Former U.S. Marine Bob Mash, 83, did not come to the Veterans Day Parade in New York City to be honored for his service — he came to protest the deaths of children.
Mash, who fought in the Vietnam War, shouted over the sound of patriotic music and a roaring crowd to express his outrage with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and those who support the deadly conflicts in Iran and Palestine.
"We're participating in genocide," Mash told Raw Story. "I love the people, and I love the country, but my government is criminal."
Mash, a member of the group Veterans for Peace, said he and fellow vets felt honor-bound to protest the Trump administration's ongoing war in Iran that has claimed the lives of 23 Americans and thousands of Iranians.
Those Iranian deaths include more than 270 children, according to Amnesty International.
Meanwhile, the U.S. gives Israel roughly $4 billion a year, and the Trump administration is considering a plan to shift aid to Israel from the State Department to the Pentagon to facilitate future collaborations.
The United Nations Human Rights Council revealed last month that it found evidence that Israeli forces had committed war crimes that include rape, torture and the deliberate killing of children.
"Giving Israel all that money to kill innocent women and children?" Mash said on Wednesday. "This country is a disgrace."
Mash and his fellow veterans at the demonstration were surrounded by children who both came to watch the parade march up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and participate in it.
Mash watched alongside an old friend, a veteran of the Peace Corps who asked to be identified only as a concerned citizen, who also decried the killing of children in Palestine and Iran.
The Peace Corps vet told Raw Story he served in Iran, a country of "beautiful people" who couldn't help that their rulers were "lunatics."
"Resign, get the hell out of the country," was his message to Trump and Hegseth. "They are war criminals."
While Mash and his friends' defiance took the form of outrage, another group further down Fifth Avenue challenged the Trump administration's rhetoric with music and dancing.
This was aboard the Haitian American Veterans Association float, whose occupants want the nation to know their citizens have risked their lives to protect the U.S.
Haitians have been targeted for years by Trump, who notoriously campaigned on a mass deportation platform and supported it on the false claim that Haitian migrants were eating pets.
Now his Department of Homeland Security is targeting Haitian migrants — some as young as 8 years old — who have lost their Temporary Protected Status under an immigration crackdown that sees them sent out of this country in chains.
Hortense St. Preux told Raw Story on Wednesday that she came to remind the U.S. of the contributions her fellow Haitians have made to this country.
"It is hard for them to accept us — so it's easier to reject us," said St. Preux. "You call us illegal, but we still go to school. We work."
She recalled with pride her nation's historic ouster of French enslavers during the Haitian Revolution from 1791 to 1804, 61 years before the U.S. ratified the 13th Amendment and abolished slavery.
"We taught them how to live free," she said.
Haitian American Veterans Association founder Dr. Fritz Fils-Aime told Raw Story he felt it was imperative to attend the parade, considering the current political climate.
"We need to show we're part of the fabric of this country," said Fils-Aime.
The Vietnam War veteran's message to Trump? "Leave our country alone."
Not all the veterans Raw Story spoke to wanted to discuss Trump.
Laurent Lynch, 80, a Vietnam War veteran, refrained from discussing politics with Raw Story but said he wanted troops deployed abroad only to know, "We're behind them."
Lynch said he was proud to have served in the U.S. Army as his father and brother had.
When asked if he felt this Veterans Day was affected by the U.S. war with Iran, the vet said simply, "We're always getting into something."
