American Veterans Must Stand Up and Defend our Democracy
Having lived through 9/11 and its aftermath, my generation, especially its Military Veterans, knows the cost of violent extremism. I watched in horror with the nation as the Twin Towers collapsed, killing and wounding thousands of innocent Americans. Shortly thereafter, as a Marine Corps Reservist, I was activated and trained for a year for the looming invasion of Iraq. Even in the conservative warrior culture of the Marine Corps there were a variety of opinions on the pros and cons for invading Iraq, and members of my platoon discussed and debated them often. Not all of us agreed that it was the right thing to do. But many of us believed that if we weren’t giving democracy a chance in a repressed and subjugated part of the world, at least we were defending our country by giving pause to those who sought to do it harm. As it happened my unit took part in the invasion and pushed from Kuwait to Baghdad. Despite the hardship, fear and suffering of this time, a great deal of us who served also felt a deep sense of pride at contributing to something larger than ourselves. Despite the ambiguities and moral dilemmas posed by the war, we were proud to be Americans, and never questioned America’s role as an exemplar of democracy and freedom throughout the world.
Fast forward to today and, speaking for myself, pride has turned to disillusionment and revulsion. As the War on Terror wound down, many of the Veterans and their families, especially those who lost friends and loved ones, were forced to do a lot of soul searching and introspection. Despite the cost in lives and treasure, Iraq, it turned out, was not going to be the launching pad for a new democratic, peaceful Middle East; Afghanistan slid back to the medieval theocracy of the Taliban. I tried to take this in stride. My post-Marines career as a CIA analyst reinforced for me the cold hard fact that the world’s a messy and dangerous place and wars rarely play out as predicted. I knew I wasn’t the first Veteran to wrestle with the psychological scars and moral dilemmas that remain long after the war ends and the country moves on. I wasn’t the first to ask: “what in the hell were we doing over there anyway?”
What I could not abide by was the growth of political extremism in America that rose up in the wake of the post-9/11 era. An ugly, illiberal populism rooted America’s worst angels: xenophobia, fear, misinformation and ignorance of the larger world and the positive role that America has played in it. Fanning these flames was the Ugliest American: Donald Trump. It’s impossible and unnecessary to catalogue here the long litany of indecent, false, crass, incoherent and just plain stupid remarks that Trump made as he emerged on the political scene and broke with the basic standards of decency and decorum that we used to demand of our elected officials at the highest level. Likewise, the current illegal and unconstitutional abuses of the second Trump Administration thus far are well documented. What I will say here is that, as a Veteran, I took particular umbrage when Trump disparaged John McCain, a true American hero who spent five-and-a-half years enduring torture in a north Vietnamese POW camp and shamelessly attacked a Goldstar mother of a fallen US solider with a bigoted slur. I was angry and disgusted when Trump, during his first administration, called the US Soldiers and Marines who gave their lives during the First World War “suckers and losers”. In the America I knew for most of my young and adult life, comments such as these would have been grounds for immediate and irrevocable censure and likely disbarment from political life.
But worse followed. Faced with the threat of impeachment, Trump and some of his supporters inconceivably raised the specter of civil war. Here was a sitting president making a threat of violence, this time not his thinly veiled threats against political opponents or the institutions of our pluralist system such as the free press or the courts; here was a President willing to threaten the entire country with violence if he didn’t prevail in the political skirmishing of the day. I heard Trump supporters parrot this line in various forms in the run up to the 2024 presidential election, threatening violence or civil war if Trump didn’t win. Who would fight this war I wondered? The Trump supporters alluding to civil conflict or war were usually overweight, middle aged or older. They didn’t strike me as the type that would have any military experience.
My combat tour in Iraq was short. I was in the invasion phase and following the fall of Saddam’s regime my unit was fortunate enough to be pulled off the line before things got really bad. But I did see enough of war to know the daily fear of walking, eating, sleeping (when you could get it) and relieving yourself in an environment devoid of the basic security that most Americans are lucky enough to live in. Where you wake up every morning wondering whether the day ahead will be your last. I can attest that war makes no distinction between man, woman or child, and innocent civilians by far bear the brunt of the destruction. In a memorable essay, Paul Collier wrote that civil war is basically development in reverse. This is absolutely true in the economic sense, but to this I’d add that, at the human level, civil war, or any war for that matter, is nothing but misery, suffering, mental illness and death. And while its causes can be complex, it is often fought in the name of ousting or preserving a dictator or ruling clique. About six percent of Americans have served in the military. Less than one percent of Americans served in the military in the so -called ‘Forever Wars’ and an even smaller sliver of this percentage served in front line troops who went outside the wire on a regular basis. Having never experienced anything else, many Americans take for granted the bubble of peace and security they enjoy, without a day of interruption, from cradle to grave. Our fellow citizens who have embraced political extremism and violence are blissfully ignorant of the senseless wasteland to which their march of folly assuredly leads. As for the politicians who recklessly condone or encourage political extremism and violence on social media from the safety of their offices and homes, well don’t look for any of their sons or daughters to be manning the barricades when the glorious Second American Civil War breaks out.
