The West Point Soldier Who Called It as He Saw It

[Y_Participant 4591]

The West Point Soldier Who Called It as He Saw It [1]

TruthDig
June 20 2018

In this May 2016 photo provided by Spenser Rapone, Rapone raises his left fist while displaying a sign inside his hat that reads “Communism will win,” after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (Courtesy of Spenser Rapone via AP)

Truthhdig Editor’s note: On the outside, Spenser Rapone’s West Point graduation uniform looked like all the other cadets’. Underneath his dress uniform, however, was evidence of his political views: a T-shirt bearing Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara’s image, and a cap that read, “Communism will win.”

The shirt and hat made waves in the U.S. military community after Rapone posted photos of them on social media in September, and now he has been given an “other than honorable” discharge. According to The Associated Press, he was charged with “conduct unbecoming of an officer” after an Army investigation determined that he “went online to promote a socialist revolution and disparage high-ranking officers.”

In the following statement for Truthdig, Rapone explains his political beliefs.

I am a combat veteran with the First Ranger Battalion, a recent graduate of West Point and a former second lieutenant who was stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y. Since identifying myself as a socialist, there has been much controversy generated by a number of my public statements.

It began with my post on social media, in which I expressed my full and enthusiastic support of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in his fight against racial injustice, white supremacy and police brutality. After revealing a picture of myself in uniform with the hashtag #VeteransForKaepernick, I was met by solidarity from my fellow soldiers, as well as harsh blowback from my chain of command.

To this day, I stand by my convictions, despite the efforts of ranking officers to pressure me into silence. I believe that standing up for the exploited and the oppressed is the most honorable thing we can do as people. No job should hinder or repress this pursuit, which is why I decided to resign my commission as an officer in the United States Army.

My conditional resignation was denied by the secretary of the Army. Instead, the military forced me into either submitting an unconditional resignation or appearing before a board of inquiry—an adversarial trial in which a jury of senior officers would determine my fate. Rather than submit to the antics of what amounts to a show trial at best, I tendered my unconditional resignation.

Passing judgment on me one last time, the military determined the character of my service to be “other than honorable.” Despite the brass prolonging my time in service, I have come to the conclusion that leaving the military altogether, whatever the circumstances, is the only moral way forward. During this ordeal, I have learned that I am far from alone in my feelings of disillusionment and betrayal within the rank and file of the U.S. military.

As a teenager, I believed the United States military was a force of good for the world. I thought that I signed up to fight for freedom and democracy, to protect my loved ones and my country from harm. My experiences showed me otherwise.

After bearing witness to the senseless destruction in Afghanistan during my combat deployment to Khost Province in the summer of 2011, I knew that our wars must be stopped. I was assigned to my platoon as an assistant machine-gunner. I took part in missions where human beings were killed, captured and terrorized.

However, the horror wrought by the U.S. military’s overseas ventures is not limited to combat engagements alone. Some nights, we barely did anything at all but walk through a village. As such, the longer I was there, the more it became apparent that the mere presence of an occupying force was a form of violence. My actions overseas did not help or protect anybody. I felt like I was little more than a bully, surrounded by the most well-armed and technologically advanced military in history, in one of the poorest countries in the world. I saw many of my fellow soldiers all too eager to carry out violence for the sake of violence.

There is no honor in such bloodlust; quite the contrary. I saw firsthand how U.S. foreign policy sought to carry out the subjugation of poor, brown people in order to steal natural resources, expand American hegemony and extinguish the self-determination of any group that dare oppose the empire. Idealistic and without a coherent worldview yet, I thought that perhaps pursuing an officer’s commission would allow me to change things and help put a stop to the madness. I was wrong.

It soon dawned on me how pervasive the military-industrial complex is. I studied, examined my own experiences and began to grasp more completely the horrors and impact of U.S. imperialism. Learning that over a million people have lost their lives since 9/11—the vast majority being innocent civilians—began to haunt me.

Seeing that up to a trillion dollars a year were being diverted from education, health care and infrastructure in the U.S. to support our 800 military bases around the world began to feel increasingly maddening. Within the Army itself, one out of three women are sexually assaulted. The death of football player and later soldier Pat Tillman by friendly fire was covered up to sell a war.

Generals responsible for war crimes—from the unbridled destruction of Afghan and Iraqi villages to the construction of torture prisons—are rewarded with accolades and political power. These sad and dishonorable truths increasingly grew impossible to ignore. The military was not the noble and selfless institution the commercials and Hollywood movies made it out to be—far from it.

At West Point, I soon found myself at odds with my future role as someone tasked with the responsibility of leading soldiers into battle. However, leaving West Point after my junior year would have meant returning to the enlisted ranks or finding a way to come up with a quarter-million dollars to pay the academy back. So I stuck it out, hoping I would find a way to reconcile this contradiction.

