10:00am - Knock Doors with Rebecca Cooke in Eau Claire
Campaign Office, Water St, Eau Claire, Cooke for Congress
https://mobilize.us/s/Fr2KMD
#cookeforcongress
10:00am - Canvass for Crowley & Cooke: Eau Claire
Brickhouse Pub, Eau Claire, Wisconsin AFL-CIO
https://mobilize.us/s/QGSsk3
#crowleyforgovernor
#cookeforcongress
11:00am - Original Peace Circle Rally
Peace Circle, Chippewa Falls, Imagine World Peace & Veterans For Peace
#imagineworldpeace
#veteransforpeace
#veteransforpeace — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #veteransforpeace, aggregated by home.social.
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10:00am Young Democrats of Wisconsin Trifecta Tour: Eau Claire
https://act.youngdemswi.org/knock-doors-in-west-wisconsin
#youngdemocratsofwisconsin
10:00am-Knock Doors with Rebecca Cooke
Campaign Office, Water St, Eau Claire, Cooke for Congress
https://mobilize.us/s/Fr2KMD
#cookeforcongress
10:00am Stand Up! Peaceful Protest
Main St, Rice Lake, BCD
https://mobilize.us/s/iKCwyb
#barroncountydemocrats
11:00am-Original Peace Circle Rally
Peace Circle,Chippewa Falls,Veterans for Peace & Imagine World Peace
#veteransforpeace
#imagineworldpeace -
11:00am - Original Peace Circle
Peace Circle, Chippewa Falls, Veterans for Peace & Imagine World Peace
#veteransforpeace
#imagineworldpeace
11:00am & 3:00pm - Door-knocking in WI-03
McDonough Playground, Eau Claire, Organizing to Fight Oligarchy/We The Fighters
https://mobilize.us/s/CL93Xo
#wisconsin3rdcd
12:00pm - Voter Outreach Phone Bank
Zoom, WisDems
https://mobilize.us/s/GXupcA
#wisdems -
#saveourva #veteransforpeace #veteransaffairs #veteranshealthcare #healthcareforall
VA Amnesia And How To Remedy It?
By Suzanne Gordon, Substack.
September 18, 2026https://popularresistance.org/va-amnesia-and-how-to-remedy-it/
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#gaza #gazagenocide #peoplestribunal #veteransforpeace #resist #resistauthoritarianism #resistfascism
VFP Flier the People's Tribunal
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Commander-in-Chief, Coward-in-Chief, Psychopath-in-Chief…
We have a full-fledged, card-carrying, certified psychopath in the Oval Office.
Article republished by Jerry Alatalo | August 24, 2026
[Editor’s note: Pastor Chuck Baldwin writes:
“In the most glaring, obvious ways possible, Trump has shown the world that he is anything but a leader. He is a raving lunatic and madman who has the potential and propensity to destroy anything or anyone in his path. And that includes the whole world.”
Please share Chuck Baldwin’s important article far and wide, especially with Americans. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Thank you very much. Peace.]
***
Coward-In-Chief
By Chuck Baldwin
Chuck Baldwin LiveAugust 24, 2026
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others.
General Douglas MacArthur
America has had some pathetic leaders throughout its history, but never one the likes of Donald J. Trump. Every principle or virtue of leadership one could point to as being obligatory to the character of a true leader is missing from this man. In fact, Trump’s character is the polar opposite of every principle or virtue of true leadership.
Trump leads by intimidation, threats, humiliation, bullying, arrogance, complete and utter callousness to the needs of others and pure, unadulterated violence and bloodshed. Those are not the marks of a leader; those are the marks of a gangster.
Those are also the marks of a coward. And that’s exactly what Trump is: the Coward-in-Chief. This character defect was put on display for the whole world to see just recently in a most astonishing way—even for Trump.
I begin with an excerpt of an interview between Scottish podcaster George Galloway and former USMC Intelligence Officer Scott Ritter.
George Galloway: Scott, let’s start, if we may, by the absolutely ignominious exit of the President of the United States in a catering cart at the airport in Turkey, having with full panoply climbed on board Air Force One. He skulked out the other side of the plane, was lowered by a crane and packed into what must have been a large catering cart, not telling anyone, even little Marco Rubio, that he’d gone. Marco thought he was snoozing up front or whatever else he does on these overnight flights. But in fact, he was no longer on the plane. And if there had been an Iranian assassination attempt, the entire Washington press corps, which might not have been so widely mourned, and Marco Rubio would have been done and dusted. But as a metaphor for the eclipse of his presidency, it serves quite well, I think.
Scott Ritter: Look, you have to take the security of the President seriously. But to be honest, to allow the President to fly to Turkey in a threat environment that could produce this outcome is absurd in the extreme. It’s a failure across the board. If in fact there was a threat to the President of the United States that was worthy of this kind of tomfoolery, then why did the President fly to Ankara to begin with?
The reason why I bring this up is that there was no threat against the President of the United States, no real threat. But the President has surrounded himself with insane people, literally crazies, who will breathe life into the most ridiculous social media-based rumor, whether it comes from Sarah Adams or Laura Loomer or some other equally insane Islamophobic people who have projected onto Iran the very things that we do.
Understand there’s a lot of American projectionism taking place here because we do assassinate leaders. We did kill the Supreme Leader. You know who doesn’t assassinate leaders? Iran. So, there was no real threat to this President.
