The White House has asked several veterans groups to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to build a towering triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, breaking with other veterans and advocacy groups that have said the structure will harm the experience of visiting the national cemetery, according to three people familiar with their plans.

The Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans for America First and other associations are expected to join an amicus brief that opposes some veterans’ efforts to halt construction of the arch, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The filing is expected as soon as Wednesday.

Thomas Burke, the national president of the Vietnam Veterans of America, told The Washington Post on Tuesday afternoon that his group and three others planned to stay “neutral” and that he was not aware of plans to join an amicus brief. Burke also shared a statement from the four groups saying they did not “endorse or oppose any specific architectural design or proposal” and calling for Americans to unite around a new monument honoring veterans in Memorial Circle.

The symbolism of Trump’s arch overshadowing graves has drawn rebukes from VoteVets, a political organization aligned with Democratic veterans, which launched a campaign last month to mobilize more veterans against the planned 250-foot arch. On Tuesday evening, VoteVets also rebuked other veterans’ organizations for planning to side with the White House.

A US embassy staffer accused of possessing and distributing child sex abuse material, but left the UK before he was questioned by British police, is a high-ranking member of the US Air Force, the BBC has been told.

The BBC understands he is Lieutenant Colonel Michael Morris, who worked as an assistant military attaché at the embassy in south-west London.

He was questioned by American authorities after investigators alleged his US-based brother Benjamin Morris had shared child abuse material with him.

His brother, Lt Col Michael Morris, was flown out of the UK in August on a civilian flight without first being questioned by British police.

While not a diplomat, it is understood he enjoyed the umbrella of diplomatic protection.

In September, the US embassy confirmed to the BBC that authorities are investigating the allegations and they reassigned the staff member to the US while inquiries continued.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s senior adviser for religious issues has shared scores of racist and homophobic posts, spread conspiracy theories, and repeatedly denigrated Islam and immigrants, a CNN investigation has found.

Ryan Higgins has become a key aide to Hegseth since joining the Pentagon, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN, particularly in shaping the defense secretary’s embrace of Christian nationalist themes in speeches and public appearances.

On his social media platforms, CNN found Higgins defended a video President Donald Trump shared depicting the Obamas as apes, said same-sex marriage was “abominable,” and speculated about how many abortions former Vice President Kamala Harris might have had, citing her age and claiming she had a “long record of sleeping around.”

He’s also asserted that the “Separation of Church and State does not exist” and has posted extreme rhetoric about immigrants.

While many of the posts were made in his previous role as a conservative activist, Higgins has also continued sharing far-right views since joining the administration, including railing against “the satanic cult of LGBTQ,” criticizing gay adoption as “buying babies,” and calling abortion “Demonic human sacrifice packaged as ‘women’s healthcare.’”

Higgins’ comments, which CNN found in a review of hundreds of social media posts, video streams and archived blog posts from the last decade, illuminate the views of a key figure behind Hegseth’s push to dramatically reshape the American military. While some sources who spoke to CNN said Higgins had considerable influence on Hegseth’s rhetoric and positions on religious issues, two other sources downplayed his role, saying he is merely one of many advisers within the department.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point continues to require top officials to review its civilian professors’ requests to speak at external events, despite a federal judge’s ruling last month that such a mandate is unconstitutional, according to documents and correspondence obtained by The Washington Post.

Officials are citing a year-old memorandum circulated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on “external engagements” as the justification for the reviews, emails obtained by The Post show.

Three outside law professors who reviewed the materials at the request of The Post said West Point’s actions appear to violate the order issued by Judge Cathy Seibel in September that ended a lawsuit filed by a civilian professor at the academy.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is on Alaska's Senate ballot because the courts put him there: a state judge reversed his removal in June and the Alaska Supreme Court upheld that ruling. Trump's claim that his name makes the ballot a scam ignores those rulings, and no court has found otherwise.

Read more: https://election-watch.50501vets.com/rumors/alaska-senate-ballot-two-sullivans

Among Americans on the Left (by that I don't mean the Democratic Party, I mean Greens, DSA, etc.), the essay War is a Racket is universally known and probably has been read.

I wonder if people in the military are aware of it, too. Is it assigned reading at the service academies? Are officers, in particular, at least aware of it?

This was probably a stupid question, but I don't know any career military people well enough to hazard a guess.

Edit: in case anyone disputes my characterization of the Democratic Party as Left (I'll accept center-left), I am basing this on my own experiences of a subculture. There is a certain kind of American who, if you were to look at his bookshelf, you would find Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States, but nothing by Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. You would find Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and probably some histories of the Spanish Civil War or the Paris Commune. They don't watch Rachel Maddow, but they listen to Amy Goodman religiously. They can tell you more than you want to know about the Haymarket Riot. These types might vote Democratic or they might not vote at all. Some of the sillier ones spell their names with lower-case letters, because they are "anti-capitalist." The Democratic activists I know are a completely different group and wouldn't know any of this stuff. That's why when people refer to the Democrats as the Left Wing in America, I always shudder a little.