Again, I was wrong. Upon returning to Fort Benning, Ga., to begin my training as an infantry officer following graduation, I was filled with dread. It was like I was in a place simultaneously familiar and unknown. There were things I noticed that my 18-year-old self could not have recognized before. Most strikingly, I observed the scope of the brainwashing within the ranks, from bald, buzz-cut, mostly teenage infantrymen fresh out of training, to college graduates eager to lead those naïve soldiers into America’s next war.

I felt witness to a collective delusion—one that I was once a part of, but had somehow miraculously escaped. After nearly a year there, as I prepared to move to my new duty station at Fort Drum, one thing became clear: I cannot be a part of this any longer. I cannot kill or die for the U.S. military—no one should.

I know that I am not alone in feeling this way. My feelings and experiences are not an anomaly. I know, because I have had conversations with others who have expressed the same sentiments.

You are out there, and should you take the same steps that I have, I am with you. While the prospect is daunting, united together we have far more power than all of the generals and politicians combined. We possess the ability to grind this entire military machine to a halt. It is high time we live up to the trust and respect bestowed upon us by the people. Let our mutual love of humanity and our desire for liberation and peace be our guiding principles.

Most importantly, let us find common cause with the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Libya and so many others who have suffered at the behest of the United States. To those soldiers who I’ve heard from, and to those I haven’t yet,

I hope that you too find the courage to lay your weapons down with me, and refuse your orders to kill and die for the benefit of a handful of ruling-class elites at the great expense of the rest of us. Freedom lies on the other side. Together, let us fight to put a stop to these endless trillion-dollar wars, and let us join our brothers and sisters around the world in putting a stop to all forms of exploitation, oppression and senseless violence.

Spenser Rapone
TruthDig
Jun 20, 2018

Citation
[1] https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-west-point-soldier-who-called-it-as-he-saw-it/

[Knarley BobParticipant 2219]

Way back when, the citizens of France took care of their ruling elite too.
Hint, hint….

OATHKEEPERS, not on our watch. MOLON LABE

[JB BooksParticipant 3182]

Tough s~~~. Go to Venezuela if you love communism.

We just don't realize life's most significant events while they're happening. Back then, I thought, "Well, there'll be other days". I didn't realize that that was the only day. - "Moonlight" Graham

[MonkParticipant 16978]

It wasn’t the communist claptrap that did it, it was his highlighting of the role of the military-industrial complex.

See ‘War is a racket” by Smedley D Butler.

That said, if he is as clever as he thinks he is, he would also see that Communism is no different.

See “Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution” by Antony C Sutton.

[JB BooksParticipant 3182]

Got zero interest in hearing long-winded speeches about the “military-industrial complex”. Next thing you know, I’d be joining a bunch of social justice warriors on protest marches. I keep my life simple to GMOW.

We just don't realize life's most significant events while they're happening. Back then, I thought, "Well, there'll be other days". I didn't realize that that was the only day. - "Moonlight" Graham

[JustAnotherGuyParticipant]

JB Books wrote:

Got zero interest in hearing long-winded speeches about the “military-industrial complex”.

The reason the US is the world police when every other nation turned into an empire? We see the intervention as a burden and (usually) leave. I stand by my military (not the f~~~ing drone program) nearly every time, except when they do something retarded like put a woman in charge of anything but changing bandages or emptying latrines.

F~~~ this delusional c~~~. I don’t care if he went to West Point, or where he was deployed, or what he saw. He’s anti-American, full-stop.

Cupcakes are Cold. MGTOW is Absolute Zero.
“Let us wait a little; when your enemy is executing a false movement, never interrupt him” –Napoleon Bonaparte, 1805

[Anonymous 42]

JB Books wrote:

Tough s~~~. Go to Venezuela if you love communism.

Hey JB, ya don’t have to go to Venezuela, they’re migrating here to amnesty states that willingly take them in, so here can become politically indoctrinated to look and feel like THERE!

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

Did this guy miss the memo? In the last century communism/socialism was responsible for the deaths of nearly 350 million people. Yeah right another America hater who thinks totalitarianism is the answer–maybe he should meet some people from communist gulags and ask them how they feel about authoritarianism.

I say deport his ass to North Korea.

[743 roadmasterParticipant]

A good education can not fix stupid

The man is a true idiot. Just f~~~ed over his life in a big way. No where is he going to get on the payroll for a good paying job. Any business that has any form of government contracts will not hire him. From the news coverage it is getting now, we just might hear about him soon in the news when he figures it all out and ends it all.

mgtow is its own worst enemy- https://www.campusreform.org/

[Anonymous 12]

JustAnotherGuy wrote:

JB Books wrote:

Got zero interest in hearing long-winded speeches about the “military-industrial complex”.

The reason the US is the world police when every other nation turned into an empire? We see the intervention as a burden and (usually) leave. I stand by my military (not the f~~~ing drone program) nearly every time, except when they do something retarded like put a woman in charge of anything but changing bandages or emptying latrines.