Moreover, the shame of being willing to sacrifice—because the implication here is that Air Force One was at risk—[Secretary of State] Marco Rubio and the [White House] press corps. Why didn’t you take their lives into consideration? Because clearly you didn’t announce that the President was leaving Air Force One. So, you’re keeping Air Force One out there as a live decoy. This is shameful. This requires congressional intervention. But there won’t be. Why? Because this was just a game. This was a sham. This was a joke. This is an act of theater. And it shows the lack of professionalism throughout the Trump administration.
I mean, this is a man who has shown that he has no pride in who he is or in what the office that he holds is. No American president should ever allow himself to be evacuated in that fashion.
Right here, let’s be specific about who was left on Air Force One as a decoy for this perceived assassination attempt: The White House press corps (at least 13 Americans), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, and some say that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was on the plane also, but most major news sources say she wasn’t. But what we do know for a fact is that Leavitt resigned shortly after the inexcusable incident. She said the reason she left was to “spend time with her family.” But that’s what they all say. But how do Rubio, Miller, Bessent and Cheung feel knowing that Trump used them as a decoy to be blown out of the sky by an Iranian missile?
When Donald Trump snuck off that plane like the spineless, traitorous rat that he truly is, in his mind, he was deliberately sending all of those people left on Air Force One to their deaths. Talk about callousness! Talk about coldness! Talk about heartlessness! Donald Trump wins first prize.
If Trump cares no more about the lives of his own cabinet and staff than to volitionally, calculatingly and purposefully put their very lives in jeopardy to save his own slimy skin, you can know unhesitatingly and without question that Trump cares absolutely NOTHING about the American people.
Neither does Donald Trump give a tinker’s dam about our U.S. service men and women. This is easily proven by the way Trump has handled the abysmal—even torturous—conditions existing on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
For this story, I quote an excerpt of an interview between Judge Andrew Napolitano and journalist Max Blumenthal:
Judge Andrew Napolitano: Now, you talk about senior military officials being fired. Shouldn’t the captain of the USS Abraham Lincoln be fired for the deplorable conditions that he’s putting the young soldiers and Marines through?
Max Blumenthal: I think Hung Cao, the Navy secretary, should be fired. This is a clownish MAGA loyalist who lost various campaigns in Virginia, a fanatical Vietnamese expat anti-communist who has no credentials, who just held a meeting on August 11th with families of sailors who were telling him that their family members want to kill themselves at sea. And they’re calling and saying they don’t want to live another day. They’ve been out there for months and months and months. They’re not getting any fresh food. They’re eating like pieces of stale bread with Velveeta. They’re not able to contact their family members. They’re certainly not able to see them.
And now we learn from Stars and Stripes and Military Times that sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln are jumping overboard or attempting to jump overboard. There have been several attempts at jumping overboard to commit suicide.
And what has he done? What reforms have been put in place? We’re not seeing any. This also goes to the top, to Pete Hegseth, and it’s really just about the war.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is attempting to impose a naval siege on Iran. It can’t operate near Iran because of Iran’s standoff weapons. It’s unclear what effect it’s even having. There have been fires on previous ships, on previous aircraft carriers [i.e. the USS Gerald R. Ford] that have been set by sailors to try to end their mission. And they’ve reached the limit that the human psyche can withstand.
Now, one thing that I think would improve morale and actually enable these sailors to withstand such a grueling mission would be a just war that was actually defending the country that they come from. And I think that’s the subtext here, is these sailors know they’re fighting a failed war for a psychotic little apartheid state that controls the president. They know, but they can’t say that publicly.
And so that’s the subtext and the issue here, is these sailors know they’re fighting for absolutely nothing in a glorified mercenary army, and their needs and their psychological and basic physical needs are not being cared for. They’re just cannon fodder for Israel.
Napolitano: Here’s a producer of a documentary on the USS Abraham Lincoln summarizing what he has found and what he has been told. Chris, number eight.
Andrew Brown: You guys, there is a mental health crisis happening aboard the USS Lincoln in the Middle East that no one is talking about. And mainly because the Navy is pretty much quashing it.
You will read online about food shortages, supply shortages, poor morale among crew members. That’s because they’ve been at sea continuously for 250 days. They’ve been deployed a total of 271 days, 250 without a port of call. That’s unheard of. Normally they would go to port every 3 to 6 weeks. They have not been to port in 38 weeks. Keep in mind there are 52 weeks in a year.
And yes, the showers are moldy. They’re eating basically like a gruel kind of slop at this point. There’s no deodorant. There is no toothpaste.
My nephew has a friend on board there. And I was basically hearing updates last week when I was in the States in real time.
They’re not talking about the mental health crisis. Six people have tried to jump off that ship. The most recent was last Monday.
When you have not touched land in 38 weeks, in over 200 days, things start to happen to you mentally. Combine that with exhaustion and deadly mistakes start to happen.
So, this is how the Department of War, this is how Donald Trump treats our service men and women whose lives are already being put in harm’s way for a bulls*** war of aggression that was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks.
We are further putting their lives at risk out of sheer ineptitude and neglect. It defies logic. It defies reason. And it defies basic humanity.
Napolitano: Hegseth called this fake news.
Blumenthal: Yeah, that’s all he can say.
Napolitano: I’m going to jump to another topic, but the Abraham Lincoln has 5,000 sailors. You have seven suicide attempts, more than one per thousand. I never heard of that even in the worst times in the US military. And your point is right on: They’re not fighting for a war they believe in. They’re fighting Netanyahu’s war, and they know it.
When publicly confronted about the abysmal conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, Donald Trump said that the ship has not been at sea too long, but not nearly long enough. And then he callously brushed off the veracity of any reported facts about the harsh realities on board the carrier.
