Veterans and American National Security

02/20/25 • 56 min

Some might think of veterans issues and national security issues separately, but they are intricately intertwined. There's a moral imperative to care for those who have risked their lives to defend freedom. There's also a national security imperative to do so.

This fact raises several questions: How are America’s veterans doing? How well are we taking care of those who have served our country in uniform? How can we do better?

To discuss these questions and more, as well as some new research, guest host Bradley Bowman is joined by Marcus Ruzek and retired Navy Captain Dan Goldenberg.

Marcus Ruzek

Marcus is Senior Program Director at The Marcus Foundation. The Marcus Foundation is a leader in philanthropy, specifically in the areas of military and veterans’ support. He has worked at The Marcus Foundation for over 10 years, supporting its Free Enterprise initiatives, National Security/Foreign Policy, and Free Market Ideals programs. An infantryman and combat veteran, Marcus deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. He commanded a Special Forces “A Team” which partnered with Kurdish Peshmerga in the fight against Islamic State terrorists (aka: ISIS).

Dan Goldenberg

Dan had led the Call of Duty Endowment or CODE since 2013. During his tenure there, the Call of Duty Endowment has become the largest philanthropic funder of veteran employment, backing more than 150,000 high-quality job placements and driving more than $9 billion in economic value for veterans and their families. Dan is a retired Navy Captain. His military service includes four tours as a commanding officer, as well as serving as a carrier-based naval flight officer, and special assistant to four Secretaries of the Navy. He also has two decades of business experience.

Discussed in the episode

CODE Report

H.R. McMaster's article "Preserving the Warrior Ethos"

This fact raises several questions: How are America’s veterans doing? How well are we taking care of those who have served our country in uniform? How can we do better?

To discuss these questions and more, as well as some new research, guest host Bradley Bowman is joined by Marcus Ruzek and retired Navy Captain Dan Goldenberg.

Marcus Ruzek

Dan Goldenberg

Discussed in the episode

CODE Report

H.R. McMaster's article "Preserving the Warrior Ethos"

Previous Episode

All Eyes on Gaza

A two-state solution was first offered to Palestinian leaders as early as 1937.

Israel offered two-state solutions again in 1947, 1967, 1978, 2000, 2001, and 2008.

Palestinian leaders declined each and every such offer. They have proposed no alternatives.

Their grievance, it should by now be clear, is not the absence of a nation-state called Palestine but rather the existence of a nation-state called Israel: the resurrected homeland of the Jewish people, a tiny island in an ocean of Arab and Muslim states.

Yet within the foreign policy establishment in the U.S. and Europe, there has for generations been an unshakeable belief that there must be a two-state solution. President Trump has shaken that belief, changed the debate, and widened what’s known as the Overton Window, the range of policy proposals considered acceptable.

To discuss, host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleagues Jonathan Conricus and Rich Goldberg.

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