The Tortured Warrior

By @InfantryDort, an Active Duty Army Major, on X

We all have a bit of the tortured warrior inside us.

Only those who have been institutionally betrayed know the feeling best.

Nothing drives a man to madness faster than telling the truth and being destroyed for it.

I carry scars. But they are nothing compared to a @stuartscheller or anyone cast aside over COVID.

Before 2024 I had not fully awakened. At least not to the point of speaking aloud. When I watched Stu demand accountability after the Afghan withdrawal I was inspired. But I did not yet understand.

The same was true when I saw men and women stand their ground and be cast out for refusing the vaccine. At first I thought they were troublemakers. That worldview shattered quickly.

I think about what @PeteHegseth must have felt trying to do his duty in 2021 at the inauguration, and being cast aside without immediately knowing the reason why.

I often lay awake at night and try to understand what it was like for them in those moments of defiance and betrayal.

What did it cost? How did it feel for some of them to sit in jail? How did it feel to be thrown into the street with nothing?

I consider myself an empathetic man, but here I fail. When I imagine being in their place I journey to the edge of a visceral rage and then I turn back, unwilling to leap.

So when you see the anger of these men and women you must respect it.

To dismiss them as unhinged only reveals a blindness in yourself.

A civilian can barely fathom it. Lose your job and you usually find another.

A warrior signs a blank check to the nation up to and including his life. That is the last full measure of devotion.

When that devotion is betrayed for politics or expedience it wounds in a way words cannot capture. It drives a man into madness.

I admire them. I admire Stu and those cast out over COVID. I admire them the way an art lover admires Picasso or a reader admires Hemingway. Knowing that beauty was born from chaos.

They went into the abyss. They wrestled with demons. They returned with something powerful. You do not insult the ingredients of a meal when they look unpleasant while being cooked. You wait for the finished dish.

So wait. Be patient. The betrayal of Afghanistan and COVID cut deep. What we are seeing now is the healing. The battle for accountability and restitution. It will be messy. It will hurt. But it will be beautiful on the other side. Do not listen to those who see only dysfunction. Do you insult the hideousness of a cracked egg before it becomes the omelet?

My grandmother told me on her deathbed. Patience is a virtue. Have it here. Lean forward in the fight but know the fruits of this chaos will yield something majestic. Something that will last generations.

And God willing it will shield the U.S. military and her warriors from ever being so mortally wounded again.

The Tortured Warrior

We all have a bit of the tortured warrior inside us. Only those who have been institutionally betrayed know the feeling best. Nothing drives a man to madness faster than telling the truth and being destroyed for it.

I carry scars. But they are nothing…

— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) August 28, 2025

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