HomeArticleThe US Army Asked Twitter How Service Has Impacted People. The Answers Were Gut-Wrenching.


After posting a video of a young recruit talking to the camera about how service allows him to better himself “as a man and a warrior”, the US Army tweeted, “How has serving impacted you?”

As of this writing, the post has over 5,300 responses. Most of them are heartbreaking.

“My daughter was raped while in the army,” said one responder. “They took her to the hospital where an all male staff tried to convince her to give the guy a break because it would ruin his life. She persisted. Wouldn’t back down. Did a tour in Iraq. Now suffers from PTSD.”

I’ve had the same nightmare almost every night for the past 15 years,” said another.

Tweet after tweet after tweet, people used the opportunity that the Army had inadvertently given them to describe how they or their loved one had been chewed up and spit out by a war machine that never cared about them. This article exists solely to document a few of the things that have been posted in that space, partly to help spread public awareness and partly in case the thread gets deleted in the interests of “national security”. Here’s a sampling in no particular order:

“Someone I loved joined right out of high school even though I begged him not to. Few months after his deployment ended, we reconnected. One night, he told me he loved me and then shot himself in the head. If you’re gonna prey on kids for imperialism, at least treat their PTSD.”


“After I came back from overseas I couldn’t go into large crowds without a few beers in me. I have nerve damage in my right ear that since I didn’t want to look weak after I came back I lied to the VA rep. My dad was exposed to agent orange which destroyed his lungs, heart, liver and pancreas and eventually killing him five years ago. He was 49, exposed at a post not Vietnam, and will never meet my daughter my nephew. I still drink to much and I crowds are ok most days but I have to grocery shop at night and can’t work days because there is to many ppl.”


“The dad of my best friend when I was in high school had served in the army. He struggled with untreated PTSD & severe depression for 30 years, never told his family. Christmas eve of 2010, he went to their shed to grab the presents & shot himself in the head. That was the first funeral I attended where I was actually told the cause of death & the reasons surrounding it. I went home from the service, did some asking around, & found that most of the funerals I’ve attended before have been caused by untreated health issues from serving.”


“My dad was drafted into war and was exposed to agent orange. I was born w multiple physical/neurological disabilities that are linked back to that chemical. And my dad became an alcoholic with ptsd and a side of bipolar disorder.”


“i met this guy named christian who served in iraq. he was cool, had his own place with a pole in the living room. always had lit parties. my best friend at the time started dating him so we spent a weekend at his crib. after a party, 6am, he took out his laptop. he started showing us some pics of his time in the army. pics with a bunch of dudes. smiling, laughing. it was cool. i was drunk and didn’t care. he started showing us pics of some little kids. after a while, his eyes went completely fucking dark. i was like man, dude’s high af. he very calmly explained to us that all of those kids were dead ‘but that’s what war was. dead kids and nothing to show for it but a military discount’. christian killed himself 2 months later.”


“I didn’t serve but my dad did. In Vietnam. It eventually killed him, slowly, over a couple of decades. When the doctors were trying to put in a pacemaker to maybe extend his life a couple of years, his organs were so fucked from the Agent Orange, they disintegrated to the touch. He died when I was ten. He never saw me graduate high school. He never saw me get my first job or buy my first car. He wasn’t there. But hey! Y’all finally paid out 30k after another vet took the VA to the Supreme Court, so. You know. It was cool for him.”


“Chronic pain with a 0% disability rating (despite medical discharge) so no benefits, and anger issues that I cope with by picking fistfights with strangers.”


“My parents both served in the US Army and what they got was PTSD for both of them along with anxiety issues. Whenever we go out in public and sit down somewhere my dad has to have his back up against the wall just to feel a measure of comfort that no one is going to sneak up on him and kill him and and walking up behind either of them without announcing that you’re there is most likely going to either get you punch in the face or choked out.”


“Many of my friends served. All are on heavy antidepressant/anxiety meds, can’t make it through 4th of July or NYE, and have all dealt with heavy substance abuse problems before and after discharge. And that’s on top of one crippled left hand, crushed vertebra, and GSWs.”


“Left my talented and young brother a broken and disabled man who barely leaves the house. Left my mother hypervigilant & terrified due to the amount of sexual assault & rape covered up and looked over by COs. Friend joined right out if HS, bullet left him paralyzed neck down.”


“My cousin went to war twice and came back with a drug addiction that killed him. My other cousin could never get paid on time and when he left they tried to withhold his pay.”


“It’s given me a fractured spine, TBI, combat PTSD, burn pit exposure, and a broken body with no hope of getting better. Not even medically retired for a fractured spine. WTF.”


“Y’all killed my father by failing to provide proper treatments after multiple tours.”


“Everyone I know got free PTSD and chemical exposure and a long engagement in their efforts to have the US pay up for college tuition. Several lives ruined. No one came out better. Thank god my recruiter got a DUI on his way to get me or I would be dead or worse right now.”


“I have ptsd and still wake up crying at night. Also have a messed up leg that I probably will have to deal with the rest of my life. Depression. Anger issues.”


“My grandfather came back from Vietnam with severe PTSD, tried to drown it in alcohol, beat my father so badly and so often he still flinches when touched 50 years later. And I grew up with an emotionally scarred father with PTSD issues of his own because of it. Good times.”


“Hmmm. Let’s see. I lost friends, have 38 inches of scars, PTSD and a janky arm and hand that don’t work.”


“my grandpa served in vietnam from when he was 18-25. he’s 70 now and every night he still has nightmares where he stands up tugging at the curtains or banging on the walls screaming at the top of his lungs for someone to help him. he refuses to talk about his time and when you mention anything about the war to him his face goes white and he has a panic attack. he cries almost every day and night and had to spend 10 years in a psychiatric facility for suicidal ideations from what he saw there.”


“My best friend joined the Army straight out of high school because his family was poor & he wanted a college education. He served his time & then some. Just as he was ready to retire he was sent to Iraq. You guys sent him back in a box. It destroyed his children.”


“Well, my father got deployed to Iraq and came back a completely different person. Couldn’t even work the same job he had been working 20 years before that because of his anxiety and PTSD. He had nightmares, got easily violent and has terrible depression. But the army just handed him pills, now he is 100% disabled and is on a shit ton of medication. He has nightmares every night, paces the house barely sleeping, checking every room just to make sure everyone’s safe. He’s had multiple friends commit suicide.”


“Father’s a disabled Vietnam veteran who came home with severe PTSD and raging alcoholism. VA has continuously ignored him throughout the years and his medical needs and he receives very little compensation for all he’s gone through. Thanks so much!!”


“I was #USNavy, my husband was #USArmy, he served in Bosnia and Iraq and that nice, shy, funny guy was gone, replaced with a withdrawn, angry man…he committed suicide a few years later…when I’m thanked for my service, I just nod.”


“I’m permanently disabled because I trained through severe pain after being rejected from the clinic for ‘malingering.’ Turns out my pelvis was cracked and I ended up having to have hip surgery when I was 20 years old.”


“My brother went into the Army a fairly normal person, became a Ranger (Ft. Ord) & came out a sociopath. He spent the 1st 3 wks home in his room in the dark, only coming out at night when he thought we were asleep. He started doing crazy stuff. Haven’t seen him since 1993.”


