Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in notes he left on his cellphone that he needed to “cleanse” his mind “of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and deployed twice to Afghanistan.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in one letter found by authorities and released Friday.
I mean, he’s got regrets about lives he took, so chances are he realised he’s been lied to his whole life and has done terrible things “for his country”.
But maybe I’m being too optimistic here. We really need news agencies to release the full letter instead of selectively quoting. They did the same with Luigi Mangione until Ken Klippenstein released the entire thing. Hopefully he gets his hands on this one as well.
But what lie does he think he was being told? If he expected a quid pro quo for his sacrifices and problems, what was he expecting in return? Good VA benefits, a social safety net, and affordable, accessible mental health care? Somehow I don’t see these benefits being an expectation when being a “patriot” and a “Trump supporter” as they are antithetical to Trump and the republican MO in general. Was he expecting an authoritarian that would shut the libs up, deport everyone, and make harmless tariffs to punish our economic enemies? Who knows, and we probably won’t unless they release everything he’d written about his opinions leading up to this event.