I realize that the MAGA Republicans (what’s left of them) and evangelicals will never admit it, but we have a full-fledged, card-carrying, certified psychopath in the Oval Office. His malignant narcissism does not allow him the inconvenience of having a conscience or feelings of empathy of any kind toward anybody. He is as cold-blooded as a rattle snake and a lot more dangerous.
Recalling the last obligatory attribute of true leadership in the above quote from Douglas MacArthur: the compassion to listen to the needs of others.
In the most glaring, obvious ways possible, Trump has shown the world that he is anything but a leader. He is a raving lunatic and madman who has the potential and propensity to destroy anything or anyone in his path. And that includes the whole world.
And who are Trump’s most enthusiastic and steadfast supporters? Evangelical Christians. They even believe that Erika Kirk is a saint.
As Ohio Congressman James Traficant used to say, “Beam me up, Mr. Speaker.”
Reprinted with permission from Chuck Baldwin Live.
Chuck Baldwin is a radio broadcaster, syndicated columnist, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded. See his website.
(Source/credit: LewRockwell.com)
#ChristianZionism #DouglasMacArthurQuotes #MarineCorpsNews #Philosophy #Psychology #Religion #VeteransForPeace #Zionism -
Veterans For Peace Will Not Be Intimidated by U.S. Government Surveillance
Veterans For Peace Statement - August 19, 2026
[first screenshot below]#VeteransForPeace (#VFP) is not surprised by news reports that our #TwinCities VFP Chapter 27, along with activists and organizations associated with #DirectActionMinnesota (#DAMN), was targeted by the #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity (#DHS) for #surveillance. The #Trump regime has repeatedly shown itself to be lawless and to have no respect for truth or the well-being of people in our country or around the world.
PDF of statement can be found here:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/RX9EJ78PHC#YAk7jgrw8IfDPDF of statement of Twin Cities Veterans for Peace (second screenshot) can be found here:
https://prod.cdn.everyaction.com/images/van/EA/EA015/1/94223/images/PDFs/VFP27-statement.pdf#DefendFreeSpeech #DefendRightToProtest
#news #politics #veterans #US #USpol #USA
#Minnesota #protest
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Veterans Group Condemns DHS Surveillance of Minneapolis ICE Protesters
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@HappyCrow13 Let’s hear how you are trying to reduce the size of the #BloatedPentagonBudget Tell us about your involvement in #JewishVoicesForPeace or maybe #VeteransForPeace or perhaps #PaxCristi or your efforts with #CodePink or #WarResistersLeague Come on,besides your endless posts on th internet you can tell us about th letters to your local newspaper.Please tell us about th meetings with your city representatives.Or state policy makers. You ever met a senator?You are a know nothing blowhard
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#usa #israel #iran : #warofaggression / #usmilitary / #dronebase / #protest / #nonviolentresitance / #codepink / #veteransforpeace / #nevadadesertexperience / #catholicworker
„Call On U.S. Military To “Stand Down” And “Refuse Illegal Orders.”
July 30 Day of Action called for by ShutDownDroneWarfare.org and BanKillerDrones.org.“ -
#VeteransForPeace opens chapter in Britain https://veteransforpeacebritain.com/
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@realTuckFrumper #WhatLiberalMedia never gets it right. Koch brothers project Concerned Veterans For America is quoted in this piece, but the largest and most active group, one of the main organizers of the April action #VeteransForPeace is not mentioned.
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#clairevaldez is going to Washington to represent #NY7 #VeteransForPeace #DSA https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/
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American Veterans Challenge Militarism and Rising Authoritarianism.
Article republished by Jerry Alatalo | (Source: PopularResistance.org) | May 17, 2026
[Editor’s note: Clare Bayard has organized in anti-militarist movements for almost 30 years, connecting domestic work for racial and economic justice with international movements against war and colonialism. Clare comes from a family of several generations of military veterans and co-coordinates the National Network to Dismantle the Military-Industrial Complex. Please share this article far and wide, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Thank you very much. Peace.]
***
From ICE To Iran, Veterans Are Challenging US Militarism
- By Clare Bayard, Waging Nonviolence.
- May 15, 2026
- Strategize!
Above photo: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images Entertainment.
Antiwar veterans are leveraging their unique credibility to oppose the war in Iran, stop ICE and support active duty resisters.
One hundred fifty people holding tulips stand in formation on the marble floor of the Cannon House Office Building, until Capitol Police arrest over a third of them and remove them in cuffs.
Maybe you saw an image of these veterans with their flowers — the red tulips that are an Iranian national symbol honoring martyrs. Perhaps you saw a photo of a disabled veteran’s wrists being handcuffed while leaning on a cane. You may have caught a video where a mother or a partner of a deployed soldier spoke about wanting their loved one back from this unconscionable war.
When 66 protesters from a coalition of veteran and military family organizations were arrested on April 20, these images went viral worldwide. This attests to not only the specific weight given to veterans who speak out against wars, but also the deep hunger to see any kind of tangible action against the United States and Israel’s profoundly unpopular war with Iran.
One of those arrested was Katie Chorbak, president of 50501 Veterans, which organizes more than 2,000 members into policy fights, nonviolent direct action and sustained advocacy. Chorbak, a fifth-generation combat veteran, chose to bring her concerns directly to lawmakers out of the belief that veterans have a “responsibility to speak plainly” when the country is moving toward war without transparency or congressional debate.