“Recently attended the funeral for a west point grad with a 4yr old and a 7yr old daughter because he blew his face off to escape his ptsd but thats nothing new.”


“I don’t know anyone in my family who doesn’t suffer from ptsd due to serving. One is signed off sick due to it & thinks violence is ok. Another (navy) turned into a psycho & thought domestic violence was the answer to his wife disobeying his orders.”


“My dad served during vietnam, but after losing close friends and witnessing the killing of innocents by the U.S., he refused to redeploy. He has suffered from PTSD ever since. The bravest thing he did in the army was refuse to fight any longer, and I’m so proud of him for that.”


“My best friend from high school was denied his mental health treatment and forced to return to a third tour in Iraq, despite having such deep trauma that he could barely function. He took a handful of sleeping pills and shot himself in the head two weeks before deploying.”


“Bad back, hips, and knees. Lack of trust, especially when coming forward about sexual harassment. Detachment, out of fear of losing friends. Missed birthdays, weddings, graduations, and funerals. I get a special license plate tho.”


My son died 10 months ago. He did 3 overseas tours. He came back with severe mental illness.”


“I’m still in and I’m in constant pain and they recommended a spinal fusion when I was 19. Y’all also won’t update my ERB so I can’t use the education benefits I messed myself up for.”


“My dad served two tours in middle east and his personality changes have affected my family forever. VA ‘counseling’ has a session limit and doesn’t send you to actual psychologists. Military service creates a mental health epidemic it is then woefully unequipped to deal with.”


“My best childhood friend lost his mind after his time in the marines and now he lives in a closet in his mons house and can barely hold a conversation with anyone. He only smokes weed and drinks cough syrup that he steals since he can’t hold a job.”


“After coming back from Afghanistan…..Matter fact I don’t even want to talk about it. Just knw that my PTSD, bad back, headaches, chronic pain, knee pain, and other things wishes I would have NEVER signed that contract. It was NOT worth the pain I’ll endure for the rest of life.”


“My cousin served and came back only to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and ptsd. There were nights that he would lock himself in the bathroom and stay in the corner because he saw bodies in the bathtub. While driving down the highway, he had another episode and drove himself into a cement barrier, engulfing his Jeep in flames and burning alive. My father served as well and would never once speak of what he witnessed and had to do. He said it’s not something that any one person should ever be proud of.”


“I was sexually assaulted by a service member at 17 when I visited my sister on her base, then again at 18. My friend got hooked on k2 and died after the va turned him away for mental health help. Another friend serving was exploited sexually by her co and she was blamed for it.”


“I spent ten years in the military. I worked 15 hour days to make sure my troops were taken care of. In return for my hard work I was rewarded with three military members raping me. I was never promoted to a rank that made a difference. And I have an attempt at suicide. Fuck you!”


“I actually didn’t get around to serving because I was sexually assaulted by three of my classmates during a military academy prep program. They went to the academies and are still active duty officers. I flamed out of the program and have PTSD.”


“My father’s successful military career taught him that he’s allowed to use violence to make people do what he wants because America gave him that power.”


“While I was busy framing ‘soliders and families first’ (lol) propaganda posters, my best friend went to ‘Iraqistan’ but he didn’t come back. He returned alive, to be sure, but he was no longer the fun, carefree, upbeat person he’d previously been.”


“My husband is a paraplegic and can’t control 3/4 of his body now. Me, I’ve got PTSD, an anxiety disorder, two messed up knees, depression, a bad back, tinnitus, and chronic insomnia. I wish both had never served.”


“This is one of the most heartbreaking threads I’ve ever read.”


“I am so sorry. The way we fail our service members hurts my heart. My grandfather served in the Korean War and had nightmares until his death at 91 years old. We must do better.”


“My Army story is that when I was in high school, recruiters were there ALL the time- at lunch, clubs, etc.- targeting the poor kids at school. I didn’t understand it until now. You chew people who have nothing at home up and spit them out.”


“I was thinking about enlisting until I saw this thread. Hard pass.”


“I hope to god that the Army has enough guts to read these and realize how badly our servicepeople are being treated. Thank you and god bless you to all of you in this thread, and your loved ones who are suffering too.”


There are many, many more.

This is a poem I wrote a while back called “Naughty Little Boys”:

That little boy’s mum is going to be so upset.
He hasn’t combed his hair,
and his clothes are filthy.
And what’s he gone and done with his legs?
Where are your legs, little boy?
Better go and find them before your mum sees you.
Those legs are very important to her.

They sent the little boys up into the sky
and over the ocean to go play soldiers.
They gave them toy guns
full of toy bullets,
and they screamed toy screams,
and bled toy blood,
and cried toy tears,
and had toy nightmares,
and called out for their mums
in the desert.

The man on the TV keeps calling them heroes.
Don’t call them that, TV man,
you’ll only encourage them.
These are little boys,
and they’re being very naughty.
They are worrying their mums sick
and it’s time for them to go home.

Find your legs, little boy,
and go be with your mum.
Find your hands and your face too;
she’ll miss those as well.
Find your mind and bring it back
from that dark, scary place.
You’re not there anymore.
You are home.
Stop screaming toy screams
and crying toy tears
and go tell your mum that you’ve had
a bad dream.


Latest comments

  • Lord Bertrand Russell, who joined with the Frankfurt School in this effort at mass social engineering, spilled the beans, in his 1951 book, “The Impact of Science on Society”. He wrote:

    “Physiology and psychology afford fields for scientific technique which still await development. Two great men, Pavlov and Freud, have laid the foundation. I do not accept the view that they are in any essential conflict, but what structure will be built on their foundations is still in doubt. I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology…. Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called “education.” Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part…. It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.”

    Russell continued, “The subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship….The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray.”

    I am a combat disabled Vietnam Vet, ca. 1971-72. Some of my 1969 high school classmates figured many of us would be drafted and not make it back home alive. In 1970 my draft lottery # was 35, based on my birthday. Long story short, I went to Vietnam as a US Army helicopter pilot, flying real combat missions. I make a joke now that it took “them” 7 months to get me, and they blew me up pretty good! But I gave them a good run at it.
    I now tell this tale: Take any kid that likes to play serious war game videos, tell him ” son, I’m going to teach you how to fly a real helicopter, then give you your own helicopter, fuel, food, a relatively safe place to sleep, and PAY you to take said helicopter along with many others, and give you all the opportunity to legally go out and SHOOT UP THE AREA! These helicopters come with machine guns and LOTS of ammo. It’s every teenagers dream! and the bad guys shoot back! If you make it back alive every night, it’s the coolest thing around. But… “Too bad Lt. Smith bought the farm today. He was a really good pilot and a groovy guy.”
    Don’t forget what Lord Bertrand Russell said, “the world is overpopulated”, and “snow is grey.” And read from the post above: War Is A Racket, by Major General Smedley Butler, 1935

  • I am a Canadian. Generally speaking Canadians love our American brothers and sisters. We know you. You are good people. I find this list of notes absolutely heartbreaking and, it seems to me, sooo unnecessary for a people and a nation who had so much potential.

