No More Veterans – IV Words – push left. move forward.

U.S. Idolatry of Military is Killing the World

<img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="750" height="500" data-attachment-id="21948" data-permalink="https://ivwords.com/israeli-airstrike_apnews/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/ivwords.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Israeli-Airstrike_apnews.png?fit=1440%2C960&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1440,960" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Israeli-Airstrike_apnews" data-image-description="

Bomb blast in Iran &#8211; https://apnews.com/photo-gallery/iran-war-mideast-photos-07455c55782c2dfbaad05da4734ad300

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Smoke and flames rise from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

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You want to help U.S. military veterans? Quit creating them.

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The USA cares for or helps its military veterans in myriad ways (theoretically), from Veterans Administration healthcare to the G.I. Bill for higher education costs, from life insurance to home loan guarantees, and from free public transportation to a percentage off at Denny’s.

Of course, various presidential administrations and Congresses over the years have repeatedly chipped away at veterans’ benefits, even while they talk about “caring for” the nation’s “heroes.” The hypocrisy is as thick and deep as quicksand in the jungle.

In the meantime, U.S. veneration of the military and veterans is murdering innocents abroad while royally screwing up relations between peoples and nations, not to mention destroying the planet itself and uber-accelerating the climate crisis.

So maybe it’s time to look at this whole “caring for” thing from a different angle.

Here’s a thought –

Let’s quit sending U.S. servicepeople to fight unnecessary wars, police actions, military incursions, covert operations – whatever euphemism you want to use – or to otherwise interfere in the affairs of sovereign nations. Stop that and pretty soon we won’t need to recruit so many people into the armed forces in the first place. Fewer servicepeople will suffer from combat-related PTSD, other emotional and psychological injuries or physical wounds, many of which hinder them for the rest of their lives. We also won’t be terrorizing and murdering other nations’ innocents, who have every right to life as any U.S. citizen.

If you really want to care for veterans, don’t make them veterans in the first place.

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I began thinking about this a lot when the lunatics currently running this country started illegally and immorally bombing Iran without provocation or any cause grounded in truth. It started really crowding my thoughts when the same insane incompetents began pushing for a ground invasion.

More dead innocents, including children. More illegally destroyed civilian infrastructure. More war crimes committed by the USA and its servicepeople. More dead servicepeople. More ruined veterans.

And then I read a Substack post titled, “He Was Barely 18 and Heading to War.”

It tells the (probably rubbish) story of a young man in military uniform getting on an airplane for a flight that would take him to his first deployment. About how the stewardess, when she learns this, gets on the plane’s PA system and tells the other passengers about “Private Miller,” then asks them to “write him a note of encouragement,” and pass it forward. And about all the notes that make it into the hands of the young soldier – all good thoughts, prayers and praise. Of course.

What nonsense, I thought. My comment: “Bollocks. He’s going off to kill innocents for billionaires. There’s no pride in that.”

Other commenters agreed. Like Scott, who wrote, “Fuck that kid, he enlisted (in) a factory of war crimes, thievery and murder.”

I think Caitlin Johnstone, one of the most clear-eyed observers and thinkers writing today, put it best in her Substack piece, “We Are The Villains in This Story”:

“Our soldiers aren’t out there defending our country, they’re out there murdering people for defending their country. They’re not fighting for freedom and democracy; they’re fighting for money and power.”

Caitlin Johnstone

She wasn’t referring specifically to the nonsense about the 18-year-old soldier on the plane, above, but, yeah.

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Look, anyone who joins the U.S. armed services out of a genuine sense of duty or pride or belief in the Ronald Reagan image of the USA as some sort of “shining city on the hill” has been seriously duped.

Anyone who believes U.S. soldiers are heading off to liberate other nations’ citizens from oppressive regimes, stop the spread of communism or spread democracy remains in the chains of propaganda, believing the USA is always benevolent and correct when it attacks or covertly tries to overthrow another government. For the past 60 years, minimum, this country has only gone to war to spread American control and hegemony or to position billionaires and megacorporations to make yet another buck extracting other nations’ natural resources.

Certainly, there are people who join the military because they see no other way out of the poverty they grew up in. The U.S. government fails to give its citizens universal healthcare, roofs over our heads, three squares a day or a college education, but that’s exactly what it uses to coerce Americans into joining the armed services, where they put their lives on the line and kill people who have done nothing to harm humanity and, again, have as much right to life as any U.S. citizen.

By the way, keeping people poor enough to see the armed services as their only option is not accidental. It’s an intentional feature of our so-called democracy.

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Some will say, “Don’t be naïve. ‘Quit creating veterans’ is just an absurd, ignorant and illogical oversimplification given the geopolitical situation and global power dynamics.

Think what you want.

The way I see it, the USA screws up the geopolitical situation and global power dynamics every time it sends troops abroad. Plus, it always fails. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan… all U.S. debacles, all built on lies and all with millions dead and thousands of veterans with lifelong emotional, physical and psychological anguish.

THAT’s absurd, ignorant and illogical.

So, yeah…

Just stop already.

*If you are the author/artist of the meme above, please contact me so I can give you proper credit. Thank you!

• Source: https://ivwords.com/2026/04/06/no-more-veterans/