“Veterans showing up in that space matters because we understand the realities of war beyond headlines and talking points,” Chorbak said.
Despite decades of demonization of Iran by U.S. politicians, amplified by mainstream media, Trump’s war on Iran was met with immediate disfavor in March (a Reuters poll found that only 27 percent of voters approved of the initial strikes). Still, there has been little substantive resistance in Congress and relative quiet in the streets of cities that saw record-breaking protests against President George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s.
Yet, over these last 20 years, veterans never stopped organizing against U.S. wars and militarism. The organizers of the April 20 action — About Face Veterans Against War, Veterans for Peace, 50501 Veterans, the Center on Conscience and War, Military Families Speak Out and others — are building antiwar veteran and service member leadership, offering a vision of how we could end this country’s marriage to reckless, crushing militarism.
Where did this come from?
GI resistance is the tradition, dating back to the Revolutionary War, of American soldiers choosing to stand on their conscience and withdraw their consent to carry out the orders of commanding officers. The spectrum of resistance has encompassed the Vietnam War era’s more visible draft dodging and widespread disobedience in the ranks, and the quiet, mostly unseen refusal of soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to execute civilians, load their guns, carry out missions, report for duty or even to deploy.
Now, military resistance to the war on Iran is beginning to take publicly visible forms. Hundreds of complaints were filed by troops in every branch of the military when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a Christian nationalist, directed his commanders to inform their units that the Iran War is a holy war anointed by Jesus. And in the theater of war, service members whose labor enables the war machine can always find ways to clog the gears (sometimes literally). Rumors abounded of sailors clogging toilets and starting a fire on the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, which had to retreat for repairs in March.
Public acts of refusal are vital to building a movement. Many soldiers can’t imagine refusing orders or deployment until they see someone else doing it. But courage is contagious, and an opportunity to join a collective action can offer the necessary bridge to take that risk.
Antiwar groups offer two core ingredients to transform spontaneous individual acts of refusal into a movement: visibility and access to support. Kelly Dougherty, who co-founded About Face in 2004 after returning from a year in Iraq in the Army National Guard, now serves as the counseling director for the Center on Conscience and War, or CCW, supporting service members seeking separation from the military, information about their rights or conscientious objector status. Dougherty says that while the Iran War has prompted a recent surge in calls to CCW’s hotline, “most service members I speak to have been questioning the system of war and whether or not they can morally participate in it for months or years.”
About Face has carried the banner of supporting GI resistance since its founding by Iraq War veterans with the support of seasoned organizers from Veterans for Peace. The group launched a Right to Refuse campaign after the 2024 election to bring renewed attention to the long tradition of refusal of illegal and immoral orders. To get the word out, Right to Refuse uses visibility efforts, direct actions, social media, on-the-ground outreach and word of mouth. An encrypted support form allows for anonymous inquiries. The campaign works in tandem with the GI Rights Hotline, which has fielded calls from active duty questioners and emerging conscientious objectors since 1994.
As mainstream media conglomerates continue to shift rightward, so grows the importance of direct actions that alert soldiers to their options, as well as pressuring elected officials. This is why the CCW chose to have its executive director Mike Prysner risk arrest in the April 20 action. “Most people in the military aren’t familiar with their right to seek discharge as a conscientious objector,” Dougherty said. “We wanted to let service members know that if they are experiencing a moral crisis because they cannot, in good conscience, participate in war, that they can file for conscientious objector status and there is an organization that will support them every step of the way.”
GI resistance has power because war requires obedient soldiers. But active duty service members’ opportunities to make direct impacts are shrinking as war becomes increasingly outsourced and automated. Remote-controlled weaponry is taking over from real humans (often referred to as “boots on the ground,” underlining the nature of using youngsters as cannon fodder). Perhaps the most concerning trajectory is the trend of replacing decision makers with AI that can deploy and direct weaponry, as seen with Israel pioneering a shocking rate of mass death in Gaza with their Lavender and Where’s Daddy programs. These trends make the launch of this war on Iran a critically important window for supporting GI resistance before complete control over mass killing is in the hands of the ruling class and their machines.
Work stoppage or interference by active duty military can slow or impair the war machine, but this alone may not end the war on Iran. There are more ways in which antiwar service members and veterans can leverage their social position not only as workers, but as symbols. Their voices on military matters have weight both with elected officials and the general public. They have the platform to challenge the myths of morality, necessity and infallibility in which the warhawks wrap their armies and wars. As they increase the unreliability of the armed forces, they can also decrease public confidence in how the troops are being used. Both resistance and public opposition are key toward ending not only a specific war, but tearing up the blank checks for endless wars at home and abroad.
Veterans rising to meet the moment
Founded as Iraq Veterans Against the War, About Face has expanded from opposing the war on Iraq to a deeper critique of militarism, as new members joined over the years who had participated in many different facets of the so-called Global War on Terror. Its opposition to the war on Iran is part of a broader recent effort to challenge the U.S.-Israeli wars for regional dominance, resource control and global positioning.
After Oct. 7, 2023, About Face welcomed hundreds of new members who were moved to organize with other veterans in solidarity with Palestine. To harness that energy, they immediately formed Veterans for Ceasefire, whose first of many direct actions was a sit-in on Nov. 9, 2023 in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office. Eight members participated in the 2025 Global Sumud Flotilla.
In addition to challenging U.S. aggression overseas, veterans have also become important voices for demilitarization of the homefront. In the summer of 2020, when troops were turned against U.S. civilians in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police, About Face reached out to National Guard members, encouraging them “Stand Down for Black Lives” by refusing mobilization against racial justice protesters.
