Riley Livermore joins a burgeoning wave of dissent within the Biden administration and the military over U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Sixteen years ago, Riley Livermore enlisted in the Air Force. His path to the military was shaped by his evangelical Christian upbringing and growing up amid the war on terror. His ensuing career as a flight test engineer took him to Israel, where he spent two years doing missile guidance research. And shortly after October 7, he decided he couldn’t continue anymore.

Livermore is “utterly dismayed” by how President Joe Biden and the Department of Defense “has been complicit in the genocide in Gaza,” he told The Intercept. So much so that he is in the final steps of separating from the Air Force, a monthslong process he initiated in late October. Once he officially exits the military, he said, he will never again work in what he describes as the military–industrial complex.

“I don’t want to be working on something that can turn around and be used to slaughter innocent people,” he said. “I think the dissonance just kind of continued to get louder and louder, it’s like ‘I can’t really do this anymore.’”

Livermore joins a burgeoning wave of dissent within the Biden administration and the military over U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza — including nine prominent resignations in recent months; 25-year-old Airman Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation in February; and a new service member-led campaign to help soldiers speak out against elected officials’ support for Israel’s war.

    • @solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
      28•5 months ago

      path to the military was shaped by his evangelical Christian upbringing

      there’s no “thought the us military was the good guys,” or “thinking” in general going on. they do what they’re told

    • sunzu
      12•5 months ago

      yes those were idiotic wars with their own share of atrocities but at least there some propaganda veneer to tell public they were the good guys and US at least pretend to follow rules of war.

      Israel is straight up savage and proud to the point where most common sense people can’t stomach esp if they have to support this shit with their own labour.

      Telling y’all, American taxpayer is going to be held as complicit for this as Waffen-IDF death squads debacle. I hope israel’s right to genocide is worth it for the domestic supporters…

      Or they going to do another switcheroo like they did with Iraq and Afghan wars?

      So much support back then, now can’t find any one who supported it back then around 🤡