The Bolsheviks took power on the backs of soldiers in the imperialist Russian army. Soldiers are not some special section of the working class that gets to decide to just not work, we accept that workers are essentially forced to work for bosses under capitalism, that’s why we don’t let capitalists get away with the “just get another job if your boss is bad” argument, it is a matter of life and death. These people made a terrible decision just as they got out of high school, they fought or served for the fascist army of the US, regardless of what they did or didn’t do they objectively were on the wrong side of any war they fought in. They have to live with that for the rest of their lives but the fact is they’re here now, they’re in our country and members of our class with the same fundamental interests as us, this isn’t even mentioning the overrepresentation of colonized people in the army. We can talk about some moral reckoning where we ask them to wear a dunce cap and self crit after we’ve actually had a revolution. At the end of the day, we aren’t fighting people, we’re fighting systems, I don’t think we should go out and attack Lee Carter or Spencer Rapone or Mike Prysner just because they joined the army if they acknowledge that imperialism is something we have to struggle against.
I didn’t say forgive war criminals. I’m talking about people haven’t committed war crimes and have spent the time after they finished their service working to oppose that system they upheld. Christopher Dorner was a veteran and a cop, I would gladly welcome him into any party.