Challenging militarism at home — and connecting it to wars abroad — has become even more crucial in a time of rising authoritarianism. “Right to Refuse was definitely created with Project 2025 in mind and what was promised in that document about domestic use of the military to enforce their authoritarian agenda,” said Matt Howard, interim national organizing director of About Face.
Sure enough, ICE surges in 2025 saw the use of military forces to quell civil dissent and carry out race-based purges. The National Guard occupied cities, while the Department of Defense offered bases, staging areas and logistical support for mass detentions. Anti-ICE resistance also faced the kind of intensified surveillance and data collection tested in the killing fields of U.S.-Israeli wars abroad.
Tapping into the organic dissent in the ranks is a particular gift of the Right to Refuse campaign. Billboards facing the main gates of North Carolina’s biggest military installations appeared in September 2025 announcing a website titled NotWhatYouSignedUpFor.org (a joint visibility campaign of Win Without War and About Face). When thousands of active duty Airborne troops (a cold-weather division from Alaska) and military police were placed on standby for Department of Homeland Security support, including a 500-person brigade from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a billboard at the main gate greeted them with, “Did you go Airborne just to pull security for ICE?” Marines entering Camp Lejeune saw “Not what you signed up for? You have options.”
In U.S. cities experiencing paramilitary occupation from DHS forces, U.S. military veterans found opportunities to demilitarize the skills they brought home and apply them to justice, protection and liberation. A delegation of About Face members traveled to Minneapolis in February to join local members and other community organizations in building a grassroots response to the escalation of ICE violence.
Additionally, About Face’s Monitoring and Analysis of Military and Border Operations, or MAMBO, project uses open source intelligence gathering to analyze and map domestic deployments of military and DHS forces, offering usable reports to community groups. Some members of About Face and its close partner Veterans For Peace provide security for local actions and community events, and train and mentor emerging movement security practitioners, both civilian and veteran. This is a radical revisioning of what security can be when seen through a lens of demilitarization — neighbors keeping each other safe.
Alongside the DHS and National Guard occupation of U.S. cities, the impacts of the war economy and continued cuts to social spending have provided many opportunities for action. Last Veterans’ Day, About Face organized a Vets Say No War on Our Cities march in major cities including those dealing with ICE occupation like Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Washington, D.C. and Memphis. The message they shared was: “We will not allow attacks on our neighbors, or military occupation of our cities and deadly cuts on vital services to be normalized.”
On March 19, the 23rd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, About Face coordinated national visits to senators to push for a repeal of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force that opened the door to the “forever wars,” and for a vote against further supplemental military spending. A couple days later, members joined the Nuestra América relief convoy to Cuba, bringing supplies and challenging Trump’s saber-rattling.
About Face has also been incubating Veterans Against Fascism, a politically diverse coalition of vets united behind the call for No ICE, No War, No Cuts. “Fascism is everywhere, spread throughout the entire government. We have a responsibility to make it grind to a halt,” explained Joseph Funk, a member of About Face and leader in Veterans Against Fascism. “That means we have to defeat it anywhere it wants to exercise its power. That might look like opposing war and international violence, and that might look like standing against federal goons hunting children. It will probably look like a lot of things in the future.”
Winning public opinion
The Trump regime is not attempting to manufacture approval or even consent for its wars, but they are fighting on the narrative and cultural fronts. Nonpartisan organizations like About Face, which has challenged U.S.-led wars under every administration for the last 20 years and is not scared of calling out Democratic leaders, are laying a critical foundation. Those of us who remember Obama’s presidential victory on a platform of ending Bush’s wars, and the subsequent abdication of the forces who might have pushed him to follow through, know we need an antimilitarist movement bigger than opposition to Trump’s caricatured shock and awe.
“Despite the fact that both parties have had a shitty track record on war and militarism, in the last 10 years MAGA has claimed to be the true antiwar standard-bearer,” Howard said. “We are in a moment where the betrayal of Trump’s base is really clear. They thought they voted in a peace time president and are finding out it was another empty talking point. For movements who have been committed to an antiwar politic, no matter who was in office, there is an opportunity to use our credibility to undermine authoritarianism and contest for people who are waking up.”
The good news: There is leadership and vision. Antiwar veterans are increasing their ranks, building collective power in campaigns and coalitions, and taking strategic aim at multiple pillars of the war machine.
“Veterans can help focus public energy into concrete demands,” said Katie Chorbak, from 50501 Veterans. “If opposition is going to be effective, it has to be organized, informed and sustained. Veterans can help anchor that effort. What is needed right now is seriousness, discipline and sustained engagement. Change rarely happens because people are upset for a week. It happens when people stay organized long enough to matter.”
#AboutFaceVeteransAgainstWar #ConscientiousObjectors #FreeSpeechInAmerica #History #Iran #MilitaryFamiliesSpeakOut #VeteransForPeace #WagingNonviolence -
Reckless Words Lead to Stupid Wars.
Article republished by Jerry Alatalo (Source: MiddleEastMonitor.com)
April 9, 2026
[Editor’s note: Jasim Al-Azzawi worked for several media organisations, including MBC, Abu Dhabi TV, and Aljazeera English as a news anchor, program presenter, and Executive Producer. He covered significant conflicts, interviewed world leaders, and taught media courses.]
***
When Words Become Weapons
Obscenity is not noise. It is policy stripped of disguise.
