Support The Troops? Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Those who interact with homeless people will not be surprised to learn than one in four is a veteran. The fact that a disproportionate number of vets are homeless - vets compose about 11 percent of the total U.S. population - underscores several unpleasant truths.
A new study by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit group, has released these findings, which are based on data from the Veterans Affairs Department and the U.S. Census Bureau, which estimated in 2005 that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
What is perhaps most disturbing, some say, is that many of the newly homeless are veterans of Afghanistan and the latest Iraq war. It took about a decade for homelessness among Vietnam War veterans to become widely apparent. Seeing so many veterans of recent wars now is alarming, they say.
“We’re going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental-health toll from this war is enormous,” Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa., told the Associated Press.
In the last 20 years, the VA has improved the breadth and efficacy of its work to help homeless vets. The VA spends about $265 million annually on programs to help homeless vets, plus $1.5 billion for their health care.
But more should be done, advocates say. The National Alliance to End Homelessness is urging Congress to fund an additional 25,000 units for the chronically homeless, and it suggests an additional 20,000 housing vouchers for homeless vets, AP reports.
This would cost billions. The price of ignoring this, however, is a piece of our soul.
On Sunday, the nation will observe Veterans Day. There will be sincere expressions of gratitude for those who risked and lost limbs and lives when duty called. That is good, but a nation’s gratitude shouldn’t be expressed primarily through “Support the Troops” bumper stickers and the ritualized “thanks” traditionally tendered when the guns fell silent - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Supporting the troops would mean not sending them to war on the basis of a pretext and with a plan amounting to wishful thinking. Supporting the troops would mean asking the nation to make the sacrifices to pay for that war, rather than saddling yet-unborn children with the cost. Supporting the troops would mean remembering that one of war’s many horrendous costs is the damage to the soldiers’ psyches.
The nation should provide adequate care, treatment and assistance for those who stand and serve. On the streets, it is clear, that bill is coming due.
Clint Talbott, for the editorial board
© 2007 The Daily Camera
Now gee, let me see - which candidate would bring home the troops - ALL the troops - and use war money to fund their care?
Nobody on commondreams seems to be able to say his name.
It’s like that nation whose name used to be unspoken (but who the nazis in charge here will soon blame again, again for our troubles - such a handy puppet of a ‘people’…
Hah - there is no right, or left. Only freedom and slavery.
I would seriously recommend that you folks actually speak his terrifying name. Your website will benefit if your servers can handle it.
Go on - the only fellow who wants to end war and statist control….
The man that Nurse Kucinich should be assisting. Dennis Kucinich is the only other human in the race, but he doesn’t have a set of stones like the good Doctor…
There, I said it. Shall you dogpile upon me? Or should we talk about it?
Peace (NOW!)
Lord R.
Lord R., you must be talking about Bill Richardson. I didn’t know he was a doctor.
Hi, Hamster. Yeh. Well, I personally vote on policy. And right now a step back from empire looks better than what the collection of numbnuts the press (and, sadly, most ‘progressive’ websites) would have us believe we agree with (or perhaps, like an arranged marriage, could learn to love?). And there’s one man to do it. And you know who the hell it is. Go, register, vote. You can always re-register for the other wing of the Party after, if labels mean so much to you. If I lived in your country, I’d be voting for him, conservative views, cheap campaign bus, honesty, and all.
Nobody here up north even remotely measures up. It’s embarrassing - you guys are going to be free while we go Blunderberging about under our fat little dunce of a PM (who thinks the pointy hat and the stool in the corner at the secret meeting meant it was his special day). You’re lucky to have the man, so go bite the bullet and get him in office.
Unless you like slavery and endless war, anyway, which would kind of make you in a minority.
Respectful of your own strange choices,
Lord R.
Bill Richardson thinks that impeaching Cheney is a waste of time…yet when Cheney bombs Iran..wont this just produce more homeless vets..not to mention dead ones?
Dennis Kucinich. The only candidate with a brain, heart and courage.
Shall we call these poor folks the “deserving homeless” or the “worthy homeless”?
Of course we know that “Support the Troops” doesn’t really mean that. It means “Support the War”.
