that they died. Yes, I understand Iran attacking back was legitimate because every country as a right to defend itself.

But people talk like this guy was the evilist dude in the world and wanted to bomb a school or something.

kittykillinit@lemy.lol · 19 pts · 161d (2 replies)

This might be a hot take, but the US military was shit long before Trump.

Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 160d

Really nothing Trump is doing is new to the US. He just gave up any pretense of it being for good or to help anyone. Also he's even more inept at implementing anything so the outcome is worse even quicker than in the past.

mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 160d

Those photos of Iraqi prisoners connected to a car battery were not really made public. /s

ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 16 pts · 161d (3 replies)

Did he think he would be delivering tickles? Because if he did, the military seems like an odd choice.

P00ptart@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 160d (2 replies)

Tbf the national guard recruits with videos of putting up sand bags during floods and digging through rubble after earthquakes and tornadoes looking for survivors. They tell them they're there to help the state in emergencies and the army reserves is who goes to fight to fill in gaps. I spent my 4 years in the army helping to train new recruits. Basically I did nothing in the regular army. Then I spent 2 years in the national guard and got deployed. During my year in Baghdad I saw regular army, navy, marines and national guard, as well as soldiers from too many other countries to count. What I never knowingly encountered? An army reservist.

Ok, so I'm not saying this kid was good or bad, there's no way to know his intentions. I'm just saying it's certainly possible he was just a naive kid who wanted to help but didn't do his homework. He should have known plenty of Iowa vets that could have told him. At one point Iowa national guard had over 140% deployment rate. Meaning that many had gone multiple times, which is fucking bullshit. The national guards recruiting is far more sinister and predatory than the army. Because with the army you likely know you're getting your ticket stamped at some point. These kids often just haven't done their due diligence.

Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 160d (1 reply)

It seems that Americans, who spend all their time online, are completely unable to ascertain that the US military complex exists primarily for killing people outside of America. Before the internet, I could excuse young people falling for the propaganda. It was possible that they didn't have access to information. Now you have to want to fall for the propaganda and purposely ignore all evidence to the contrary to believe joining up isn't a ticket to eventually be called on to kill someone outside of the US and possibly be used as cannon fodder yourself.

P00ptart@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 160d

Again, I'd say naivety and well... Sheer stupidity aren't out of the question here. There's been decades of propaganda and eroding education here. I'm not quite willing to call this kid willfully evil yet.

Magnum@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 160d (1 reply)