US President Donald Trump (L) meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (R) as he arrives in Riyadh, for the first leg of his three-country Middle East tour in Saudi Arabia on May 13, 2025. [Bandar Al-Jaloud/Saudi Royal Court – Anadolu Agency]
On Easter morning, April 5, 2026, the President of the United States reached, not for diplomacy, but for the obscenity. His message to Iran, broadcast to the world in the language of a street brawl, read like a threat scrawled on a prison wall:
“Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
The timing was grotesque. The phrasing is worse. The closing—“Praise be to Allah”—is a mockery draped in borrowed piety. It was not merely undignified. It was incendiary. Nine days earlier, before an audience of global investors, he turned his fire on an ally. Speaking of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he boasted:
“He didn’t think he’d be kissing my ass… but now he has to be nice to me.”
Two insults. One aimed at a rival, one at a partner. Both delivered by the same man, in the same tone. Both heard across a region where memory is long, humiliation is not abstract, and dignity is currency. This is how wars begin—not always with bombs, but with words that make bombs inevitable.
The Price of Humiliation
In the Arab world, honor is not ornamental. It is structural. Strip it publicly from a leader, and you do not embarrass a man but destroy a relationship. Trump did not defend Mohammed bin Salman. He exposed him. At a Saudi-sponsored event. In front of Saudi investors. The message was unmistakable: you are not a partner. You are a subordinate.
Riyadh said nothing. It could not afford to. The strategic dependence on Washington, particularly in the shadow of Iran, demands silence and patience. But silence, in such contexts, is not acquiescence. It is a wound deferred. Humiliation accumulates. Quietly. Patiently. And when it is repaid, it is rarely done politely.
The timing was grotesque. The phrasing is worse. The closing—“Praise be to Allah”—is a mockery draped in borrowed piety. It was not merely undignified. It was incendiary. Nine days earlier, before an audience of global investors, he turned his fire on an ally. Speaking of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he boasted:“He didn’t think he’d be kissing my ass… but now he has to be nice to me.”
At the same time, the Easter tirade against Iran did something equally reckless. It fused insult with threat, vulgarity with religious mockery. It handed Tehran exactly what it needed: proof, broadcast in the president’s own voice, that the United States speaks not as a state, but as a provocateur. No regime could script it better.
Western politicians lie, millions die: The architecture of manufactured consent
The Severed Ear
History has seen this before. In 1731, a Spanish officer boarded a British ship in the Caribbean and, finding no contraband, cut off the ear of its captain, Robert Jenkins. He reportedly handed it back with a warning: tell your king the same will happen to him.
Seven years later, Jenkins stood before Parliament and produced the ear. The outrage was immediate, visceral, and politically useful. War followed. It lasted nearly a decade. Thousands died. Nothing was resolved. It entered history with a name soaked in absurdity and blood: the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
The lesson is brutal in its simplicity. Insults, real or amplified, can be weaponized. Once unleashed, they escape the control of those who invoked them. Leaders may posture. Populations do not. They demand retaliation. Walpole, the British prime minister, understood the war was unnecessary. He warned against it. He was ignored. Every era believes it is wiser than the last. Every era repeats the same mistake.
The Manufactured Insult
If Jenkins’ ear was accidental, the Ems Dispatch was deliberate. In 1870, Otto von Bismarck edited a diplomatic telegram to make a routine exchange appear as a calculated insult. France, cornered by public outrage, declared war. The result was catastrophic: the collapse of the French Empire and a grievance that festered into the soil of the First World War. Bismarck understood the power of humiliation. He used it as a scalpel.
Riyadh said nothing. It could not afford to. The strategic dependence on Washington, particularly in the shadow of Iran, demands silence and patience. But silence, in such contexts, is not acquiescence. It is a wound deferred. Humiliation accumulates. Quietly. Patiently. And when it is repaid, it is rarely done politely.
The threat posed by Trump’s message stems from its ambiguity rather than its accuracy. There is no evidence of design, no strategic objective discernible behind the insults. It is not a scalpel. It is a hammer swung blindly in a room full of glass. And yet the consequences may be no less severe.
The Burden of Repair
Wars built on insult do not end cleanly. They linger and fester. They poison future negotiations. They become the vocabulary of grievance.
Saudi Arabia is not a peripheral state. It is central to global energy markets, to Gulf security, and to the fragile architecture holding the region together. To publicly demean its leadership is to weaken that architecture from within.
Iran, meanwhile, is a nation already spurred by its leadership to see the United States as an aggressor. When the American president uses profanity, threats, and religious mockery in the same breath, he does not intimidate. He confirms and enrages.
Each word strengthens hardliners. Each insult narrows the space for diplomacy. Each outburst raises the political cost, on both sides, of ever sitting at the same table again. And yet, one day, they will have to sit across from each other eyeball to eyeball.
The world on the brink of the stone age: When Trump’s threat goes beyond Iran
The Quiet Men Who Clean the Mess
Wars are not ended by those who ignite them. They are ended by those who must clean up after them: diplomats, the intermediaries, the negotiators in anonymous rooms in Oman, Geneva, or Islamabad. They work in silence, repairing what was broken loudly. They must reconstruct trust where there is none. Translate rage into language. Turn humiliation into compromise. Each vulgar phrase uttered by a leader becomes an obstacle they must dismantle, word by word. History does not remember their names. It remembers the wars. But without them, there would be no end to any of them.
Saudi Arabia is not a peripheral state. It is central to global energy markets, to Gulf security, and to the fragile architecture holding the region together. To publicly demean its leadership is to weaken that architecture from within.
