Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon are coauthors of the new book Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs, from Duke University Press.
Amid the debt ceiling debate, House Republicans are pushing for cuts to the Veterans Administration, and corporate Democrats are continuing to support privatizing the agency’s socialized medicine. Both are an attack on working-class veterans.
Several new memoirs from disillusioned military veterans reflect on the horrors of war. They’re essential tools for challenging US empire.
Congress desperately needs more representatives from working-class backgrounds, including those who are military veterans. Unfortunately, most veterans currently serving in Congress are foreign policy hawks who want to keep the war machine running.
In Texas, National Guard members faced painful cuts and absurd assignments by Republican governor Greg Abbott. So they did what many exploited workers before them have done: they organized a union.
Conservatives have long worked to dismantle the American welfare state. They’ve been so successful that some are even turning their sights on a formerly sacrosanct group: combat veterans returned from war.
The military’s elite units have long stoked some of the country’s most reactionary politics. But the Right has recently worked hard to defend and normalize the barbarity of special operators — even those accused of major war crimes, like former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.