Scott Peoples served as a captain in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division during the global fight against terrorism. He now advocates for free and fair elections and is the executive director of Veterans for Responsible Leadership.

The veteran community of the Global War on Terrorism has become increasingly jaded and disillusioned. While we are immensely proud of our service, we are disgusted with our government and the politicians who sent us off to fight in pointless wars while they got rich at our expense.

While I don’t pretend to speak for every Global War on Terrorism veteran out there, the majority I’ve spoken with over the years all agree on one thing: we got screwed over by our own government and by a system that weaponized our patriotism against us.

After watching the collapse of the Twin Towers and the brutal killing of 3,000 of our fellow citizens on Sept. 11, tens of thousands of us joined the military to proudly serve and
protect our country.

After signing up to fight overseas, we expected our government to defend us with the same commitment that we defended it. Instead, we were sent into forever wars with no clear strategic mission, no real exit strategy, repeated deployments and an end result that left neither Americans at home nor the people overseas better off than before.

And on top of that, when we came home, we expected to have a Department of Veterans
Affairs and a healthcare system that would do everything in its power to take care of us.

That was the promise our country made to us when we made our own promise to serve, took our oath and signed our names on the dotted line. But over the years, many of us have been forced to accept the painful reality that we were sold lies.

Watching Kabul fall back into the hands of the Taliban after 20 brutal years of war forced many of us to ask ourselves: What the hell was it all for? Were our sacrifices for nothing?

There was no victory parade like there was after World War II. Iraq and Afghanistan did not become the stable democracies we were promised they would be if we just stayed the course for one more deployment, one more year, one more battle. All that was left was an America knee-deep in trillions of dollars more debt, a country more divided than ever before and veterans deciding that killing themselves — at a rate of 17 per day — was a better answer than continuing to live in a country that failed to care for them when they returned home.

A system that fuels endless wars to enrich politicians in Washington and their donors, instead of prioritizing the soldiers they sent off to fight them, is not a system we can be proud of, and it is not one I want my children to inherit. And now, we are seeing history repeat itself with another unconstitutional, reckless and endless war in Iran, and another generation who will have to face its impact.

Our government seems incapable of learning from the mistakes of our past. The establishment in D.C., which is run by money, power, ego and greed, always seems to trump common sense, justice and righteousness.

This endless cycle continues with every new generation to no avail. The Boomers fought their war in Vietnam, Gen-X and Millennials got their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Gen-Z is getting their war in Iran.

Why does every generation of Americans have to be sent off to fight and die in another endless conflict? Will we ever break this cycle? Will we ever learn the right lessons from the wars that came before? And will our elected leaders ever truly represent the people instead of the political and corporate interests that profit from war?

If we want the answers to those questions to finally change, then we need to start by electing leaders with the courage, character and moral clarity to say no to another forever war this November. Graham Platner is one of those leaders.

Our nation is fractured, and healing those fractures requires leaders willing to reckon honestly with the past — both their own and ours as a country. We’ve seen too many politicians wrap themselves in the flag without ever earning it.

Graham Platner is different and that’s why the Veterans for Responsible Leadership is proud to endorse him. Graham Platner is a Marine, Army infantryman and oyster farmer who lives in a small town in Maine. After serving four tours overseas, he eventually came home. But like many veterans, the man who came back was not the same man who left.

His struggles with disillusionment of our system, loneliness and struggling to find himself again reflect the path so many veterans have been forced to walk when they return home. The darkness he has moved through gives him an understanding of hardship, resilience and authenticity that so many veterans and working Americans know all too well –– and that many career politicians have long since forgotten.

Graham speaks passionately about ending the forever wars that he and his generation were sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. He speaks honestly about the care that he received at his local VA medical center in Maine that saved his life, giving him the tools he needed to reacquaint with civilian life on the home front.

And now, he is standing up to an administration and a Congress that is trying to gut these critical lifelines from his fellow veterans who have served.

Veterans need Graham Platner in the Senate to lead this crucial fight, to stand up for those who served and to protect the next generation from politicians who care more about their donors and political ambitions than their lives.

And Maine deserves a senator who will finally fight for working people, speak honestly and show up genuinely — not for donors and consultants, but for the men and women who built and fought for this state and country with their bare hands.

We need leaders who put service for hardworking Americans and sacrifice above all else, who understand what real patriotism is. Graham Platner is that leader. He is Maine’s only choice for a senator who will fight for and represent all veterans and military families alike.