Veterans are coming home from the War on Terror and suffering from the horrific effects of burn pits. Instead of receiving support from the VA—America’s veterans have found they need to fight a new battle at home with an unexpected enemy—bureaucracy.
Free the People sat down with Kelley Beaucar Vlahos of The American Conservative, who has written extensively on the effects of burn pits on America’s veterans, to get to the bottom of the story.
Free the People publishes opinion-based articles from contributing writers. The opinions and ideas expressed do not always reflect the opinions and ideas that Free the People endorses. We believe in free speech, and in providing a platform for open dialog. Feel free to leave a comment!
Matt Kibbe is President at Free the People, an educational foundation using video storytelling to turn on the next generation to the values of personal liberty and peaceful cooperation. He is also co-founder and partner at Fight the Power Productions, a video and strategic communications company. Kibbe is the host of BlazeTV’s Kibbe on Liberty, a popular podcast that insists that you think for yourself.
Dubbed “the scribe” by the New York Daily News, Kibbe is the author three books, most recently the #2 New York Times bestseller Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto.
He was senior advisor for a Rand Paul Presidential Super PAC in 2016, and later co-founded AlternativePAC to promote libertarian values.
In 2004 Kibbe founded FreedomWorks, a national grassroots advocacy organization, and served as President until his departure in 2015. Steve Forbes said: “Kibbe has been to FreedomWorks what Steve Jobs was to Apple.”
An economist by training, Kibbe did graduate work at George Mason University and received his B.A. from Grove City College. He serves at the whim of his awesome wife Terry, and their three objectivist cats, Roark, Ragnar and Rearden. Kibbe is a fanatical DeadHead, drinker of craft beer and whisky, and collector of obscure books on Austrian economics.
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Nobody told these tools of Statism to join the World’s largest terrorist organization.
Many idealistic young people have essentially no other economic options as they exit high school so they join the military. They aren’t children and are morally responsible for their actions, but it’s unrealistic to expect every 18 year old to be fully actualized, completely immune to a life of statist propaganda, and with their future plotted on a sane path through this increasingly insane world.
A friend of some friends of mine died at an early age as a result of exposure to military burn pits. He widowed a young wife and left behind an orphan. Our society should be very concerned about these avoidable tragedies.