The following is a guest post. To submit guest posts, anonymous or otherwise, contact the editor at packetslost at falling-anvil dot com or via Signal at thepacketrat dot 26.

The United States has always had a pact with its veterans: if you serve, we take care of you. Has the government always done a great job at that? Hell no. Just ask any Vietnam or Gulf War vet who got spit on, ignored, or left to rot. But after 20+ years of endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan, things finally started to change. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wasn’t perfect, but it was improving. PTSD and other mental health issues were finally being taken seriously. Veterans were finally getting more of the care and benefits they deserved. 

And now? That progress is getting shredded right in front of us. 

The latest gut punch: the VA is looking at laying off 82,000 employees. That’s not a typo. Eighty-two thousand. The government is crumbling, and veterans are going to be among the hardest hit.  

Some estimates say that about 30% of federal employees are veterans. So, when the government decides to slash its workforce, who do you think is going to feel the pain first? The very people who served. 

This isn’t just some bureaucratic reshuffling – it’s a full-scale dismantling of the systems that keep veterans alive. The VA is already stretched thin. Veterans already face ridiculous wait times for care. And now, the solution is to fire tens of thousands of people who help keep it running? Make it make sense. 

And let’s talk about the cruel irony here. A huge chunk of veterans voted for Trump. Why? Because they got sucked into the Fox News outrage machine cult, convinced that Orange Cheeto “supports the troops” while Democrats want to turn America into a socialist hellscape. And now? Those same veterans are about to get their benefits gutted and their support systems obliterated. “Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party” strikes again. 

This is personal. I served. I bled for this country. I lost brothers and sisters in arms. And for what? So that a bunch of billionaire fascists can loot the country while convincing working-class people to cheer them on? So, the government can be stripped for parts while politicians line their pockets and veterans get kicked to the curb? 

We are watching the United States get dismantled in real-time, and almost no one is doing a damn thing to stop it. Other than a handful of billionaires (some not even from the USA), I don’t see anyone benefiting from this. 

If you’re a veteran reading this, if you’re someone who actually cares about this country, wake the hell up.  

The destruction of the government isn’t just going to hurt some faceless bureaucrats – it’s going to devastate the people who put their lives on the line to defend it. And once those support systems are gone, they’re not coming back.