WASHINGTON — Lefty Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner, a Marine veteran who has positioned himself as a staunch anti-war candidate and critic of the US army marketing campaign in Iran, as soon as defended a Marine who urinated on a lifeless Taliban fighter, newly unearthed Reddit posts present.
The left-wing populist additional described battle because the “most pleasing expertise of my life” and fight because the “[b]est goddamn factor on the earth” in a collection of since-deleted Reddit posts from 2013 via 2020 reviewed by The Put up.
“I discover the urinating on our bodies as a poor alternative, however solely due to the present state of media affairs,” Reddit consumer “P-Hustle,” which CNN traced again to Platner, 41, wrote in a since-deleted July 2013 publish on a thread a couple of Marine getting fined and demoted for urinating on a lifeless Taliban fighter.
“It’s amusing that in the present day killing a person isn’t worthy of remark, however god forbid you show dominance. Solely 50 years in the past, and for the remainder of the historical past of warfare, these items was fairly commonplace.”
Platner scrubbed his Reddit historical past earlier than launching his Senate marketing campaign in August of final yr, however he seemingly copped to previous posts on the positioning in an interview with CNN, the place he described it as “me f—king across the web” and claimed that it’s not “indicative of who I’m in the present day.”
“I used to be an adolescent after I enlisted within the Marine Corps,” Platner stated in an announcement to The Put up. “I used to be looking for a technique to serve my nation and I had delight in that service. But additionally within the years since, like many veterans, I noticed how a lot we have been taken benefit of and developed a brand new understanding of battle.”
Within the current day, the oyster farmer has leaned on his time within the Marines to publicly campaign towards what he known as the “tragic, silly, ill-conceived” bombings in Iran.
He has additionally zinged incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) over her preliminary help for the Iraq battle. Collins, notably, later soured over how that battle was performed.
“Susan Collins despatched me and my mates to die in Iraq twenty years in the past. She realized nothing from it,” Platner, who volunteered for the battle and later labored for army contractor Constellis, previously often known as Blackwater, chided on X final yr when Collins opposed a decision to stop assaults on Venezuela.
Years in the past, beneath his nameless Reddit account the place he gave unvarnished takes, Platner argued that the battle in Afghanistan was by no means about “fixing the place” and as soon as he “simply centered on the work, I loved the hell out of myself.”
A few of Platner’s sizzling rhetoric on battle in his since-deleted Reddit posts have been beforehand coated by the Portland Press Herald.
“Needed to have an journey and kill some individuals,” he wrote in a 2020 Reddit change asking Marines why they enlisted. “Joined up in ‘04, did Fallujah and Ramadi, and managed each. Hell of a superb expertise.”
In one other, Platner underscored the “feeling of accomplishment that can not be replicated” from fight and lamented that “civilian life actually appears devoid of goal or pleasure after intense fight.” He additionally known as “main a rifle squad or machinegun part in fight was a very fulfilling expertise.”
“It’s onerous to clarify how a lot I loved fight,” he wrote. “It’s each bodily and intellectually difficult, and extremely thrilling (particularly the primary few instances). I used to be by no means an enormous fan of killing, a minimum of not for killings sake, however I did love profitable and that required killing.”
The left-wing oyster farmer conveyed related sentiments in different since-deleted posts, writing in a distinct publish that Marine and Military infantry warfighting was “one hell of an superior expertise,” and in one other publish describing it because the “Greatest goddamn factor on the earth.”
Platner is a veteran of each the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. At one level, he defined that he “loved the hell out of combating in Afghanistan” attributable to its different terrain however discovered Iraqi cities to be “only a terrifying expertise.”
Again in 2014, Platner appeared to champion aggressive army motion in response to the grotesque ISIS beheading of American journalist James Foley.
“We’re going to kill 1000’s. By the top of it, it might be hundreds of thousands. Our lifestyle is healthier, and if that’s what it takes to prevail, let’s get this present on the street,” he wrote. “I don’t disagree along with your level, I simply disagree with the actual fact you appear to suppose we shouldn’t do it.”
“There are occasions on this world when, for the nice of tolerance and humanity, it is advisable to kill a motherf—er,” he wrote in a deleted 2013 publish. “Sadly most people who find themselves true believers in tolerance and humanity discover that exercise repulsive. Which I suppose is morally good, however pragmatically a shortfall.”
Platner has described rising more and more cynical and disillusioned with the army, notably throughout his transient time as a non-public army contractor.
“I can inform you my life could be higher if I had not needed to combat in Ramadi in 2006,” he instructed CNN final month.
A evaluate of Platner’s previous Reddit posts additionally reveals his evolving views on US excursions overseas at time went on. In 2020, he lamented seeing “one other era of younger Marines get all pumped as much as get right into a combat that’s frankly pointless and of disastrous strategic consequence is miserable in a means I can barely put into phrases.”
“None of this bulls–t was definitely worth the individuals we misplaced to it. Waste of time (except you’re a politician or a protection business stockholder, then it was effectively value all of the struggling.),” he wrote in a 2021 Reddit publish about casualties in battle.
After the Kabul bombing through the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Platner fumed that “this silly f–king battle can’t come to an finish quickly sufficient.”
“Perhaps it’s as a result of I’m older now, however I simply really feel…protecting,” he went on. “These guys are the very best of us, and we don’t deserve what they’re prepared to surrender, not after 20 years of this dumb bulls–t.”
The populist is working neck and neck towards Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) within the June 9 major for the Democratic nod to compete towards Collins in November. Platner is averaging a 19.2 proportion level lead over Mills, based on the newest RealClearPolitics combination of polls.
Collins, the only New England Republican in both chamber of Congress, is broadly seen as essentially the most weak sitting Republican within the Senate, although she has a historical past of overperforming the polls and profitable in powerful election years.
Platner’s candidacy has been dogged by a hodgepodge of controversies.
Final yr, his unearthed Reddit posts exposing his uncooked takes on politics confirmed Platner describing himself as a “communist,” blasting “all” cops as “bastards,” and chiding that rural white People “really are” racist and silly.
Maybe most infamously, he was caught with a Nazi-linked tattoo that appeared like a Totenkopf or “dying’s head” image utilized by the infamous Nazi SS secret police drive. Platner claims to have gotten that ink in Croatia whereas inebriated in 2007.
Platner has since inked over it with what he characterised as a “Celtic knot with some imagery round canine” and insisted that he’s “not a secret Nazi.”
