✍️ Article: When Orders Cross the Line: Veterans on the Moral Dilemma of ICE Enforcement

By Don Dugger — July 2025

As a veteran, I know what it means to take an oath — to serve, to defend, and to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That oath doesn’t expire when the uniform comes off. It stays with you. It shapes how you see the country, how you judge its actions, and how you decide what’s right.

That’s why what’s happening now should concern every American who has ever worn the uniform.

The recent deployment of U.S. Marines and National Guard troops to assist with civilian immigration enforcement — including ICE raids on homes, schools, and workplaces — places our service members in a position that many of us would have found unthinkable: being used against the very people we swore to protect.

These troops aren’t responding to natural disasters. They’re not guarding embassies or protecting critical infrastructure. They’re supporting operations that round up families, often with no criminal records, in American cities and neighborhoods — some of which they themselves may have grown up in.

Let’s call this what it is: a moral dilemma.

Many of these troops are young — barely out of basic — and now they’re being told to assist in actions that may violate their own sense of right and wrong. They’re being asked to stand by while frightened children are pulled from their homes, or while parents are separated without due process.

Some may not question it. But many will.

And for those of us who’ve been there — who know what it’s like to follow orders, and what it’s like to live with them afterward — we have an obligation to speak up. Because once the military is used to police civilians inside the U.S., that line gets blurry. And when moral injury takes root in a young soldier’s mind, it doesn’t go away. It festers.

The Posse Comitatus Act was designed to keep the military from being used as a domestic police force. It’s not just a legal issue — it’s a civic firewall. A boundary between the force we train to fight foreign threats and the freedoms we’re supposed to protect at home.

And now that firewall is cracking.

We need to ask: What kind of burden are we placing on today’s troops? What kind of future are we shaping for tomorrow’s?

I didn’t go to war so we could use federal troops to terrify children. And I suspect most veterans reading this didn’t either.

DOGE Cuts: A Veteran’s Battle with Efficiency Over Values

By Don Dugger — July 2025

While DOGE promised to streamline government, many of the jobs eliminated were held by veterans—men and women who had already served and continued their service within federal agencies like the VA. According to a report from The Times, over 6,000 veterans have already lost federal jobs. Others working inside the VA fear the loss of contractors will degrade access to treatment and delay disability claims.

One internal review suggested the VA may reduce over 30,000 positions. Many of these are support roles staffed by veterans or designed to serve them—legal advisors, peer counselors, and mental health coordinators. The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) warns this will undermine the very goals DOGE claimed to enhance.

America has a long tradition of honoring those who served. Stripping veterans of their roles and protections in the name of “efficiency” breaks that promise—and it puts many who depend on these services at risk.

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If you're a veteran and this moment troubles you — speak up. Write. Share your story. Talk to your representatives. You don’t have to agree with everything said here. But silence is complicity.