When I returned home from Afghanistan in 2007, I was frustrated and I was angry. 

Originally, I had joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 1994, more out of listlessness than patriotic fervor. And when Bill Clinton cut our branch’s budget, I transferred to the U.S. Army. By the end of the decade I was out of the service altogether and beginning a wasteful period at Boise State University.

Then 9/11 happened. I didn’t understand why these people came all the way to this side of the world to do what they did, but what I did know is they murdered 3,000 innocent Americans. And I wanted revenge.

So on September 12, I signed up for the Idaho Army National Guard. And after leading a military convoy down from Idaho to Louisiana to assist in the Hurricane Katrina recovery, I was deployed on an eighteen-month combat tour to the Pech River Valley, deep in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan. 

My unit was involved in Operation Mountain Lion, a mission whose scale was then unprecedented in our war against the Taliban. We were among the first soldiers to implement the new counterinsurgency tactics meant to clear the enemy, hold territory, and build up local security infrastructure. I still have the letters I wrote home, telling my family how we were bringing freedom to that strange place.

When I finally arrived home wounded from a war that very much was not being won, I felt disillusioned with the whole project. Like so many veterans of the Global War on Terror, I drifted through for the next decade of life. My beard grew longer, and I gained weight, topping over 300 pounds. I lost my family, I lost my business, and I lost my home. It’s a story that thousands of my brothers could tell you.

Eventually, the pieces started coming back together. I met my new, beautiful wife Andrea and got back into shape. I started a new business, larger and more successful than the last. And I started looking for the answers that I’d been avoiding for the past decade.

It was on my honeymoon, laying on the beach in the Dominican Republic, when I began reading a book called Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan written by a fellow named Scott Horton. My bride grew rattled as I began shouting at the book I held in my hands.

Suddenly everything clicked. Everything I had grown to suspect, written out in black and white by a man who had every citation under the sun. That war, like all of these wars, wasn’t about defending America or upholding liberty. It was a racket, enriching a small group of elites while the government robbed us of our freedom.

It was only about a month later that I gathered together a few other veterans and some local legislators for a meeting in the back of a public library, and announced the founding of Bring Our Troops Home.

Fast forward six years, and today I lead a national organization which works with legislators in dozens of states. We’re the spearhead of the Defend the Guard movement, introducing bills to keep your National Guard out of any war that Congress hasn’t voted to declare. Just this session, we passed our bill through the Virginia House of Delegates and Arizona Senate, and carry with us the endorsement of the sitting Secretary of Defense.

Scott has called our movement the most important thing happening in the United States. And he’s owed as much credit as anyone else for inspiring its creation and nursing its growth.

During the early years of Bring Our Troops Home, Scott’s podcast was one of the few media outlets I could rely on to broadcast our message. It was only through his recommendation that I met my communications director and stepped up our organization to the next level. 

And in that time, Scott has written more seminal books, including Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism and most recently Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, both of which will prove to be the definitive cases against these appalling wars of choice.

Now the Libertarian Institute is holding one of their annual fundraisers. And you’d be hard pressed to find a more worthy cause to donate to.

Libertarians, and the antiwar movement more broadly, need institutions like the Libertarian Institute and organizations like Bring Our Troops Home; we are the pillars that hold up the cause, the engines which both writers and activists use to drive forward towards victory.

I have written more consistently for the Libertarian Institute than any other publication. I know my byline’s advocacy for Defend the Guard, for veterans, and for staying out of these unconstitutional and disgraceful wars will always have a welcome home there.

Scott Horton is fostering from the ground up the next generation of libertarian advocates and non-interventionist thinkers. And every dollar you give him means more groundbreaking books that wake up soldiers like me, and me opportunities for young people to get involved.

If you chip in just $75 during this fund drive, not only will you be giving lifeblood to the cause you love, but you’ll be able to choose one of the more than dozen books the Institute has in its library as a gift.

If you want to be a real hero, and flex your commitment to bringing our troops home, a one-time $500 donation will give you a copy of Provoked signed by the great man himself.

Scott Horton is more than a generational genius and a personal, daily inspiration. He’s my friend, and one I can always rely on to come through for Defend the Guard. 

I hope you join me in doing our small part in paying him back for all he has done for our movement and our country, and commit yourself to a recurring, monthly contribution of $25 so the Libertarian Institute will still be standing proud when together we defeat the DC empire and bring our troops home.