F~~~ this delusional c~~~. I don’t care if he went to West Point, or where he was deployed, or what he saw. He’s anti-American, full-stop.

America has the cultural Empire. Go just about anywhere and you will see elements if not complete societies of American style culture.

[Ranger OneParticipant 16836]

He objects to what he sees as the disease of Western imperialism, and then embraces a political ideology (communism) responsible for more deaths than any other ideology or religion.

His cure involves killing the patient. F~~~ him.

All my life I've had doubts about who I am, where I belonged. Now I'm like the arrow that springs from the bow. No hesitation, no doubts. The path is clear. And what are you? Alive. Everything else is negotiable. Women have rights; men have responsibilities; MGTOW have freedom. Marriage is for chumps. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart-R'as al Ghul.

[Anonymous 14]

JB Books wrote:

Got zero interest in hearing long-winded speeches about the “military-industrial complex”. Next thing you know, I’d be joining a bunch of social justice warriors on protest marches. I keep my life simple to GMOW.

And that is precisely why the Globalists are winning… because men like you can’t see the whole game.

Wars of aggression are being used to displace people, and you can’t see it…

Gaddafi said E.U. would turn black if we took him out, so we did exactly that, and E.U. is turning black…The result of the action was already known, therefore the result was the intent of the action.

Country after country that the U.S./Israel attacks/invades has refugees fleeing from destruction… all fleeing into the E.U. Rest assured though, Israel takes in nearly zero of the refuges who are displaced from wars they want…Maybe you should move there, because the plan clearly is to push for open borders everywhere else.

This kid has it half right, the wars are bulls~~~, he just has the other half wrong, Communism is not a great idea.

If Communism started off with taking the bulk of the wealth from the worlds top .01% then I may be onboard, but that will NEVER be the case, it will always be about the masses who are being pushed to the bottom paying for more and more their neighbor’s bulls~~~ as the insanely wealthy keep getting richer. Who do you think owns all the Media in the West? Poor people? And all this media is pushing Leftist, Communist, open border ideology (Israel being the eternal exemption)…why? Because Elites want the masses to pay for each-other’s s~~~ as they sink to the bottom as they themselves continue to rise, this is the best way to avoid a revolution…

[Can’t Stump TrumpParticipant]

Y_ wrote:

Since identifying myself as a socialist, there has been much controversy generated by a number of my public statements.

…

I thought that I signed up to fight for freedom and democracy, to protect my loved ones and my country from harm.

Oh yeah, he called it like he saw it, as a typical retarded liberal who’s never opened a history textbook. He supports Che Guevara AND freedom and democracy, because . . . reasons.

Women are better at multitasking? Fucking up several things at once is not multitasking.

[RumpoleParticipant 994]

If he found his tour in Afghanistan unpleasant, then why did he apply for an appointment to West Point and do the four years to get his degree and commission?
The cost of a West Point education is around $300,000. I wonder if he will be required to repay it.

[Anonymous 1]

Rumpole wrote:

The cost of a West Point education is around $300,000. I wonder if he will be required to repay it.

There is a 5 year commitment after the academy. Tax payers expect that return on their investment. If he failed that part of the contract, he should certainly be made to repay…but I bet he gets a pass.

Also, there is a patriot who wanted an appointment to the USMA, eager for a long term career…but he didn’t get a slot, because this POS Rapone filled the seat.

Rapone got an “other than honorable” discharge, but he likely has an honorable discharge from his enlisted days. He will likely take that (ignore the newer version), claim a disability, apply for a GS government job, and get hired with the extra “points” of military service + disability. The HR screening computer won’t care that he is anti-USA.

[Anonymous 1]

What an idiot this man is. He signed up for something, but had no idea what he was getting into.

I could have told him everything that he would find “Over There.”

…Or he could have gone to the VFW hall and talked to some Vietnam Vets. Just ask them how it was fighting for the USA.

Before you make a big life decision like joining the Army you would think he spent a couple of minutes researching what he is getting into? (face palm)

I knew all these things when I was about 10 years old. The VFW hall taught me all without every having to serve a day in uniform.

After learning the truth about the American Empire, he then goes and thinks Communism is the answer. LMAO.

I guess he doesn’t know that the Soviet Union did the same thing in Afghanistan that USA is doing now!!!

[Big BossParticipant 4496]

Monk wrote:

It wasn’t the communist claptrap that did it, it was his highlighting of the role of the military-industrial complex.

No it was the communism, that is why he was being questioned. They shouldn’t have even bothered taking long to do it. They should have done it as soon as the picture was revealed.

It is political infiltration of the ideology in an insidious manner, using the cancerous reality of the military industrial complex is just bulls~~~ scapegoating. Eisenhower warned of it so he had plenty of defense if that was the reason. Further, if that was true, he would have resigned as soon as he became aware of it. Communist from the frankfurt school have already admitted that they want to overthrow the Constitutional government of the United States. He just didn’t realize people are taking his treasonous infiltration seriously.

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