    Around 1900 and again after WWII you had the potential to have a very positive impact on a world that had suffered through several centuries of brutal colonialism followed by a century of two world wars. You could follow the lead of British predatory imperialism or you could could continue to build your nation and take a benevolent brotherly attitude towards all other nations of the world in spite of color,, creed or nationality. Unfortunately your leadership chose the wrong path. You chose the path of aggressive empire driven by predatory capitalism in its worst sense. You took arms against one after another smaller nations worldwide to bend them to your will and beat them into submission, beggaring each of them for decades thereafter. Your governments killed millions of innocents on their misguided race to rule the world. These weren’t the acts of the American people. We know that. They were and are the acts of a corrupt political and corporate leadership who bask in a false sense of superiority with a loss of morality and integrity at a sociopathic level in the depth and breadth of its destructiveness.

    Unfortunately there are only a few legal ways that the real American people can save the nation and the world, if it is not too late, and that is to move to a bona fide three party system; ban corporate election donations to political parties; put a cap on personal donations; heavily restrict the lobbyists, they unfairly skew the democratic process; do a better job of finding the right people to lead you and, finally, VOTE and vote all the war mongering bastards out.


    Around 1900 and again after WWII you had the potential to have a very positive impact on a world that had suffered through several centuries of brutal colonialism followed by a century of two world wars. You could follow the lead of British predatory imperialism or you could could continue to build your nation and take a benevolent brotherly attitude towards all other nations of the world in spite of color,, creed or nationality. Your leadership chose the wrong path. You chose the path of aggression empire driven by predatory capitalism in its worst sense. You took arms against one after another smaller nations to bend them to your will and beat them into submission, beggaring them decades thereafter. Your governments killed millions of innocents on their race to rule the world. These weren’t the acts of the American people. They were and are the acts of a political and corporate leadership who bask in a false sense of superiority with a loss of morality and integrity at a sociopathic level in the depth and breadth of its destructiveness.

    Unfortunately there are only a few legal ways that the real American people can save the nation and the world, if it is not too late, and that is to move to a bona fide three party system, ban corporate election donations to political parties and put a cap on personal donations, heavily restrict the lobbyists they unfairly skew the democratic process, do a better job of finding the right people to lead you and vote all the war mongering bastards out.

  • The reasons for NOT enlisting into the military are to numerous to mention. There is no advantage to it. There is nothing heroic about firing off Hellfire rockets into a wedding, funeral or playground.
    You are not heroes and I will not thank you for your service. You do not serve the cause of freedom and liberty.
    As Henry Kissinger once stated,”soldiers are merely stupid, dumb animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
    Don’t be a pawn for failed foreign policies.
    America has over 800 bases across the globe, for what reason? Is it for the defense of freedom or is it for corporate profit?
    Dr. Ron Paul is correct, we need to close all those bases and bring our people home and we need to stop waging wars that are meaningless and disastrous both everyone.

    • Military men are “dumb, stupid animals to be used” as pawns for foreign policy.

      Kissinger has denied saying it.

      The only evidence that Kissinger ever said this was a claim in the book, The Final Days, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, in chapter 14 (p.194 in the 1995 paperback edition). Woodward & Bernstein claimed that one of Kissinger’s political foes, Alexander Haig, had told someone unnamed, that he (Haig) had heard Kissinger say it. That’s triple hearsay, made even weaker by the fact that one of the parties is anonymous.

      Kissinger has denied ever saying it, and it was never substantiated by Haig, nor by anyone of known identity who claimed to have heard it. As Kirkus Reviews noted about the whole book, “none of it is substantiated in any assessable way.”

      In fact, the quote is not even very plausible, on its face. Kissinger served with distinction in the U.S. Army during WWII, and was awarded the Bronze Star. He has always been very respectful of other servicemen and their sacrifices. For him to have said such a thing would have been wildly out of character.

      In fact, the awkward phrasing doesn’t even sound like Kissinger, whose English prose is consistently measured and careful, despite his heavy accent, even when he speaks extemporaneously.


      On the other hand, the word “Infantry” is derived from the word, “Infant”, and it was meant to describe the naive soldier.

      It could be that most people (e.g., druggists, doctors, corporate employees, journalists, etc) are “soldiers”, enacting policies they do not understand.

  • I posted this comment below, on a trailer for a movie about WW2 bomber crews, but it’s just as applicable here… ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVNNa4sqbtA ).

    If spraying random houses with machine gun fire is obviously morally wrong, then carpet bombing random houses is obviously wrong. Surely you people must understand this – it’s like 1st grade level morality. Even a first grader would tell you it’s wrong. You do not make anybody more free by dropping random bombs on cities and houses, no more than you do driving through the street in a car full of gangsters spraying every other house you pass with machine gun fire. A lot of these people in these houses – have nothing to do with the war the state and slimey ass politicians are involved in, and probably even oppose it.

    For example, the US has been at almost constant war for the last 50 years. Most people are pretty oblivious to it. How would you feel if someone flew over your neighborhood and bombed the crap out of everything you built, destroying your house, killing family members and neighbors, being basically a total douchebag in the air.

    I tell you how you’d feel, you howl bloody murder and gangster terrorist attack, like the New Yorkers did about 9/11. 9/11 wasn’t something random though, the US had been bombing those people for decades over seas. Payback was inevitable. Somehow, someway, you keep beating up on a little guy, you know one day when he gets a little older, he’s going to shank you in the school hallway, because he remembered that shit and has been brooding about it forever.

    The whole concept of “terrorism” and “terrorist acts” came from bombing from above… first with Zeppelins in WW1.. then from the Germans bombing Coventry… then with retaliation attacks on Dresden and Hamburg. Carpet bombing of cities is a “terrorist act” and people who do it are “terrorists”, not war heros. They weren’t brave. They were cowards dropping bombs from up high.

    Stop lionizing these people. They don’t deserve it.

    The real heros were the people that flipped off the government and said “sorry, I don’t know those people, I have no beef with them personally, I’m not killing anybody i don’t know for your dirty money…. if you got a war with someone and want to kill them, well, go do it yourself. I ain’t got no dog in this fight.

    If the German people had said that to the Nazis, there would of never been a WW2. “Sorry, I ain’t doing that shit for you”. Instead, they brainwashed themselves with nationalism and patriotism. If the US people had said that to the Republican and Democrat pigs… “sorry, I ain’t doing that shit for you”… Europe would of never been destroyed completely with millions left dead and homeless. If you rich men want to kill people, you’re going to have to do it yourselves.

    We try to tell you – stop it – stop listening to these statist liars – that’s all they do, is lie to you – that’s all any government does, is lie to you – but – it’s like you got some kind of death wish, or enjoy hurting and killing other people and stealing their stuff.

    Statists lie to you, it’s what they’ve been doing since the beginning of time to gain power over you. Whether telling you some fictional god exists, and only they know what god wants everybody to do… or putting a crown on their head and saying god appointed them leader… and they wouldn’t be leader if god hadn’t wished it so (circular logic)… or telling you it’s your duty to serve the tribe and go kill some other tribe that has slighted you or the leader… or organize it into an industrial sized mass killing spree with punch cards, draft notices, newspapers, and the fetisization of weapons and war machines….

    The answer is to just say “no”.

    If you don’t, humanity will be in a loop courting death and killing itself off periodically over and over again until the end of time. So tell that recruiter and that flag to go fuck itself, you ain’t dying in some jungle ditch a thousand miles from home for bullshit.