The Inevitable Reckoning
A severed ear triggered a war that lasted nine years. A doctored telegram reshaped Europe for generations. Now, in 2026, we are told that obscenity is harmless. That is the style of insults. That this is merely how power speaks. It is not. It is how power collapses into impulse. The question is no longer whether words matter. They do. They always have. The question is what we will call the war that follows and whether anyone, somewhere in Washington, still understands the cost of speaking before thinking. Because history, unlike politicians, keeps a precise record. And it is never kind to those who confuse noise for strength.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
#25thAmendment #DonaldTrump #History #MilitaryHistory #PeteHegseth #Philosophy #Religion #VeteransForPeace -
@indivisibleteam I’ll be there. Look for the #VeteransForPeace flag
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@gwaldby I’ll be there. Look for my #VeteransForPeace flag
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After the protest ended, Inoyue called for a general strike in a press release published by the MHVDSA. “This was a nice protest, but by itself it ...
On Saturday, March 7, around 200 Hudson Valley residents rallied in a national day of action against the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, joining 55 other cities across the nation at Academy Green Park in Kingston, N.Y.Since the attack on Iran on Feb.#AfricanRootsCommunityCenter #AssemblymemberSarahanaShrestha #DanielAtonna #Gaza #IndivisbleNewPaltz #Iran #Israel #JewishVoicesforPeace #Mid-EastCrisisResponse #Mid-HudsonValleyDemocraticSocialistsforAmerica #MieInouye #nationaldayofaction #NewburghResists #NoWarinIran #Palestine #protest #rally #RallyMiddletown #VeteransforPeace
Residents Rally in Kingston Against the War in Iran - The New Paltz Oracle -
Oil fires. Toxic smoke. Burn pits.
Our veterans fought for healthcare due to hazards just like this.
Every military family knows: the fight doesn't end when the bombs stop dropping. It comes home.
The health crises are just beginning. #NoWarWithIran #VeteransForPeace
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War shouldn’t be profit-driven. Every conflict costs families their future, not just budgets. Invest in peace, education, healthcare, and opportunity — not endless wars. Humanity over industry. #PeaceNotWar #VeteransForPeace #EndEndlessWars #HumanCost #InvestInPeople #MOHASH
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War shouldn’t be profit-driven. Every conflict costs families their future, not just budgets. Invest in peace, education, healthcare, and opportunity — not endless wars. Humanity over industry. #PeaceNotWar #VeteransForPeace #EndEndlessWars #HumanCost #InvestInPeople #MOHASH
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We don’t think this Monterey County resident is out of touch with distressing circumstances in our nation, including surreal actions by the Commander in Chief. In fact, this local is a U.S. military veteran (unlike the C of C, ironically) and a member of Veterans for Peace.
Yet even when news is troubling, whenever we see him, he wears a bright smile. We feel sure he keeps his spirits up—regardless of the day’s news or the day’s weather— by doing lots of pedaling! Whenever we see him, as again today, he’s on his bicycle.
#endorphins #uplifting #cycling #biking #BikeTooter #BikeCommuter #BikeMontereyCounty #VeteransForPeace #USA #veterans #CommanderInChief #BadNews #resist
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Veterans group urges troops to refuse illegal orders on a new billboard
TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD/Gray News) — A veterans organization is asking troops to “refuse illegal orders” on a new…
#UnitedStates #US #USA #arizona #billboard #CaraBissell #departmentofdefense #Død #lawsuit #MarkKelly #military #pentagon #petehegseth #refuseillegalorders #SecretaryofDefense #senator #Tucson #veterans #veteransforpeace
https://www.europesays.com/2726491/ -
https://www.europesays.com/2726491/ Veterans group urges troops to refuse illegal orders on a new billboard #arizona #billboard #CaraBissell #DepartmentOfDefense #Død #lawsuit #MarkKelly #military #pentagon #PeteHegseth #RefuseIllegalOrders #SecretaryOfDefense #senator #Tucson #veterans #VeteransForPeace
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@wood5y The U.S. and allies should have agreements to share facilities such as airfields, but no reason to have permanent bases all around the world with housing, schools, nightclubs, and supermarkets to support hundreds of thousands of Americans. You know why-some people are making a lot of money. Mainly well connected contractors and arms merchants. #VeteransForPeace #VFP
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#usa #israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #genocide / #protest / #veteransforpeace / #peacemovement / #accusation
„Will a jury (…) care enough about the genocide in Gaza to acquit 4 protesters arrested for #nonviolentcivilresistance? Will it matter once they’ve seen “Bringing Gaza Home?” That’s the question 8 jurors will decide (…) when they hear from 4 activists arrested October 3 for blocking the entrance to the local office of U.S. Senator John Husted.“
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/08/bringing-gaza-home-to-middle-americas-flyover-country/
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Veterans who fought America’s wars are warning us again: this is illegal aggression, not “security.” Sanctions kill, blockades are war, and Venezuela is the next Iraq lie. Withdraw the armada. #NoWarOnVenezuela #VeteransForPeace #AntiImperialism
https://popularresistance.org/veterans-for-peace-condemns-trumps-illegal-war-on-venezuela/
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ICE Is Functioning Like an Occupying Army. I Know Because I Served in One.
Veteran-led protests against Trump's National Guard deployments encourage soldiers to resist Trump's illegal orders. -
Coast Guard Veterans Condemn CG Transport Flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
#veteransforpeace #veterans #USCG #abolishice #deportation #fascism
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The WA state chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) put out a statement on Zahid's abduction by ICE.
