Suzanne Gordon is the author of several reports and books on veterans’ health care, including Wounds of War. She is also the coauthor of the forthcoming book Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs from Duke University Press.
Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has come under fire for a checkered past and lack of relevant experience. He’s also shown himself to be zealously committed to privatizing military veterans and service members’ health care.
At tonight’s VP debate, two US military veterans, Tim Walz and J. D. Vance, will face off. Walz has a chance to stand up against the dangerous privatization of Veterans Affairs — which Biden has overseen and Trump and Vance are promising to push further.
PTSD is a scourge for military veterans. The good news is that the VA system provides specialized, high-quality care for PTSD; the bad news is that corporate-friendly politicians are privatizing this vital public health system.
While the armed forces carry out the mission of US imperialism, millions of working people sit at the heart of that machine, drawn to become soldiers by the promise of economic stability. A Left looking to rebuild links with the working class can’t avoid them.
We’ve long known that the US armed forces target poor and working-class students to meet their enlistment goals. But according to a recent report, the military’s JROTC program is also rife with sexual misconduct and outright abuse of young women.
In New York’s 11th Congressional District, two veterans are competing for the Democratic nomination. One is a centrist who will strengthen the military-industrial complex; the other is a democratic socialist who built her career fighting it.
Amazon is posing as a friend to veterans who need jobs when they return home from military service — while mistreating those veterans just as brutally as any other Amazon worker.
Joe Biden touted himself as friend of veterans while on the campaign trail. But now he’s overseeing the continued privatization of the VA and backing nominees that brag about being venture capitalists.
American foreign policy is often relegated to the margins of political consciousness in the US. But some of the most powerful voices against US intervention are those who have come from inside the military — and turned vehemently against it.
Demilitarizing police is an urgent demand in this moment. But with the police force and army so entwined — both in terms of personnel and weaponry — demilitarization won’t be easy.
Republicans and centrist Democrats love to pour money into more and more wars. But when it comes to providing public health care for the soldiers they put in harm’s way, they try to privatize and starve vets’ programs. We have to stop them.
How a troubled army recruit from a privileged background became an angry advocate for veterans health care privatization.
The nurses’ strike in Vermont has ended. Their target was a health care model that systematically endangers patients.
Taking a page from the charter school lobby’s playbook, profiteers and ideologues are trying to dismantle America’s best health care system, the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A former student of Paul de Man reflects on her mentor’s impenetrable ideas and duplicitous life.
The troublesome question of aging.