One might chalk such rhetoric up to a small minority of MAGA extremists. But the Trump-plotted 6 January 2021 violent coup against our democracy, Trump’s pardoning of the right wing extremists and militia members and associates who played a large part in the crime and the Republican Party’s shameful attempt to whitewash the permanent stain of 6 January on their party and our nation’s history should serve as a constant reminder that the danger remains clear and present. Put simply, the Republican Party has whole-heartedly embraced MAGA extremism–lies, corruption, political violence and all. One should be clear when it comes to the sacrosanct issue of democratic elections in America: there is absolutely no grey area here whatsoever, you either denounce political violence and the lies that fuel it or you condone it. To its shame the Republican Party, the so-called party of Lincoln, has done the latter. Seeing no sign that these corrupt cowards have the integrity and honor to do what’s right for the country on such a morally clear issue I fear that acts similar to 6 January, or worse, will happen again.
Not satisfied with the damage done to our free and fair electoral system, Trump, the MAGA movement and its Republican enablers are now setting fire to the rest of the framework that upholds our democracy: free speech, rule of law, checks and balances, due process, non-politicized military and federal agencies. If you don’t have a problem with this and the concepts of pluralism, tolerance and democracy are too abstract for you, think of it this way: the framework is what keeps our society at peace, willing to work out its difference in debate, deliberation and the ballot box instead of killing each other in the streets. The framework has provided the political stability that has enabled the most prosperous economic growth the world has ever seen, creating a Pax Americana that has spread unprecedented peace, security and prosperity throughout the globe. All of these interlocking achievements can be traced back to American democracy and political stability. Tragically, all are under threat today.
Attempting to fight the fire of right wing extremism with that of the left would merely accelerate the vicious cycle of hyper-partisanship, political extremism and violence that is tearing our country apart. Now more than ever our country needs to douse this conflagration of misinformation, illiberalism and corruption with reason, tolerance, civility and respect for our democratic norms and laws. Sound quaint? There simply is no other way forward. And besides, these are effective, proven tools that have been used to fight injustice in the past. But, as with the Civil Rights movement, it’s going to take dedication, organization, courage and sacrifice by a diverse coalition of groups united in one cause: that our county is and will remain a democracy ruled by law.
As Veterans we can be in the vanguard of this movement. We understand the stakes and are willing to stand up and fight for what’s right, regardless of the risk. We’ve done it before. Veterans are known for being patriotic and conservative, and to be sure many support the MAGA movement. While there is no hope for the zealot who has stopped thinking, we can appeal to those who are feeling uneasy as MAGA grows more and more authoritarian. We can start by making the argument that there is nothing more patriotic and conservative than putting country ahead of party, democracy ahead of autocracy and tolerance ahead of bigotry and hatred. For those of my fellow Veterans feeling disillusioned and adrift following the wars, you once again have a mission, your county is calling. Once again we need to decide if we are going to sit back with the crowd, play it safe, or step up to the line and defend our nation.
Well aware of the sacrifices made by previous generations of Americans, who bestowed to mine the gift of liberty, I have no choice but to act. Whether or not I succeed or fail is immaterial. By acting I will never face the shame of being part of the generation who failed to protect our democracy in its hour of need. As such, I am founding American Veterans in Defense of Democracy in order to build an organization of like-minded Veterans who will work with civil society, government, academia, the media and other sectors of civil society to fight authoritarianism in America and political violence and extremism in our politics regardless of its origin, right or left. Those of us with the conviction that what is currently happening in America is wrong must stand up, lead the way and compel our fellow Americans to wake up.
Shawn Howard is a Marine Corps Veteran who worked as a CIA Analyst for over twenty years. He is the founder and President of American Veterans in Defense of Democracy (AVDD). All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the US Government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying US Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author's views.