is ironic in a number of ways.

As Sun Tzu pointed out about two and a half millenia ago, you should always treat traitors well. Never really trust them, but treat them well, because if people know you don’t, they won’t betray. (And be clear, this man was a traitor to his own country.)

To cap it off it turns out that he was a highly trained murderer. Highly trained murderers with shitty morals (most of them) need to be treated very carefully. Either take care of them well or kill them. At the very least, don’t bring them into your country and then abandon them to a shitty racist society without any support. (Aka. give them a job. There are tons of meaningless well paid government jobs. Give people like this one, plus a nice health care plan.)

Fortunately (or is that unfortunately?) he was in a rage and killed two national guardsmen, who while obviously willing to kill for Empire (like him, but probably less so) had no real power or responsibility for what happened to him. If he’d been thinking straight he would have gone after a politician or admin official. Even easier, a lot of the people responsible for how he was mishandled are no longer elected officials or high admin officers and thus have no real protection.

Seems a bit silly to kill a couple of peons. The people responsible won’t give a damn, they’re just talking points. But if it was one of them?

Not, of course, that I would ever condone extra-judicial murder of people who are responsible for a stupid, hopeless war and thus all the deaths, murders, rapes, torture, starvation and homelessness a stupid, hopeless war entails.

Anyway, treat traitors well, but never trust them. Sun Tzu knew. If I were a member of the elite, I’d be wondering if the next pissed off veteran, foreign born or not, will connect the dots and decide to go after actual responsible parties. Perhaps jobs should be found for them, and health care, just out of self-interest?

Oh, and do note that he did not kill civilians. That makes this act, in at least one way, morally superior to 95% of the decisions made to use violence by elected members of Congress and every administration official of my lifetime.

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