Tom Wakely for Congress

December 20th, 2025.

 

Yesterday, my tocayo stopped by my house with his Belgian Malinois to wrestle with mine in my backyard. At the same time, he and I sat outside, on the driveway, listening to the Tom Waits station on Pandora that I had Bluetoothed from my iPhone to a JBL portable speaker hanging from a post in my front yard. As we talked, we nursed our G&Ts, calling out the people who walked by, waving them over for a quick chat. About half smiled, waved at us, then continued walking. The other half stopped to talk to us. I introduced myself, explained our campaign, and why I was running for Congress. My tocayo, introduced himself and explained why he was supporting our campaign. My friend is 90 years old, a Korean War veteran, and, like me, a member of Veterans for Peace. His story seemed to captivate everyone who stopped to talk to us. Now, I’m taking a bit of license here, but this is essentially what he told the small crowd of eight that had gathered to talk to us.

 

He said he was born in 1935 at the tail end of the Great Depression and that he lived through the Korean War, the Vietnam War, countless military actions all across the globe, two Gulf Wars, and that he was afraid that we were about to invade Venezuela. He also said Franklin Roosevelt was president when he was born, but that the first President he could vote for was Dwight Eisenhower.  He said he remembered listening to Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation on the radio, and what had struck him the most was the President’s warning to the country about the military-industrial complex. He said the President’s speech about the alliance between powerful men, politicians, the defense department, and private arms dealers was something that pretty much the whole country had forgotten about, but that given most people who actually had listened to it when it was given were either dead or drooling in a nursing home somewhere.

One of the men who had stopped to talk to us was a retired Navy Seal who said he lived just a few blocks over. He asked my friend what he thought of the recently passed $900 billion defense budget. My tocayo took a sip of his G&T, thought about the question for a minute or so, then said, quite bluntly, it was garbage. He said people were going hungry all across the country, and Congress didn’t seem to care. The Navy Seal guy then asked my tocayo what he thought about all those in Congress who voted for the bill. Garbage, he said.

Slowly, people drifted off to continue their walk around the neighborhood, leaving just me and my tocayo alone to talk about the coming Venezuela War. We both agreed that if an invasion occurs, it will be more like a Vietnam-style war than a Gulf War-style one. Armed resistance groups opposed to the U.S. invasion of their country will fight a two-pronged guerrilla war. On one front, they will strike the U.S. troops from their jungle hideouts. On the other front, it would be an urban fight. Thousands of U.S. troops will more than likely will be killed while countless more will return home, wounded both physically and mentally.

And those responsible, both the Trump administration and those in Congress who voted for this massive $900 billion Pentagon budget, which includes Rep. Gabe Vasquez, will have blood on their hands if a single American service member, man or woman, is killed.