Bad Boys for ... LIFE? Lol... Nope. Quit playing us.

Former American combat soldier turned citizen-journalist Matt Gallagher pens a tell-all today in the NYT, about how former American soldiers like himself are helping cloud the distinctions between citizens, armed soldiers and journalists in Ukraine.  Not a good look, America.  

We really can't keep pretending we're not in this war -- staying out and "supporting" from the sidelines by arming and training civilians -- then crying when they are killed by better trained Russian soldiers.   

(I wonder if the NYT editors had any qualms about running this piece, or if they too see it as exposing the hypocrisy behind America's allegedly neutral stance in this war -- in an effort to encourage the negotiated end to this war?)

The State Department has been clear: American citizens should keep away from Ukraine...   One of the best things about being an American is we don’t need to wait around for our government to give its permission.

... 

I recently returned home from Lviv, Ukraine, where I’d spent a few weeks with friends and fellow combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan training Ukrainian civilians in basic urban-combat and survival tactics. We flew there on our own dime and volition because we saw a sovereign democracy under assault and believe that is wrong.... 

Since returning home to the United States, my fellow "trainers" and I have been deluged with messages from other veterans asking if they should go to Ukraine. 

Their motivations are many; some are natural first responders and helpers, deeply committed to the principle of service. 

Others long for the purpose that their previous lives in uniform provided (or the purpose they remember it providing — memory’s a hell of a thing). 

Some seem to be seeking something like absolution for their part in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which went amiss early on and which no amount of money or time could make clean.

And a few — not many, but a few — want the opportunity to shoot a Russian invader in the face in the name of democracy. I don’t mention this flippantly. Existential fights such as Ukraine’s need such people.

...

There must now be thousands of Americans in the country, working in both military and humanitarian capacities. I fear it’s a matter of when, not if, one of them falls into Russian hands and becomes the main character in a cautionary tale...

There’s little doubt an American captive, particularly a veteran, would be a propaganda coup for the Kremlin. It’s also plausible that a veteran would be treated as a combatant, regardless of his or her actual work in Ukraine...

Yet there are no legal barriers to Americans going to Ukraine... 

In my experience, the only thing Customs officials seemed to care about when they saw Ukraine stamps in my passport was whether I was transporting weapons. (I was not.)... 

Discouraging my fellow veterans from going to Ukraine would be both hypocritical and disingenuous. There are people there suffering...  Morally righteous and practically sound support is what Ukrainians need from others right now.

-------------

No offense to citizen-soldier-journalist Gallagher, but that last line?  He's providing neither.  A few weeks training, and a good heart, aren't enough to erase the distinctions.

When you see dead civilians in the streets in weeks to come then, ask yourself if getting published and pretending to help really saved any lives or was worth it to the Ukrainian people who hosted your latest adventures in combat?   God help those currently enlisted too. Pray this is over before they get sent over to fight in what is really more another country's civil war than it is America's to fight.

-----------

"One of the best things about being an American is we don’t need to wait around for our government to give its permission."  What a bullshit attitude this is, Mr. Gallagher.  

"Rittenhousing" it's been called up here...

Re-enlist in America's armed forces already, if you miss the camaraderie and want to "help" the world with your weapons of choice.  (You wonder too, if this guy was representing himself as "press" -- with tacit encouragement by the Times -- while over there too.  That likely doesn't help the Real Presspeople being targeted and killed either.)

Gallagher's new book drops April 28, btw...  I missed the announcement where all profits will go to support the Ukrainian civilians in rebuilding their country when the world powers are done using it as a personal weapons training ground and adventure set.  Somehow, what they try out over there always ends up over here, on the streets of our nation.  

Why are these helpers not so keen on policing America's inner cities, instead going abroad to help civilians anyway?