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Ryan Haerer

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    Threats to democracy

    Strengthening U.S. democracy is critical to deterring future aggression

    Ryan Haerer
    March 08, 2022
    Ukrainians flee heavy fighting

    Residents of Irpin flee heavy fighting via a destroyed bridge as Russian forces entered the city on March 7.

    Chris McGrath/Getty Images

    Haerer, an Army veteran, is a state leader in Maryland for Veterans for Political Innovation.

    I left active combat behind on May 11, 2006, after a roadside bomb ripped through the bottom of our Humvee. It killed my friend in front of me and sent shrapnel through my bones, while the blast wave smashed our brains. It threw my machine gunner out the roof and blew the steel blast door a dozen yards away.

    That day and that war never leave my memory, even as life has gone on. But 16 years after that sunrise explosion outside Baghdad, this week’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has me again remembering — feeling, actually — just how ugly the world can be.

    Ukrainian civilians are now dealing with what I and so many other veterans knew fighting in our own wars: that explosive physical and mental pain could come any minute. Living in that state of hyper-vigilance will result in effects lasting long into the future, even after the violence ends.

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