    No more of this “thank you for your service” bullshit, and no more of “freedom isn’t free” lies. If you hear a cliche, suspect it as a lie, or a narrow truth applied broadly to become a bleeted lie by sheep who never once, analyze it closer, but just repeat… repeat… bleet it out… because it makes them feel good and wise, to repeat things like a parakeet or broken record.

    Sorry, but freedom is free. It’s always been free.

    But you have to defend it yourself.
    From liars and con artists.
    Who usually assume some self appointed mantel of authority.

  • Incredibly painful to read. Thank you for writing this post.

  • ” I’ve always felt there’s something inherently psychopathic about joining the army in peace time, as far as I’m concerned people join the army to find out what its like to kill someone. I hardly think that’s an inclination that should be encouraged in modern society, do you? ”


  • This is nothing new. It’s what Shay’s Rebellion was all about back after the Revolutionary War.

  • America, just prior to WW1 was turning into a warfare state for big business interests, and they discovered that much money could be made from the warfare model itself. By the 1960’s The Congressional, Military, Industrial Complex Monster was in full death swing and Vietnam was its current victim.

    Blind patriotism fuels these wars for business interests. Memorial Day is a major propaganda tool to keep fueling the US Death Machine with the blessings of the general “dumb shit” public (to borrow from Dr. Paul Craig Roberts).

    • people are always overwhelmingly anti-war, if the pollsters ask honest straight forward questions.

  • Thank you so much, Caitlin, for this post. Because I’ve been locked out of my Twitter account since April 3 – for an “abusive post” on March 24, which Twitter won’t explain what is abusive about it & I don’t see anything breathing the “Rules” – I never saw the original USArmy tweet & the explosion of replies. Yes, they are heart-wrenching & hopefully will keep many from enlisting in the Military.

    Gov/State cannot wage war w/o many willing to be Warriors.
    Discourage would-be enlistees w/ this thread.
    Aid them in finding truly productive work – anything rather than what will destroy others along w/ themselves.

  • what was not covered here is that recruiting fact that 71% of american men ages 18-25 do not fit the requirements of the military. they are ;obese; drug addicts; educational problems;criminal records[[drug use]];stc. so its become extremely difficult to recruit qualified persons. but that has made the military step up its recruiting. this problem will not stop the zionist anglo agenda. that’s why trump is hard on trade with china to stop them for developing robotics and ai. this is where the military is headed .it still requires personnel and at a higher level of education of which they are doing. it has been the rural poor and the inner city blacks and Hispanic’s who have filled the ranks. in my home town of oregon il the local rag runs a picture and story of the new recruit and how proud their parents are .and then when they graduate from basic they are again in the paper with another story of their training and where they may be sent to plus praising the bravery and pride that their parents have. propaganda personified !


  • And just who forced these individuals to join up to kill brown children in their far away countries? Do you really believe that anyone with morals, ethics and a sense of decency should be crying their eyes out for mass murderers? Well do you? What a damn bunch of fools. When you live by the sword you will also die by it. Once you decide to be a killer, you forfeit your humanity. I will not cry for monsters!

    • agreed!

    • You sound a lot like a double thinking jingoist. Are you a jew too? Tribunals really are a thing guy.

    • Be aware many who served in the Vietnam conflict were drafted. I think that even the USMC was filled with about half drafted men.

      • I married a Vietnam Vet USMC one month before my 20th birthday, 50 years ago already! I had no idea of what I was getting into marrying him, or anything about PTSD or war fatigue or repressed rage/violence, etc., or what men go through in brutal combat. But within a few months of marriage he threw a loaded 16 oz beer can across the room at me, just grazing my eye and putting a huge hole in the wall next to me. Lucky for me, my eye wasn’t destroyed or I was killed, but that was just the beginning of his violent nature and daily alcoholism, undiagnosed PTSD, raging jealousy, stalking, misogyny, you name it, I endured it all with him. He obviously saw horrible things, but refused to talk about them, so instead, took his aggression out on me until I walked out. I understand he had a rage problem before he was drafted, but what the war did to him was make him a pent up animal that could only be drowned out with alcohol. He was a tyrant, a manipulator, and directed his pent up misery at me while twisting and turning my family and children against me. He should have been in rehab for life, and I should have walked away years ago, but now I understand where all of his terrible rage came from that should have been directed at the US military war machine that uses/abuses men/women as slaves and then spits them out when no longer needed. I was the object of military rage when it should have been directed at the US government instead. War has to stop! Men/women have to stop enlisting in the military. Shut down NATO and bring home the troops!

        • The article is great, plain to see. People think I’m nuts when I show my abomination of “thank you for your service”. The droning inanity of this disgusting statement is obviously a propaganda trick emanating from the intelligence media. Placate stupid Americans who think war is glamorous and worthwhile.
          A bumper sticker should say, “thanks for not enlisting or serving”. Makes far more sense,

      • Mr. Shaver: you are incorrect. Here are a couple statistics derived from the US Census Bureau:

        -25% (648,500) of total forces in country (Vietnam) were draftees. (66% of U.S. armed forces members were drafted during WWII).
        -Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups.
        -Vietnam veterans’ personal income exceeds that of their non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent.

        Overall, veterans are much more successful than their non-military peers. I’m a Vietnam combat vet. My military service turned this soul, a man without direction, into a very productive and successful man. My bride and I are soon hitting our 50th anniversary. I attribute much of that feat to what the military and combat taught me about what is really important in life, e.g. family, God, and service to others.

    • I can understand your point of view, but we live in a militaristic country in which the overwhelming majority of people cry crocodile tears over veterans — I refuse to use the word “serve” because they are not serving anyone but the oligarchy — the flag, our vaunted exceptionalism, etc. And 18-year-olds tend toward being pretty damn dumb, especially when raised by parents who know nothing of the actual world they live in. My attitude is that we should take care of these messes the government has made, but let’s stop holding these men and women up as admirable heroes, as anything other than the gullible fools they were. Who should we be sending to war if we love it so much? The Senate, the House of Representatives, the Executive, and the Judiciary — I think those SC justices could use a little education.

      • bo buts please.

        • gees, no, not bo….

    • … and the holier than thou ignorant moron has just spoken. Since you are quoting the bible (Mat 26:52), why don’t you also quote,… TO YOURSELF, Isaiah 64:6?! or Matthew 7:5?!

      Many of the poor people (or not poor) join because there are no real job opportunities for them in the civilan sector considering the level of education they have or don’t. So, joining the military gets them that chance. These recruiters come at them with all types of phony promises and outright lies, that they falll head over heels for. By the time they wake up it’s too late. You twitch you get court martialed!!! If you try to leave, they make your life even more of a living hell with all kinds of humilations, abuses, etc that one is not even allowed to report, and if they do, it only gets worse and worse. So they stay. etc. How about you try it and see if you have WHAT IT TAKES to survive what these beautiful people have put up with?
      There ‘s lot more to this than the typical idiot can quickly rush to condemning.
      They are not “fools” nor are they “monsters”, but you most definitely are a big league evil retarded dork! So congratulations.
      I joined the military because I couldn’t afford to do some skydiving as a civilian, so the military allowed me to be a part of a prestigious skydiving demo team. I did that while i got paid well for it!!!! So go ahead and tell me I am a fool and a monster. Of course the country I served never had a war while I was enlisted. I was ready to pay up should they call. That’s the price one pays. Those poor souls were not so fortunate.
      You should show them sympathy and respect.

