By a Macalester student and ESFL intern who wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons.
Ever since I arrived in the United States for the first time 3 years ago, I have been quite confused by the presence and glorification of the military and veteran culture. This has only become worse with the Trump presidency. I have been fortunate to meet a military veteran, Amber Mathwig, who is helping me to make sense of the complicated questions which swirl around the military. Amber is not only a veteran and an activist in the “About Face: Veterans Against the War (AFVAW)” organization, but she is also an activist in the labour movement. I met her at the Resilience Happy Hours, which she frequently attends at the East Side Freedom Library and I have been asking her questions about her experiences and perspectives.
AFVAW is a post-9/11 service members and veterans organization that aims to end the foreign policy of permanent war and the use of military weapons, tactics and values in communities across the country. It was originally formed in 2004, then named Iraq Veterans Against the War, then focussing mostly on the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the lies it was based on. They were deeply informed by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War before them. Now they have expanded their membership to oppose the militarism that guides US international policy and hurts communities abroad and at home while enriching politicians and defense companies.
AFVAW members do this in many ways. For example, on 13th of June 2025, the members of this anti-imperialist veterans organization gathered in Washington D.C. to speak out against the military parade that was set up supposedly to memorialize the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, but more widely believed by AFVAW members to be a move of narcissism to celebrate Donald Trump’s birthday. AFVAW was there to speak out against this unnecessary expenditure of money, while veterans benefits were simultaneously being cut by the Trump administration and National Guard members in California were being deployed against their own communities. Amber was also present – even being arrested and held in custody by the U.S. Marshalls for over 24 hours. I got the chance to speak to her and about her life and political philosophy more. I learned a lot from her story.
Amber enlisted in the Navy when she was 20 years old, in 2002. She grew up in a rural, patriotic town which had strong pro-veteran and pro-military values and then after 9/11 happened, she felt compelled to enlist. She remained in the service until 2012, being stationed in multiple countries such as Japan and Iraq. In 2011, she decided she wanted to leave for many reasons, such as the gender discrimination, sexual assault and harassment she experienced in the military as a woman. She also felt the military to be untrustworthy, finding out on multiple occasions that she had been explicitly lied to and purposefully being kept uninformed. She told me that the education benefits she received enabled her to study sociology afterwards and this is what really changed her opinion of the U.S. Military and the systems of oppression it upholds. After joining AFVAW, she became more aware of how US foreign policy, intervention and the toxic masculinity of the military was hurting and undermining people all over the world. She became more and more critical of narratives of American exceptionalism and realized the terror that many governments around the world have felt due to the US military. She felt a sense of community with AFVAW that she had not felt before and decided to fight against what she had once stood for.
Being a foreign student, one of the more jarring things to me when moving here was the veteran culture. Back home, we do have veterans but they are not as many and not honoured to the extent that they are here. The “thank you for your service” mentioned before the sport games and “veteran-owned” placards in front of shops were quite peculiar to me. Why would a veteran deserve more praise and special treatment than a “normal” worker, a barista, construction worker or mailman? I understand that being in the military is not just like any other job necessarily, but the idolization of veterans suggests a romanization of violence in and of itself. This became clear to me in my conversations with Amber. In the “project” of the United States, as a violent, world-dominating force, the military plays an essential and crucial part. They are the ones that uphold this system directly, that contribute to the violence and oppression both abroad and nationally (such as the anti-ICE protest in LA). In order to keep people from rebelling against it the military and veterans can not just be another job. They need to be integrated into the national identity of the United States, they need to be honoured, venerated and seen as a crucial part of what makes Americans American. In the absence of such a narrative, Americans might have to deal with the questionable nature of the violence being done in their name abroad. More practically, the US military is one of the most important factors of upholding the existing world system by crushing any ideas of an alternative system abroad. For many veterans this is complicated to grapple with. When attending a meeting with AFVAW members, I heard things repeated by several veterans present, explaining why they left the military. Many veterans expressed how they knew they were often lied to, mistreated and they felt deep down that what they were doing there was “not the right thing”.
But the romanization of the military is not the only reason why many Americans end up enlisting in the military. Even though there is technically not a draft, enlisting is not always a free choice. Military recruiters target the young, low-income, working class people specifically, in what critics such as AFVAW call the poverty draft. The US government can make the military sound like a very attractive option to people who might be living in poverty. But even for those enlisted, it is not easy for them. People generally don’t want to hurt others, so in order to get people to that point they need to break their humanity. This, in the military, turns into a culture of extremely toxic masculinity. Whether you’re a man or a woman, you need to act tough, show no emotions and behave violently. This is the only way that you can create someone that will hurt others, go with what is being asked of you even though, as I mentioned above, one feels like what they are doing is wrong. This also results in women having an uncomfortable place in the military. They are still being asked to behave as men but their female gender sets them apart. This is why women often face disproportionate amounts of sexual violence and gender discrimination, as Amber also described to me. This violence against women is not an outlier, but another systematic method to upholding the system of toxic masculinity and taking away agency for women.
The glorification of veterans after enlisting is an essential façade that keeps veterans standing behind the military. How could what you have been doing be wrong when everyone praises you for it all the time? The US empire is built on the backs of veterans and military, but they need to break your humanity in order for you to comply with something you deep down might know is bad.
This is why the veterans subsequently can be a main threat to the empire of the US. They were essential in building it, and thus they would also be essential in breaking it down. The issues that veterans often face after enlisting, especially the psychological issues such as PTSD, aren’t just illnesses that arise after seeing something horrible. It is what Amber called moral injury. Your mind is grappling with the idea that you contributed to something bad, something that hurt a lot of people. No matter how much the military tries to dehumanize and antagonize the other party, your humanity and heart knows that it is wrong. Coming home after the fact is thus jarring, you’re hurt by the memories. They drilled them, forced their humanity out of them and that takes a toll. What do you do with that feeling afterwards? If you don’t grapple with the effect, as Amber states, you become violent to yourself and to the people around you. You upheld the system of the US hurting people by hurting more people.
How do we get out of this circle? AFVAW plays a crucial role here by building a movement that tackles the root causes of war and helping service members and veterans to transform themselves, their values and American society as a whole. They recognize the importance of solidarity with all people impacted by wars, understanding how wars target communities of colour, indigenous people and poor people within the United States. Through this, veterans who have joined AFVAW are working to get themselves – and all of us – out of this circle. For me, I was thoroughly impressed by Amber and the members of AFVAW. I can’t imagine what it must have been like growing up in this culture, in a place where veterans and the military are continuously praised and glorified, to then enlist and realize that it does not feel good. And then to have to learn and grapple with the effects of what you have done, to make a change in your path and fight against what you once directly contributed to. This is what the US government is ultimately scared of, veterans who know the US military, what they do and the reality of the horror that this system creates. They know the organization and culture inside and out and thus form an existential threat to what they are doing.
I hope that the East Side Freedom Library can offer a space for veterans, such as members of About Face, to further explore, learn and ultimately fight against the system and to teach people like me about this complicated dynamic. As Amber explained to me, the ESFL offers many resources on labour movement, imperialism and toxic masculinity that can further sketch a picture of what happened and how the military is reflected in this. Additionally, the Resilience Happy Hours that happen once every two weeks on Friday evenings from 4-6pm are a great space to connect different organizations and individuals working towards similar goals and ultimately combining powers to form a great community. If you would like to learn about these concepts, I encourage you to come to the East Side Freedom library, to explore the wide collection of books and attend the Resilience Hours!