They note that he is a US veteran who uses a wheelchair. He's lived here legally for 20 years. His wife ran for political office last year. Zahid is an active anti-war activist and is a member of Veterans for Peace.
#CAIR #PNW #Olympia #Veterans #VeteransForPeace #Zahid #ICE #FuckICE #ChingaLaMigra #Muslim #pakistan
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For over 600 days, the Israeli flag flew over #BroomeCounty Jail — a violation of #NewYork state law. #VeteransForPeace stepped in, threatening legal action, and within six days, Sheriff Fred Akshar took it down.
The flag’s presence was a symbol of support for #Israel’s ongoing assault on #Gaza and part of Akshar’s broader pattern of aligning with Trump-era, anti-immigrant policies. Now the Sheriff owes an apology for using county property to push a political agenda.
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-force-ny-county-sheriff-to-take-down-israeli-flag/
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@realTuckFrumper No surprise. Just as Trump destroys everything he touches, he will break the military as well. #JoyMetzler #VeteransForPeace #VFP
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@indivisibleteam I’m there! With my comrades from #VeteransForPeace #VFP
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60 arrested on eve of Army parade as veterans protest militarism
Sixty demonstrators, part of a veterans protest against militarism, were arrested at the Supreme Court on Friday night and will be charged with unlawful demonstration and crossing a police line, Capitol police said. Some will also be charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, police said.
#VeteransForPeace #NoPoliceMilitarism
https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/protests-live-updates-marines-duty-los-angeles-1/?id=122809047 -
@rbreich See you in the street #June14 #Jun14th #VeteransForPeace #VFP
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https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/5/fast_for_gaza_un?autostart=true
Very proud to see my old client Lt. Joy Metzler be on #DemocracyNow, along with #KathyKelly (a hero of mine for more than 20 years --- her speaking at the old Cornerstone Festival circa 2001 was a major nudge in my life towards law school and peace activism) and Mike Ferner of #VeteransForPeace.
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@bruno_j_navarro Fortunately for me they didn’t draft anyone born in 1954. What a terrifying day. What disastrous U.S. involvement. Doesn’t appear that U.S. policy makers learned a thing. Defense contractors and arms merchants really made out. Just like they always do. #VeteransForPeace #VFP
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Got plans for #May1 ? I’ll be at Foley Square 5:00 New York City #NYCLU #50501 #VeteransForPeace #VFP #Resist
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@arrrg @indivisibleteam I’ll be in New York City’s Bryant Park with #VeteransForPeace #VFP
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@rchusid #VeteransForPeace #VFP (among others) have holding a weekly vigil for a few years. Of course #WhatLiberalMedia will never cover.
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Stand for #Palestine - #FreeportMaine
Saturday, December 21, 2024
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
LL Bean Entrance
Main St and Morse St Freeport, ME USA"Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space’s statewide #antiwar coalition will bring its monthly protest series to Freeport in December.
"They will walk a few blocks on each side of Main St in Freeport handing out flyers while holding signs and banners.
"News of atrocities in northern Gaza continue to horrify the world as well as airstrikes in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen with many innocent victims.
"Israel could not conduct their genocide in Gaza without U.S. support -- including weapons made in Maine. Join us to raise your voice to say: no more money for Israel's crimes.
"Bring your own signs and banners, or use those provided."
Co-sponsors: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, #MaineNaturalGuard, #PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, #CommunistParty of Maine, #MaineGreenIndependentParty, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (#COAST), Party for #Socialism & #Liberation Maine, #LibertarianParty of Maine, #PeoplesParty of Maine, #PeaceAndJusticeCenter of Eastern Maine, #VeteransForPeace - National, United National Antiwar Coalition (#UNAC), and #MaineVoicesForPalestinianRights (#MVPR).
#NoWar #NoNuclearWar #GenocideInGaza #Gaza #WorldWarBibi #IsraeliWarCrimes #GlobalNetworkAgainstWeaponsAndNuclearPowerInSpace
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I'm proud to share that I was quoted in this story from #CounterCurrents about the recent statement by #VeteransForPeace in support of #Israeli conscientious objectors who are refusing to fight in the wars in #Gaza and #Lebanon.
Tags: #Israel #ConscientiousObjectors #ConscientiousObjection #Peace #ShalomSalaam
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We put a #CeasefireNow #ProtestSign on #Peace #statue beside BC legislature buildings, in April. On the #monument to the #MackenziePapineauBattalion in #VictoriaBC on #VancouverIsland in #BritishColumbia #Canada.
#WarSurvivorsForCeasefire #StopAllWars #StopGenocide #BoycottIsraeliApartheid #HumanRights #StopWarMongers #ArrestWarCriminals #WarSurvivorsForPeace #ArmsEmbargoOnIsrael #AsianMastodon #USVietnamInvasionSurvivor #HelpRefugees #VietnamWarSurvivors #SocialJustice #VeteransForPeace #StopTheViolence #YYJ #DivestFromArmsCompanies #StopFundingWarMachines #ActivistArt #Photography #YYJphotographers #DisabledPhotographers #WorldInMyEyes #Activism #TakeAction #monochrome #BWphoto
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Sharing this update on the case of one of my clients sent out by #VeteransForPeace.
If you have a moment, please consider sending a letter to Larry's command to urge them to not prosecute him.
Continued...
#Gaza #Palestine #Solidarity #Peace #ShalomSalaam #FreeSpeech #USMilitary #USAF #MilitaryLaw #LarryHebert #Israel