  • Although this is a little late for this article; this came up for the U.S.A. holiday:

  • Even more sad is the fact that for each destroyed service person life there are another 5-10 destroyed lives in the country and incidents that ended up giving them PTSD.

  • Some of this PTSD could be prevented or alleviated with a policy change. Currently, deployed members return home by air, alone. They’re overseas one day, home the next. They don’t have time to decompress, or process the experience with comrades going through the same thing. If they were shipped home by ship, with others, they would process it.

    I think that prior to Vietnam, deployment and return was by ship. And the PTSD issue got really worse as of Vietnam.

    A firefighter teaching a class once mentioned that firefighters handle trauma better than police officers because the firefighters sit around and process it in a group, whereas the police officers don’t have that regular experience. (They replace it with going to a bar and drinking together.)

    This would be such a simple change and could make such a big difference.

    • How about we simply stop sending our boys (and girls) overseas to fight for empire?

    • War is bad. Period.

  • Twitter is not in any regard a credible or reliable measure of anything. Especially when it comes to USA veterans. A more reliable source, noncorrupted is coming.

    • I have told this story many times. The military culture in the USA is friends and family amd good people. Not the politician driven latest flavor of the month bs culture narratives. My son was born jan 1 1985 second baby born on ft bragg. 3 months premature. Immediately med evacd to UNC Chapel Hill premie center. 4 months later he was home with mom. He is still alive and kickin upright to this day. Noome discussed quiet comfortable blanket and killing him. It was immediate action to save my sons life. I served my term and ETSd with college benifits. Its not the military people, its the politicians. Imho

      • learn to take responsibility for your own choice and action.

      • Agreed….Both my sons are in the Air Force: weather and air traffic control. Both have shared stories of the hazing, and inappropriate training procedures which often include humiliation. Both continue to serve, not only for the money and benefits, but for the accomplishment of gaining experience in an advanced career field. They both oppose the politicians ‘war on terror’. Both are aware of the truth of Sept. 11th, 2001; that our bravest individuals are being sacrificed for political and corporate wealth and power via the control of minerals. The eldest will retire soon. For all his years he strove to show that humiliation and degradation are poor ways to train discipline to recruits. The younger continues to work within to change attitudes and training procedures. They are both proud to wear the uniform.

    • so all those vets are unreliable?I can bet you won’t find excused rape and ptsd from any what my job has done for me thread.
      That you brag being in the sciences can get you what a laborer makes says a whole lot about the weight (or lack of) of your opinion
      Your probably a secretary and your job is posting positive light on a shit institution

      • yeah, there are obvious shills monitoring and littering this blog site.

        • Me a “shill”? I was lucky not to be too severely damaged in the military. But similar hazards and injustices abound in civilian life. The Medical Industrial Complex is as bad as the Military, both funded by the same industries. The main product of the Military and Medicine is propaganda.

  • These are extremely important comments and need the widest distribution possible. These stories will touch a large segment of the population. To continue your reaction, join Veterans for Peace, an organization devoted to non-violence and to abolishing was as an instrument of national policy.


  • Ms Johnstone I sent an email to an Internet buddy that contained a link to this post of yours. He replied to me:
    -And the death of conssciped US soldiers, and young high school drop-out “volunteers” like me (82nd Airborne Division) is statistically and morally NOTHING compared to the millions massacred by the US war machine.
    ” Millions Massacred by the US war Machine ” I am now wondering if the United States holds the record for the highest number of deaths by war in the history of humanity???

  • Civilian Life Sucks! Born and raised in the Armed Services it’s the greatest place to travel the world and meet people. What makes it work is being teamed up with others like yourself who respect the uniform. The biggest problem are with those who do not respect the uniform and what it all stands for. … Snowden stated that big brother is watching, so why are they not getting rid of the bad apples, especially those who do not respect the uniform. So that the good apples can continue to team up with the other good ones. … Big brother must be prejudice, there is no room for double standards in the Armed Services. We need to keep teaming up with the good ones and kick out the bad ones. …we are not little kids anymore but growing adults who depend on each other. … The trick in staying in the Armed Services for 40 years is finding that place you like and the great team that comes with it. … For example a Nurse, a Lawyer, a Marine Jet Pilot, or any quilified Science officer can be making $60,000 a year as science officer in the Armed Services. Travel the world meet people and making new friends. … Again the key is finding the right fit, the right job and the great team of friends, brothers and sisters in uniform.

    • conscience-less creatures like yourself is worse than conscientious “partriotic” killers.

      • I must wonder about your level of education and what you do to support yourself as your reply to Lorenzo’s comment does not stay on topic.

        • i have no doubt about who you are and what you represents.

        • What is the problem with BDS? Does his sense of morality bother you too much?

    • The purpose of military is not to travel the world and have a great time trying to control every country in the world. The purpose that the military was created for was to protect our own country and borders.

      • And SYNICKEL, if you study history, our government has entered into agreements to protect the borders of other countries. If you want to change our ‘military policing the world’ don’t condemn a soldier, get involved in some organization opposing the war on terror. Our well trained and experienced career military is necessary to avoid conscription (a draft).

    • You are getting paid with stolen money. In case that didn’t sink in, I’ll repeat. You are getting paid with stolen money.

      • The military has problems, but not because it is military. Rape drugs corruption are common in civilian and military. It can be a great thing for those looking for stability, education, experience. It is not all about war.

        The more horrific war comes through The Medical Industrial Complex (www.harvoa.org/chs/pr/dusbk1det.htm)

      • I must wonder about your level of education and what you do to support yourself as your reply to Lorenzo’s comment is untrue. Service members are paid thru taxation. Many of us do not support the war on terror, yet we do support our service members.

        • do you have an advanced degree from Yale? you sound like Bolton and Shrub.

    • Yes! Military can have problems but not because it is “military”.

      Rape/Corruption/Drugs/etc are common in civilian life too. Military was a fine memorable experience for me. Stability, organization, opportunity, education, camaraderie, etc.

      How about a blog, “How Has Your Civilian Life Impacted You?” 🙂

      • I can bet you won’t find excuses rape and pays from any what my job has done for me thread.

        • The military is not “a job”. It is more like a big city or nation — a culture. Yes it can devastate or create order, and tragically or not. Corporations (medical, for example) feast on the captive clientèle (soldiers).

          And that is all true in civilian life also. The Medical Industry is much more horrific in my opinion, and a large percent of the US population work directly or indirectly for the Medical Industry. Many “activists” are uncritical of Medicine uncritically, but it is a horror.

    • It seems that the consequences of your country’s actions in foreign lands have never passed your mind. You only think of making money -in return for what? Killing, maiming, plundering? What is in your view the right fit of a jet pilot, for example? Drop bombs from 20000 feet over unsuspecting civilians?

    • It seems the consequences of your country’s actions in foreign lands have not entered your cranium. 60000 a year or 60000000 is not worth it. This dependes on a person morality of course. When some have been brainwashed to believe that money and material thingsare everything, then we end up with people without any moral values. And what do you think is the right fot for a jet pilot for example? Drop bombs from 20000 feet over unsuspecting civilians?

