Posted originally on Jan 23, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Governments do not honor their veterans—period. It is absolutely shameful to see how governments treat the men and women who risk their lives to defend their nation. A disabled war veteran in the UK was arrested last year for protesting in favor of Palestine. Police lifted this man out of his wheelchair and sent him to jail on a stretcher.

The Bonus Army episode is one of the clearest historical warnings about what happens when governments make promises they cannot honor and then respond to economic stress with force instead of reform. In 1932, tens of thousands of World War I veterans marched on Washington to demand early payment of bonuses that had been promised to them for their service. These were not radicals or revolutionaries. These men were former soldiers who believed the government would keep its word. Instead, they were treated as a threat. President Hoover ordered troops to attack the veterans, forcing them to flee. We saw the same with the Coxley’s Army, which was the march on Washington following the Panic of 1893 and massive unemployment.

Governments always fear veterans because they expose the lie. These are the people who were told there was honor, duty, and reward in service. When they return home to broken promises, inadequate care, or economic hardship, they become living proof that the social contract was fraudulent. Rather than admit failure, the state chooses censorship, intimidation, or character assassination. It is far easier to silence the messenger than to confront the insolvency of the promises made.

When governments begin silencing veterans, you are no longer dealing with a free society — you are witnessing the unmistakable decline phase of the state. Veterans are the last group any rational government should attempt to suppress. They are not activists looking for power; they are people who once believed in the system strongly enough to risk their lives for it. When even they are treated as enemies, confidence has already collapsed.