01/26/2026
Another vet speaks up. 🇺🇸
"I am writing this as a United States military veteran who took an oath seriously and believed in what that oath represented. I did not serve out of blind loyalty to a political party, a president, or a flag waved without meaning. I served because I believed in constitutional limits, civilian oversight, due process, and the idea that government power must always be restrained by law and accountability. Watching what is happening now feels like witnessing that oath being hollowed out and mocked by the very institutions that once demanded it of me.
I am struggling to process the statements made by the DHS secretary following the killing that occurred during the St. Paul protests, because what was said and how quickly it was said represents a complete abandonment of due process. Within minutes of the shooting, definitive public declarations were made assigning guilt and justification, before any transparent investigation could reasonably have taken place. That is not how justice works in a functioning democracy, and it is not how law enforcement maintains legitimacy. You cannot announce conclusions before evidence is gathered and still expect public trust to survive.
What makes this so infuriating is the open contradiction between official statements and what the evidence clearly shows. Multiple videos, filmed from multiple angles, depict the same reality. The man who was killed was holding a cellphone and filming. He was not holding a weapon, and he was not posing an imminent threat. The footage does not require interpretation or spin. Being told to ignore what is plainly visible feels like deliberate institutional gaslighting, and it is deeply destabilizing to experience that from the federal government itself.
The decision to label a VA ICU nurse as a terrorist under these circumstances is staggering in its cruelty and recklessness. This was a healthcare professional who worked with veterans, now posthumously branded as an enemy without evidence, without restraint, and without shame. This is no longer about a single tragic incident. This is about a pattern of escalating force followed by immediate narrative control, all designed to shield power from accountability. That pattern destroys legitimacy far faster than any protest ever could.
As a veteran, this feels like a profound betrayal that cuts deeper than anger alone. I served believing that my country, while flawed, was anchored to principles stronger than any one administration or ideology. I was trained to respect facts, chain of command, and accountability. Watching those principles discarded in real time by people who claim to represent the law is nauseating. The lawlessness of those who insist they are the law is so blatant that it leaves me struggling to even articulate the rage and disbelief I feel.
What makes this even harder to stomach is watching how eagerly some people accept the lies. Seeing fellow Americans cheer the deaths of civilians, dismiss clear evidence, and parrot propaganda while calling themselves patriots is sickening. Patriotism is not obedience. Patriotism is not cruelty. Patriotism is not celebrating unchecked state violence. What we are seeing instead is authoritarian loyalty masquerading as love of country.
This is moral injury. It is the realization that the country I served, or at least the version of it I believed in, is being hollowed out from within by a fanatical ideology that embraces cruelty, glorifies violence, and lies without hesitation. It is watching the justice system reduced to a performance where conclusions are announced before facts are gathered, and where truth is treated as disposable when it becomes inconvenient.
What frightens me most is how quickly this violence is being normalized. This did not happen in some distant or abstract place. It happened in an American community that looks like countless others across this country. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere, including where I live and where you live. I did not serve so my fellow citizens would live in fear of their own government.
I am beyond disappointment at this point. I am deeply disillusioned, morally exhausted, and sickened by what I am witnessing from those in power and those who cheer them on. Being told to reject reality, abandon empathy, and excuse state violence against civilians is something I will never accept. Silence in moments like this feels like complicity.
I am not writing this because I want chaos or escalation. I am writing this because I still believe that oaths mean something, and that abandoning them without resistance is how democracies fail. I served this country with honor. I did not expect to watch it be dismantled from within by cruelty, lies, and lawlessness wearing the costume of authority. That betrayal is something I will never stop naming for what it is."