  • I can add a story to this list. A navy veteran once told me that he had lung cancer from working around asbestos while repairing some ships. The other people he had worked with were also sick. They could get no help from the VA, however, which denied their illness was due to the asbestos.

    I think during the Bush administration the VA was ordered to find excuses to deny medical care to veterans, although by now the situation may have changed. Whether it is a prison or the VA, the government doesn’t like to pay medical costs, because they are so high in America.

  • Service? No. Service is when your work actually HELPS people, not displace, wound or kill them. The US military very rarely helps people, except perhaps during a natural crisis.

    • Thank you for this, WillD. The other word I cannot abide is sacrifice. You goddamn well didn’t invade someone else’s country as a sacrifice for me, you did it for the oligarchs and you might as well face up to it, that your “sacrifice” was to enrich a bunch of wealthy sociopaths.

      • yup, you two are slaying one of the last sacred cows of our times… i burnt more than a few bridges by expressing similar sentiments myself…

  • The US doesn’t have official conscription any more, but its economic conscription is just as effective if not selective. Many blacks and the poor who ‘volunteer’ to ‘serve’ gamble with their lives and their humanity just to get an education or trade and some decent healthcare that most of the rest of the first world takes for granted. Those recruiters at suburban shopping malls aren’t selling killing innocents abroad for a living. And watch what would happen to recruitment to the imperial war machine if ever college/university tuition were abolished and universal healthcare instituted.

  • Yeah, I’m a vet. Don’t sleep well, or much, so… I write. Most try slaying the demons in other ways — drink and drugs, withdrawal and isolation. Tried those too and more… nothing works. But finally made a truce with myself — wouldn’t call it peace — and am, well… am in the here and now. Lots of friends didn’t make it.
    Support the troops currently serving — best way to support them is stop the wars, bring them home and de-mobilize. Not a popular message in some quarters. But this is why I write what I do, in an effort to end the empire, because that’s what it’s going to take.
    Would like to end the empire peacefully, and have been writing about a protest that begins at the ballot box. And… it really is just a beginning, a starting point, that tries to establish a clear cut political choice to gauge the raw political power of people ready to end the elite’s empire. It’s designed to prevent the elite from countering it without exposing themselves as lying, scheming tyrants and, initially at least, protect supporters from the elite’s wrath during political protests in the buildup to an election.
    It’s also designed to give those serving in the armed forces and police serious reservations about attacking their fellow countrymen both before and especially after the election (if this should ever come to pass). But since the elite will not go quietly, it also exposes them for the evil bastards they are…
    Would prefer all this not happen, but from the looks of things the die has already been cast. At least this way the MSM won’t be able to present isolated and scattered acts of resistance as lone lunatics or homegrown terrorism. Maybe we can at least avoid Solzhenitsyn’s fate and stand together… cause they’ll certainly hang us individually.
    Read the other day about a SWAT raid on a home at 5am. Homeowner, an elderly man, answered the door with a gun in his hand. Police shot and killed him. The raid was the result of a relative telling the police they didn’t think the old man needed his guns. No due process, just a 5am SWAT raid aimed at an old man who harmed no one. Sheriff praised his officers’ “professionalism” and made a statement to the effect that this was a “successful operation” which ended well.
    Don’t say you weren’t warned.
    Notice a lot of holier-than-thou virtue-signaling in this thread — Fuck you.

    • i’m not perfect, but at least i knew cyrstal clear that killing others for money or other rewards was evil even when i was less than 10. so fuck YOU.

      • Apparently, we are in a pretty small club, brother…

      • Good for you…
        Grew up surrounded by true believers.
        Maternal grandfather was regular Army officer. Uncle was regular Army officer who died in Vietnam. Whole side of the family going back to the Civil War…
        We lived near both an Army post and ammunition plant among the civilian work force. Father was a defense contractor. Constant stream of high-ranking officers and DoD officials visited us frequently, not to mention foreign military and politicos. Knew the entire local political establishment; HS girlfriend was the daughter of the Army post commander.
        Preachers preached it on Sundays… During Vietnam fully half or more of our graduating HS classes were being drafted. Don’t recall anyone going to Canada. Last time I visited and went to church with the parents, preacher was still saying the same old things — it was almost as if time stood still. Different preacher, much younger, but still the same old bullshit… duty, honor, country.
        Like I said, my message isn’t popular in some quarters…
        Good thing you’re made of sterner stuff.
        But your arrogance blinds you — we’re all victims of the elite’s empire of war and chaos. Why do you think these guys (and women now) come back so fucked up? Because we’re not monsters and what we did and saw haunts us. And we blame ourselves… for all of it, everything.
        Unlike you, we know what it’s going to take to end the empire. We understand exactly what the elite are capable of and will do to remain in power — we’ve seen it.
        But you? You think bullshit virtue-signaling is an accomplishment. You don’t understand the value of political compromise, setting aside your differences with others in order to achieve a larger goal. You don’t understand the importance of evaluating plans of action, either tactical or strategic, and making a decision. Of creating a plan and committing yourself to a course of action and your compatriots.
        Little things divide you and that means the empire rules you and always will.

        • we are very capable of planning and coordinating. And very aware of the capacity of evil of the rulers.
          We are also aware their plans are not doable without brainwashed idiots like you so fuck you and your ex soldier cops that are raiding houses like their in a warzine.Believe me the smart ones know where they and there families are.

  • President Trump and his ” war hawks ” are going to get United States troops killed sooner or later!! A few troops killed will not shake up the populace; but hundreds killed in one day from ships being sunk is going to rile everyone!! Will President Trump order in the nukes or will he back away???? Launching the nukes ends humanity!!!

  • If these guys feel so bad after serving in the US military think for a second how their victims feel. The Syrians/Iraqis/Serbs/… typically do not get air superiority cover, no drone and satellite intel, are not having the world’s best military hardware. And as a result of that they are on the losing side and not to forget they get attacked on their own soil where their families and beloved are living, so they have no country to go back after their service is over …

    • Thank you, Georgi. This cannot be said enough. But a good thing to remember is that with all this endless equipment, the U.S. actually doesn’t do very well in a ground war. When was the last time we won a war? Invading Grenada? We just go in, make an enormous mess, kill hundreds of thousands of people, then sit around at home talking about the “mistake” we made and how fucking exceptional we are. (You might be able to tell that I despise my country and most of the people in it.)

  • appropriate for memorial Day(US) than the usual platitudes as seen on tv and before the races.

  • When you join the military, you simply become a hired killer for the Mafia. How many pieces of silver do they pay you for that? When you come home broken and ruined, was it worth it? They lied to you and cheated you.

  • “Serving” in the armed forces? How about being conned into the armed forces. That’s more what it is really about. All the patriotic bullshit is just about conning the gullible to do something ugly and morally reprehensible – and have their lives destroyed in the process.

  • “God Bless Our Troops”
    – Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump

    • The Presidents are the Public Relations guys of the murdeing machine.

