An Open Letter to Military Veterans: During the last days, I've spoken to dozens of you, both privately and publicly. Many of you asked for an apology, explanation, or resignation. To those of you who believed that I considered your motivations dishonorable, or believed that I despised or hated you as people: I am truly sorry for making you feel that way. Of the hundreds of military veterans that I have heard from, the motivations have been motivated mostly by heroism, some by opportunity. With either rare or nonexistent exceptions, no one joins the military for an actively immoral purpose. Those who join the military want to give the best parts of themselves to a noble cause. All of us have good and bad parts; the military demands the best parts, the nobility, self sacrifice, and discipline. But then it coldly misuses those best parts. It takes what is noble, and uses it for purposes that are ignoble. It takes the parts of you that are honorable, and uses those in a policy that is dishonorable. Many of you have shared your stories of reclaiming that honor, which had been misused and tainted by the military industrial complex, and the corrupt politicians it controls. You stopped fighting imaginary foreign enemies, and fought the real domestic enemies. You realized that those abroad don't oppose our freedoms, but those in our government do. You took the discipline you learned in the military, and the honor you were born with, and used it against the military industrial complex. You became noble in both intention and action. You became honorable both in your motivations and in your results. Now I ask you to help others find that path to fighting the real enemies at home. I ask you to help others never have their heroism deformed in service to an evil cause. I ask you to help others recognize what you already recognize: the politicians and corporations that control military policy are evil. They are using the military for evil. Help others regain their true heroism, even before corrupt military policy tries to take it. 1. If you are one of the many military veterans running for office, reflect your opposition to the miltary's misuse of heroism in your bio. Instead of saying "Fred is a Korean War veteran," say "Fred is a Korean War veteran who opposes current immoral military policy." Or "Fred is an anti-war Korean War veteran." Or "Fred is a Korean war veteran who wants to shut down foreign military bases and bring the troops home." The fact is, most of you will not win. But all of you will have your bios read by hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. If you just say that you are a veteran, everyone will take that as an endorsement of military policy and the military industrial complex. Your campaign will literally encourage others to squander their heroism as part of immoral military policy, to be a part of one of the most destructive institutions on the planet. If you boldly oppose military policy in your bio, then your campaign will help people find the path to fighting the true enemies in the military industrial complex, rather than the ones they fabricate. 2. If you want to help people find better uses for their heroism, better rites of passage, better ways to find opportunity, while at the same time taking easy access to manpower away from the military industrial complex, join this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/militarycounterrecruitment/?ref=group_cover <https://www.facebook.com/groups/militarycounterrecruitment/?fref=mentions> 3. Use your social media and traditional media to demand that the U.S. government shut down foreign military bases, cease involvement in foreign civil wars, and bring the troops home. Respectfully, Arvin Vohra <https://www.facebook.com/VohraEducation/?fref=mentions> (Personal, not official post) -- Arvin Vohra www.VoteVohra.com VoteVohra@gmail.com (301) 320-3634