From Empire Files:

On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.”

This pledge is hammered into the American psyche at every turn. But there is a hidden, dark history that shows that the politicians are in fact no friend to service members–but their greatest enemy.

An easy way to prove this truth is to look at how they so quickly betray and abandon their soldiers after purposely ruining their lives, and even after using them as literal lab rats.

In this disturbing chapter of The Empire Files, Abby Martin documents decades of experimentation on US troops—from nuclear tests to psychotropic drugs—as well as knowingly exposing them to deadly poisons, from sarin gas to Agent Orange.

Most damning is that the hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking help from the government for the side-effects are always met with lies and denial.

Abby Martin is a journalist and presenter of The Empire Files, a weekly investigative news program on teleSUR English. She was formerly the host of Breaking the Set on RT America network, working from the Washington, D.C. bureau. Abby also is an artist and activist who founded the citizen journalism organization Media Roots. She serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored. Abby appeared in the documentary film Project Censored The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News (2013), and co-directed 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013). Follow her on twitter @AbbyMartin