  • The United States Empire is on its way to the dustbin of history!! My government, and its allies, believe that they can just keep on bullying, and threatening other nations and get away with it!! Meanwhile China and Russia are establishing fine relationships with the rest of humanity!!! Please peruse this article:

  • they thought it was ok to kill and die for the pay masters who pay them a few bucks.

    well they are no heroes or friends of mine. come back with stories of how they did their very best to pay for their crimes and sins against humanity though there’s no way to pay for them.

  • What an indictment. And how terribly terribly sad. I have to confess I am weeping.
    All the beautiful young people being shattered, and for what?
    To further the aims of the Greedy Pigs.
    Stop the world.

  • I REFUSED the order to participate in the U.S. military, first in the 1960s and again in the 1970s. I frequently mourn the suffering and deaths of our military personnel, but more importantly that of the innocent foreign victims of our aggression. I sleep well at night, am not startled by sudden noises, don’t need treatment for military chemical exposure and have absolutely NO regrets for what I have done (or DIDN’T do).
    Those who have been in the U.S. military need to fully take responsibility for their part in what resulted from it, no matter if it is their injuries or those of the truly innocent victims. We ALWAYS have choices in what we do in this life, and they need to acknowledge and be responsive to the results of those choices.

    • dido.

    • If more were doing now as you did in 60s & 70s, KHL – refuse to be part of the military – there would most likely be no wars/invasions. US Gov can NOT wage war if few are willing to be its Warriors & their helpers. It’s those many who are willing to enlist in any capacity who make the US WarMachine possible.

  • “Stop The Wars”

    These are not wars.

    These are illegal invasions of sovereign countries conducted by a criminal organization masquerading as a government body.

  • Some of my friends went to Canada to avoid Vietnam!! Most of my friends that were drafted came back dead or very twisted in the head!! Two came back and were kept in the top floors of the VA hospital because they were too insane to be let out in the public. One came back and tried to kill his wife with a bible. One came back with pictures of hundreds of dead bodies that he had taken after using his machine gun on them!! Very few of his origin outfit came back alive because they were dropped on top of a hill and left there for months!! Every day more troops and more ammo would be dropped for them!! I tended bar many years later as a side job and heard many tales of woe about the Vietnam War!! War is extremely stupid!! Anyone that wants to start a war should be immediately locked up; and the key should be thrown away!!!

    • I agree with you 100%.

    • I don’t know if you get exposed to it, Ron, but I keep hearing about how we’re supposed to thank guys who were in Vietnam for killing Vietnamese peasants. And all their livestock. And even their dogs.

  • Military battle is safer than the exploitation of U.S. soldiers by U.S. corporations. Medical and chemical, environmental trash products and services.

  • Nothing the VA could ever do, if it were the most efficient, compassionate, responsive institution on earth, would properly remedy what the vaccine of sanity could prevent in the first place. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t do all we can to give these disabled human beings, who plied with blood and horror the bipartisan whims of Washington, the softest landing we as a society can offer them. No one expects that anymore, of course — not in a country that’s gone off its rocker (and I don’t just mean the orange beast). The litmus test for a four-star general or beltway chickenhawk is the same: the ability to state American foreign policy with a straight face.

  • Thanks Caitlin. War is evil. Don’t serve evil. They tried to draft me – I said NO.

  • Did you ever wonder why all of the US’s wars occur in distant foreign lands? What are those wars really all about?

    • You enlisted and were sent somewhere in the world to “protect America”. You had to kill some human beings of both sexes and all ages. You were “all torn up” about being ordered to do that. You started to question why it was necessary that you do all that killing.
      Your service ended and you came back to the US mainland. But after returning home you behaved very much differently than you behaved before you enlisted. You didn’t think the same way. You didn’t talk about the things you used to talk about before you enlisted. You didn’t smile much. During your waking hours you thought about many of the human beings, of both sexes and all ages, you had killed in that distant place, supposedly to protect the American Fatherland. You had dreams about killing human beings of both sexes and all ages. You thought less of yourself for killing all those human beings and over time it came to be self-hatred.
      As much as you wanted to, you could not escape the memories of killing human beings of both sexes and all ages, so you decided to “get help”, to get “treatment”, so you made an appointment with a person called a “psychologist”.
      I am the psychologist that you came to visit. Guess what I had tell you to “treat” you. Guess what I had to tell you to make you “feel better” about killing all those human beings (of both sexes and all ages) WITHOUT at the same time causing you to hate “the system” and “the people” that “just happened” to “get you” to do all that killing.


        Sounds like you lied to these pathetic survivors.

        They need “to hate “the system”, but be able to use that disgust/hate to keep other poor slobs out its clutches that turn them into killing machines towards people who are no real threat to US home soil or its people. I strongly recommend https://couragetoresist.org/ – for you too! Get the courage to resist the USGov yourself.

  • All this is for the Holocaust Religion, (Is-Real-Hell)… Bush-Clinton-Busk-Obumer_Trumpty Dumpty the Zionist Massod credo… “By deception we make war”… Our Boys and girls are now the fifth wave of terror… The terror of living a lie and living in the matrix of the money changers… Fools patriotism is the thousand pound psychosomatic gorilla that looms on the backs of all that are complacent about the never ending wars of the great Satanist land of OZ!

    I’ve seen the vets of Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan… The military commercials of wounded warriors propagandizing on TV… I served and have a porosities and I would do it all over again! “I’m proud to be an American puppet!!!”

    Here we see the military wimps crying I served and I’m not happy… Something the drill Sargent would say, These are crybabies and mommas girls and boys… And I hear the Last breath of a dying soldier crying “MOMA I’m coming home” “Momma I love You” Momma where are you?

    Courage to just say no, I will not go, and the sound of a paid education in the background… How enticing to hear… and the home front has no real blue-collar jobs anymore! Higher learning supporting lower learning conditioning and brainwashing… Learn to kill and have a job for life!!!
    The oil and gold barons lounging, drinking and laughing at the sight of slaves doing their dirty work of genocide… The Rabbis scoff a Christians as dumb goyim idolaters in the lands under the killing and genocidal ethnic cleansing… here at home they are safe as we do their dirty deeds done dirt cheap!

    The fools errand, is the willingness by ignorance by those that do not know who their masters are… The popes of religious dope and the magicians of the Kabbalistic-Zohar forming from clay, the golem image of their voodoo figurines of goyim sycophant compliant ignorant mental midget humans with no clue they are being sacrificed at the blood alter of Judaism . The latter, thinking the Rabbis are on the side of Christians evangelized by the likes of Zionist John Hagee and his cronies, the ministers of Zionistic deception…

    Full circle ignorance is the order of military Zionism… Yet, most pledges to patriotic duty are unawares of the connection… Political religion and schizoid fanaticism run amok in the common conditioned educated state pleab. Thin king they are educated, yet just automations of a well organized conditioning of mass illusion and mental illness of what real sanity is all about.

    Is there any other was to see it!

    • Amen brother!!!!!

  • The people never want war with others, although people will tend to defend themselves when attacked. Sadly, the rulers of America are not the American people. The country is being ruled by ‘the great destroyers’ who are sociopaths and who have no concern for others.

    I suspect that when the people get to a point where they realize they no longer need government to rule their daily lives, then we may have a much better chance at living and prospering in peace. But as long as we are ruled over by a shadow government, this will never happen. In my opinion.

    • Amen, brother.
      It’s a shame so few people are able to see what is right in front of their faces.

