Former Army Ranger Warns of Domestic ‘Forever War’

Greg Stoker served four combat deployments with the 75th Ranger Regiment, including two in Afghanistan. He said his experiences in war — and later as an activist — led him to reject U.S. militarism. He now works as an anti-imperialist organizer, geopolitical analyst, and journalist. He's also running for Congress in Texas.

MINNEAPOLIS — Former U.S. Army Ranger and veteran activist Greg Stoker delivered a stark warning about the future of the United States during a veterans-organized press conference in Minneapolis, arguing that the next “forever war” is already unfolding at home.

“We’re in an existential information war for the soul of this country,” Stoker said, describing what he sees as the domestic return of surveillance, repression, and policing tactics developed during the so-called Global War on Terror.

Stoker pointed to his detention by Israeli forces in October while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian effort to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s naval blockade. He described the experience as further confirmation of how military and security doctrines are used to suppress civilian resistance.

“This isn’t partisan,” Stoker emphasized, criticizing both Democrats and Republicans for decades of bipartisan support for expanding defense budgets, foreign wars, and domestic security infrastructure. “There is no opposition party to this.”

He argued that the same tools used to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan — mass surveillance, militarized policing, and intelligence-driven repression — are now being tested in U.S. cities. Minneapolis, he said, has become a key testing ground.

“At the same time they’re field-testing military occupation, we’re field-testing alternatives,” Stoker said, pointing to mutual aid networks, community defense efforts, and cross-political organizing in the city.

Stoker framed the current moment as one of institutional collapse driven by corporate and tech elites seeking to “turn collapse into control.” The solution, he argued, lies outside traditional political channels.

“If institutions are failing and no one is really trying to save them, you’re not imagining it,” he said. “So we have to build our own.”

Despite the gravity of his message, Stoker ended on a note of confidence. “Communities organizing in unity is how this ends,” he said. “And we’re going to win.”