Soldiers For The Cause The Opposite of a Soldier of Fortune

I have always felt profiled at the VA, as a drug seeker, as a malingerer, as aggressive, as ungrateful, as not enough of a soldier, as a complainer. 

Teen Vogue is covering the 50th anniversary of the Indigenous Occupation of Alcatraz where in 1969 when the American Indian Movement (AIM) and Third World Liberation Front occupied the island monument to prisons. Ray Levy-Uyeda writes a comprehensive piece about the history and meaning of the Sunrise Ceremony. “Morning Star Gali, of the Pit River Tribe in California, has been …

According to the New York Times, Military.com, and other major news networks the Trump administration is granting some pardons before the 2020 elections. With the recent apprehension and extermination of Baghdadi, this press release is speaking to a certain segment of the military community that got Trump elected.

photo of Lai presenting flowers to his mother.  He is a victim of the gene-warping chemical dioxin, contained in the toxic herbicide Agent Orange, used by the U.S. during the Viet Nam War.  Lai was born with no legs (he is able to walk with prosthetics) and only one functioning arm and hand.  He will be a member of a November …

Marines pass a joint to one another in the dark void of southern Afghanistan and, in crackling night-vision green, the question arises: Did they think they would ever be stoned within range of enemy fire? War is a bitch. It takes the human soul, puts it through a grinder, and spits out a ripped and battered pit of despair. But …

On the history of radicalization in the Western context. It can be argued that Saul of Tarsus is the first Lone Wolf radical.  A Lone Wolf that emerges remotely of a movement. Radical because of a desperation and immediacy to change. After Paul there is a line of Christian radicals. But having had little to do with the original movement …

As of Friday evening the Trump administration issued a memo instituting a specific ban on transgender veterans who do need or will need surgery. It seems that gender reassignment is being cited as the reason for the promised ban. There are currently 15,550 transgender people in the military today. The memorandum signed by General Mattis essentially overturns the Obama era memorandum …

In 2012 I wrote an entry about Julian Assange and Russia Today (RT). At the time, observing activism in New York City and online, I saw something dubious going on with activists use of social media stemming from Russia and even Iran as Press TV. Well meaning people were lending themselves to foreign intelligence and thus saturating their good intentions. …

“Those love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” Martin Luther King Junior   In order to construct a theory of peace we must first deconstruct the theory of war. The popular view wages that there are individuals that cause events that lead to war: the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand, Germany invading Poland, …

I’m built backwards.  I have legs for arms, hands for feet.  No, that’s not the right.  I was wise beyond my years, isn’t that the term your elders use when the first signs of intelligence spark in your eyes, and the grey mush inside your skull begins to take on some form?  Yeah, I think that’s it.   We all …

VFP Convention 2015: A Reflection By Michael Bassett I am grateful to Veterans For Peace (VFP) for the life-changing experience they gave me at the VFP 30th Annual Convention recently held in San Diego, CA., and for honoring me with an invitation to speak before the Korea Peace Campaign about projects I’ve done on the Korean Peninsula – or as …

They sleep under bridges and hide in vacant door ways We once armed them and told them to: Defend Us. Once home they became: Homeless and Defenseless Our Government’s Response: We’re waging new wars And you’re no longer needed. You can make our day by moving out of our way. Why Have a Homeless Veterans Work Group? The homeless situation …

Emerald City, to the casual observer, projects nothing but grace and splendor but hiding around the corners are unwelcome offenders. They sleep under overpasses and hide in doorways. They’re always on the move, not because they want to, but because they’re told to. Homeless veterans are the hardest to witness. We armed them and commanded them to Defend Us Upon …

For a few brief moments, let’s suspend what happened in our country after 9/11 and think about how things could have been so completely different if our country had taken a different direction. Imagine if we had not entered into war with Iraq and Afghanistan how different our country and the world would be today. Imagine if, as a nation, …

When America ends a war the president talks about patriotism, how committed the troops were to their mission and how some even gave their lives for the mission. However, I have never heard or read that a president talked about the innocent civilian life lost during that mission. We simply refer to the lost as “Collateral Damage”. The absence of …