  • Caitlan, Thank you for your service. Seriously. A piece like this is indeed a public service.
    When I was young, at about 12 years old, I knew that when I turned 18 that I’d have to make a choice between being drafted or fleeing to Canada. I don’t know which I’d have done, but I suspect I’d be saying ‘hey’ at the end of every sentence and watching more ice hockey. I was watching the older brothers of the kids I played with face that choice, and watching some of them go to Vietnam, and watching their families deal with the funerals. Fortunately for me, the people who protested and spoke out against that war won before I turned 18, so I never had to find out what my choice would have been.
    One thing for certain, when I grew up I never had the slightest doubt that my government wanted to feed me into its war machine and grind me up and didn’t give a damn as to what bits of me emerged from the spout of that machine, if any at all. Between the lies about Vietnam and Watergate, I never had the slightest doubt that my government lied on a regular basis. And that was the good ol days of my youth before things went downhill.
    Again, Caitlan, thank you for your service in writing this and your other writings and your poetry and whatever battles you wage on Twit-head in the effort to try to stop the madness.

    • Glad you didn’t go. And it’s “eah” not “hey”.

  • I have a close friend who’s son went to the middle east (2 Tours) and many of the descriptions you cite pretty much describe what he went through. The ONLY reason that any country should ever go through war and put their sons and daughters through this hell is if that country is being physically invaded or if the countries vital national interest is at stake. That’s it.

    • Excellent observation. No people, in any country, want to fight wars against others. Sadly, when the country’s government is controlled by shadow rulers and by big business and banks, there is little chance of the people ever getting their way.

    • How is it that you have a close friend with a child that would even consider joining the murder machine?

  • Tulsi Gabbard for president! She knows.

    • She knows…?
      I wanted Gabbard to be genuine but in doing some research I am sharing just a little of what I found: Tulsi is a current member of the Counsel on Foreign Relations and CFR members are telling: they include all previous presidents (although I can’t find trump on it yet), N. Palosi, J. Diamon of JP Morgan, D. Chaney, Z. Brzezinski, Rockefellers, Soros, Gen. Powell, M. Albright, H. Clinton, J. Epstein, J McCain, R. Murdoch, Gen. Patreus, C. Rice, Dan Rathers, H. Kissinger, and Allen Dulles are just a few of over 4k and while I am sure that there are some CFR members that are doing good works around the world I just have yet to come across one. The CFR has been controlling the political dialogue since their inception in 1919, with a revolving door straight into the White House. Just a reminder that Obama entered the public imagination with the same antiwar speeches as Gabbard’s but her actual voting record on war and peace issues, especially on military spending, is not nearly as dovish as Sanders’. She voted for 19 of 29 military spending bills in the past 6 years, and she has only a 51% Peace Action voting record. Many of the votes that Peace Action counted against her were votes to fully fund controversial new weapons systems, including nuclear-tipped cruise missiles (in 2014, 2015 and 2016); an 11th US aircraft-carrier (in 2013 and 2015); and various parts of Obama’s anti-ballistic missile program, which fueled the New Cold War and arms race she now decries. She voted at least twice (in 2015 and 2016) not to repeal the much-abused 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, and she voted three times not to limit the use of Pentagon slush funds. In 2016, she voted against an amendment to cut the military budget by just 1%. I am hoping that people will think about taking her off of the antiwar pedestal soon. HI is owned and operated by the MIC. The large bases on Oahu and BI, hostel takeover of land that continues here today, the air, noise and water pollution and the general attitude that they can do anything that they want where ever they want is prevalent and she is part of that tribe. She is still in the military herself and embraces what she calls a “military mindset.” She ended a CNN Town Hall by saying that being Commander-in-Chief is the most important part of being president. And if she becomes a part of the Sanders ticket, we have to ask, “Which Tulsi would we see in the White House?” Would it be the Major with the military mindset trained to take orders from above who cannot seem to vote against new weapons systems or even a 1% cut from the trillions of dollars in military spending? Or would it be the veteran who has seen the horrors of war and is determined to bring the troops home and never again send them off to kill and be killed in endless regime change wars? Sanders has stated that he thinks that we need to go into VZ to have a fair and honest election. Well Carter certified Maduro’s election and says VZ has the most legitimate elections in the world and that Marduo is the most legitimate democratically elected leader in the world. Maduro has done in VZ what Bernie promises to do here but if Bernie is against Maduro, then is he against everything he is saying he will do for us if he becomes pres?

      • Its the deep state..those whores of Satan and the Zionists

  • No one can ‘do their duty’, whether it is in the military, as a policeman, a civil servant such as a ‘bylaw officer’, head of a corporation or any other job involved in serving psychopaths and get away for long with harming others.

    Good, decent people are not thinking beyond the day they ‘get a job’ as to what that job entails and just who they are really working for.

    While the corporatocracy has dumbed us down so thoroughly that we believe we are ‘harming’ people we don’t know for the ‘right reasons’, harm is harm and Karma never forgets. I have always said that the Universe/Creator is the great equalizer.

    Until all decent people turn on the elite doing this, the victims will pile up. We bomb innocent children for people like Obama, Bush, Cheney, the Vatican, George Soros, Rothschild, Rockefellers, Keloggs, etc…all proud killers, pedophiles, rapists and depraved. Yet, not one bomb ever falls on the 108-acre Vatican, the fortresses of the Bushes, Cheneys, etc…why is that? We know and see our ultimate problem, but we would rather go along with it…and keep paying the price.

    We are all commercial fodder. When will we say enough is enough?

    • i know a guy who went to Vietnam as an officer and survived the hamburger hill. he was a big fucking mess of guilt, contradiction, and hypocrisy. 35 years later, lo and behold, his son went to iraq and came back to become a police officer. the war machine runs without a hitch.

    • Who bombs innocent children for the Vatican? I’d really like to know.

  • Allow me to paraphrase one of the most famous lines from the TERMINATOR movies.

    Philosophically speaking, THIS is what the character, Kyle Reese, should have told the wretched cannon fodder laying down their lives fighting non-sensical, imperial wars while making the scum behind said imperial wars richer and more powerful:

    “Listen. AND comprehend.  Human Greed & Stupidity is out there. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, UNTIL WE ALL ARE DEAD!”

  • My family has sent our boys off every cry ever made since The Revolutionary War and have lost most. My grandma’s brother served in Patton’s Army in WWII, somehow he survived only to be killed being transported back home. Her entire male family died during or after serving in WWII and then they took their kids for Korea, Vietnam…
    A colleague of mine’s son and his friend enlisted during Kosovo so they could “kill, legally” and “rape without charges” after being raised in a career military special forces family and they were gladly accepted. They came home serial killers and rapists and now they are in America with that horrible mindset and they’re vocal in politics. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that they’re running for office somewhere because that’s what we do for “war heroes.” Thank you for writing this article. It sheds untold light on a horrible career path!

    • The lack of a moral standard gets passed down to the children. How do you teach what you don’t know? Unfortunately, most do end up in politics or working in another area of government. Something those with moral standards will never lower themselves to.

  • If you have worked for Peace and Justice… Thank you for your service to the people of the world. Stop The Wars

  • so(u)lDIErs

    • dying is their own choice, but killing is unforgivable.

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