Common Defense - Georgia

08/26/2026

We took an oath to defend this country. In return, we were promised our service would mean something.

Naveed, our Political Director, served in Iraq. He wrote this week about the USS Abraham Lincoln's crew, 5,000 sailors and Marines who spent 250+ days at sea under conditions we're still learning the full truth about.

While they were out there, Trump said they hadn't been deployed "nearly long enough."

That's how this administration actually sees the people who serve.

Congress has the power to open a real investigation and find out what happened. Right now, nobody's forcing them to.

Read Naveed's full piece; the link is in the comments below.

08/13/2026

For more than 250 days, the 5,000 sailors and Marines of the USS Abraham Lincoln have been stuck at sea with no end in sight.

They left San Diego in November for what was supposed to be a seven-month trip home by May. Instead, Trump sent the ship into a war on Iran that Congress never approved, and never gave the crew a return date. It's now the longest a U.S. carrier has stayed at sea in the modern Navy.

Families say sailors are down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas a meal. There's mold, broken plumbing, and weeks without hot water. Care packages have been lost in the mail for months. The ship's own doctor reportedly warned that sailors needed to reach port. Multiple sailors have tried to jump overboard. Some have told their spouses they hope they don't wake up tomorrow.

The war this ship is supporting has already killed at least 18 U.S. service members and wounded about 500 more. The House has voted twice to end U.S. involvement. Sailors are still out there.

Hegseth and Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao haven't answered for any of it. Congress has the power to find out the truth.

Sign the petition asking them to send a bipartisan group to the ship, talk to the crew directly, and open a real inquiry.

08/13/2026

08/13/2026

Under oath, the vice chiefs of all five services were asked whether women in combat have compromised our readiness or national security. Every one of them said no.

More than 5,000 women have served in combat roles over the past decade. The standards were never lowered. By law they have always been gender neutral. Our sisters-in-arms met the same bar, passed the same tests, and proved themselves on the frontlines.

Whether we are Black, white, or brown, men or women, everyone who took the oath swore to defend this country. We live by a code: the only thing that decides who does the job is whether you can get the mission done.

But Pete Hegseth and a handful of self-interested politicians want to strip qualified women out of combat roles to score points in a culture war they are fighting from behind a desk. That guts readiness, morale, and retention, and it distracts from their failure to fund the VA and take care of us when we come home.

We will not let them divide our ranks.

The WARRIOR Act keeps the standard where it belongs: on the job, not on gender.

“As far as I’m concerned, the only person who doesn’t think that women should have the opportunity to serve in these roles is Hegseth,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, a lead sponsor of a new bill.

08/12/2026

Sailors are trying to jump off the flight deck.

Multiple sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have attempted to go overboard during a deployment that was supposed to end in May and has now stretched past eight months with no return date in sight.

Watchstanders are pulling their shipmates back onto the deck. Families are getting notes from loved ones who are exhausted, down, and struggling.

All of it while Congress has never authorized the war this deployment is extending.

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth own this decision.

No plan, no timeline, and no accountability to the people whose families are living this.

Congress has the constitutional authority to restore oversight over war powers and demand this deployment end.

They need to use it.

Multiple sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have attempted to go overboard as the carrier's deployment stretches into its ninth month.

08/10/2026

One of the best officers his commander had seen in nearly 30 years. Forced out of the Army not for any misconduct, but for a medical diagnosis.

Capt. Kai Proce served 11 years, deployed to South Korea and the Middle East, and mentored 125 cadets at West Point. Maj. Kara Corcoran led an infantry platoon in combat in Afghanistan and was five days short of her 18-year retirement. Both were hauled before secretive separation boards, the kind normally reserved for troops accused of theft or abuse, and voted out for who they are.

Every American who takes the oath deserves the freedom to serve with dignity, transgender or not. Right now a handful of politicians in power are breaking that promise, singling out decorated troops to bully so they can distract us from their failure to deliver for working families. As veterans, we live by a code: leave no one behind.

We will not let them divide our ranks.

Veterans and military families of every background and gender are standing up to demand an end to this purge.

Trump’s Pentagon is using secretive separation boards to remove service members whose records prove they can do the job.

08/09/2026

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.

08/08/2026

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

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

08/07/2026

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.

An Associated Press investigation reveals that President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops.

08/07/2026

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.

The Failed Iran war should spur a long-overdue withdrawal.