From Kody Macauley:
Last night I had the privilege of watching the documentary Against All Enemies, thanks to the Oklahoma Democratic Party Veterans Federation and Veterans for Responsible Leadership.
The documentary was fantastic, eye opening, and honestly terrifying. I had a great discussion with former Navy Seal Daniel Barkhuff and the VFRL team regarding some of the reasons veterans get sucked into these militia type groups. There really isn’t one solid answer to that question, however, there are some notable reasons we can see that contribute to it.
1. When you leave the military, often times you lose that comradery that you had. Some find it in public service like law enforcement or the fire department. The Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW can also be a good source, one that many Veterans either ignore or don’t know about. But when you don’t take those options, or they’re not available to you, you end up finding it somewhere else… and that’s where groups like the Proud Boys, 3%ers, etc come in.
2. We’ve been a nation at war for over 20 years, 30 if you want to count the first Gulf War, as well as our minor involvement in the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts. The VA wasn’t expanded and bolstered to handle the amount of Veterans coming out of these conflicts, which led to many Veterans not getting the care they needed or deserved. We can point to this breakdown as one of the reasons for the break in trust in the government for some of these groups.
I urge all of my fellow Veterans to sign the Veteran Code of Conduct and pledge to continue living your life in support of the oath you swore when you enlisted/commissioned. You can find that link here –> https://www.veterancode.org/…
Remember, complacency kills. If we are complacent in this upcoming election, it could mark the end of our democracy as we know it.
