Common Defense

Today we remember the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 6 and 9, 1945.

We honor them by calling for an end to the nuclear arms race. No one wins a nuclear war.

Alongside Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War, we are urging Congress to move us back from the brink.

Report racism, sexual harassment, or religious discrimination in the Army, and you can no longer do it anonymously. That is the new policy.

Under changes driven by Pete Hegseth, who called equal-opportunity investigations "weaponized," the Army is ending anonymous reporting, shortening the window to file, and handing commanders the power to dismiss a complaint in as little as 14 days. The new rules also carve out abuse during basic training so that it does not count as harassment.

Strip away anonymity and you do not protect the force. You protect the abuser. You expose the soldier who reports a predator, or the recruit who reports a slur, to retaliation and a wrecked career. Military justice experts put it plainly: this hands it all back to the commanders and guts the protections that made people feel safe coming forward.

We know the difference between tough training and abuse. Harassment in training has cost service members their lives. Marine recruit Raheel Siddiqui was targeted with anti-Muslim slurs and abuse before he died. Pretending basic training cannot be harassment does not make our people safer. It makes cover-ups easier.

We take care of our own. Whether we are Black, white, or brown, of any faith or gender, everyone who serves deserves to report abuse without fear. Real accountability means the leaders who abuse their power lose their jobs, period.

Grassroots veterans and service members are standing shoulder to shoulder to reject this cover-up. Read the reporting in the comments. Tell Congress to protect safe reporting for our troops.

https://bit.ly/4wauiC6

Army ends anonymous reporting for harassment complaints Soldiers can no longer make anonymous reports of discrimination, and commanders can more easily dismiss complaints they disagree with.

A wife taken outside a Walmart in front of her 6-year-old daughter. A soldier on leave, caring for his 5-year-old alone while his spouse sits in a detention center. This is what the crackdown is doing to the families of our troops.

An AP investigation found that more than 50 spouses and parents of active-duty service members have been taken by ICE, and at least six deported, after this administration ended protections that stood under both parties for decades.

Here is the part that should stop everyone cold. The military recruited many of these families by promising that honorable service would protect their loved ones. Now, while their soldier is deployed, sometimes to the war in Iran, that promise is being broken.

We live by a code: leave no one behind. Tearing a spouse or a parent away from an active-duty troop betrays that code, and it guts the readiness of the force. Even some Republicans in Congress are demanding these families be released.

Whether we are Black, white, or brown, born here or newcomers, we keep our families whole.

Grassroots veterans and military families are standing up together.

AP Exclusive: Trump's immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents An Associated Press investigation reveals that President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops.

Angie Nixon has spent her career organizing working people to build power against corporate greed. As a union leader and state representative, she took on corporate price-gouging and fought to expand childcare for Florida families.

Common Defense endorses her for U.S. Senate. Sen. Ashley Moody has voted to strip VA workers of their collective bargaining rights and push veterans' care into private hands, leaving veterans waiting months for appointments while corporate contractors profit. Angie Nixon knows how to organize people to fight that exact kind of rigging and win.

Full endorsement statement linked below in the comments.

18 troops killed. More than 600 wounded. For a war we were told would make us safer.

That is the cost of the war with Iran, and a new Foreign Affairs analysis makes the case that it should be the last straw. For 35 years, we have kept tens of thousands of American troops across the Middle East. The post-9/11 wars cost 8 trillion dollars, more than 15,000 American lives, and left 1.8 million troops disabled.

For veterans and military families, none of this is abstract. It is the deployments with no end, the plans upended, the resources spent overseas instead of in our own communities. And now the Pentagon budget has reached 1 trillion dollars while families are struggling to afford groceries.

Our troops kept their oath. It is time for our leaders to keep their promise. Bring them home, and invest here at home.

America Must Let Go of the Middle East The Failed Iran war should spur a long-overdue withdrawal.

Matt Little built his career fighting insurance companies for seniors and people with disabilities who were too often left to fight alone. As Mayor of Lakeville and a Minnesota state senator, he delivered results for working families instead of powerful interests.

Common Defense endorses him for Minnesota's 2nd District. Veterans face the same fight he's spent his career winning: corporate interests pushing to privatize the VA and leave veterans navigating broken claims systems on their own. Matt Little knows how to beat that fight.

Ceretta Smith served nearly a decade as an Army medic before becoming a federal labor union leader fighting for VA workers and working families.

Common Defense endorses her for Georgia's 12th District. She has spent her career going up against the politicians and corporate interests who understaff hospitals, hand veterans' care over to private profiteers, and strip working people of their right to organize.

She knows exactly what it takes to protect the care veterans earned, because she's fought that fight from the inside.

Pramila Jayapal has used her seat on the House Judiciary Committee to fight the deportation of immigrant service members and veterans and to protect their access to the VA benefits they earned. She advanced out of Washington's primary toward another term representing the 7th District.

Common Defense endorsed her because that record is what accountability actually looks like, not a talking point. Veterans in Washington and across the country need representatives who will take on the military-industrial complex instead of standing next to it for a photo.

Fred Wellman spent 22 years in the Army, flew scout helicopters in Desert Storm, and deployed three times to Iraq. He won the Democratic primary for Missouri's 2nd Congressional District.

Common Defense endorsed Wellman because he knows the cost of decisions made by politicians who cut VA funding while sending other people's kids to fight wars they can't justify. He carried his oath home with him instead of leaving it behind, and now he's taking it to Congress.

Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary after outside groups, including that spent close to $70 million trying to defeat him. He won anyway.

Common Defense endorsed El-Sayed because of his record making government work for people: affordable health care, livable wages, clean air and water, and real protection for the VA.