“we know that “Support the Troops” doesn’t really mean that. It means “Support the War”
It also means “Vote for Me”.
Good God, Hamster et al., I didn’t actually mean Bill Richardson. Are you people all on drugs? I mean, we all are in one way or another (”don’t drink the water, don’t breathe the air!” - T. Lehrer), but have you not noticed that there is a candidate who would end war and the power of your financial overlords? Wouldn’t you rather argue with the good doctor about social policy when the troops are home and the Cheney gang hung as war criminals in an international court? Do you read elsewhere, or just post here?
Somebody say it for me. If I wasn’t a Canookie I would vote for the little old doctor in a flash. He’s at least willing to say what he thinks. Go watch him speak, for Earth’s sake. And no, Al Gore is not human. Dennis for Vice! (He’d have to switch tickets, but then what the hell is a label worth?)
Amazed that you cannot hear freedom’s bell (I can even hear it way up north on my little rock),
Lord R.
I don’t support our troops. They are enabling war crimes and imperial wars. Homeless? So what? They should be glad that they are not being tried for war crimes.
We are all complicit. “Rocky Anderson” has it right.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110907E.shtml
Don’t know why anyone who has posted here so far thinks that by separating out the homeless vets ( more deserving) from the rest of our homeless population, that the outcome will change. Policymakers don’t give a flying f–k about troops except as cannon fodder. Veterans and anyone else who buys into the lies and deception that killing for God and country is somehow a laudable task that will be amply rewarded even if it costs you your sight, your limbs, your sanity, or your life, should wake up and see that the killing machine needs your energy pure and simple. It cannot survive without it. That is why you have no value to them when you can no longer do what they need you to do.
Even the likes of Blackwater will use you up and throw you away.
Lord R.,
Ya’ll have sane gun control, and access to safe, legal abortions up there in Canada, don’t you? Those of us south of the border are losing the latter, and have never really had the former. Your unnamed good doctor, whose views on Iraq while commendable, don’t excuse him on these two counts. His 2nd Ammendment views are, in fact, extreme, even when compared to the rest of his colleages in the Rethuglican Party. The good doctor opposes ANY gun control of ANY kind for ANY reason. Assualt weapons, anyone? They’re great for the sportsman-like hunter! Where’s the “EVOL”… in mean, love? You’re almost there, Lord R., so keep trying. It’s Dennis Kucinich you want to be making that diplomatic trip up to Ottawa.
And I see Citizen 1 is back again deluding us with his sociopathic fantasies concerning those who serve in the Armed Forces. Once again, you fucking tool, I’ll explain it you:
We live in a Constitutional democracy whose armed forces are under the leadership of our elected, CIVILIAN leadership. This is what distinguishes the USA (at least in the Constitution) from a dictatorship or military junta. It is NOT the role of the military to make policy, it is their role to follow orders from said civilian leadership. It is OUR role as the electorate to hold our leaders accountable through such avenues as voting, and petitioning our representatives for address of greivances, particularly when it has been demonstrated that the Administration has deceived us into a needless war. And the solution is Impeachment.
Which, not so coincidentally, brings us back to the good Ohio Congressman, Dennis Kucinich, who brought an Impeachment resolution forward on the House floor this week. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Hon. John Conyers, who needs to hear from all of you (excepting, perhaps, delusional sociopaths like Citizen 1.): John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
Strength Through Peace!
http://www.dennis4president.com
You know, Citizen 1, as this article underlines another failure in our priorites in this country concerning health care in general, and mental health in particular, I might be being a little insensitive to your plight.
Just so you know, since one reason among many I support Dennis Kucinich for president is his platform on single-payer healthcare for all, if he’s elected, you’ll no longer have to go without the psych meds you so clearly need.
drift November 10th, 2007 5:14 pm
“….it is their role to follow orders from said civilian leadership….”
Oh yeah, haven’t we heard that song before? Hitler’s henchmen were also simply following orders.
I don’t support our troops. They may be our fathers, sons, brothers and sisters, but the fact remains, besides being cannon fodders they are war criminals…
The Third Reich was a fascist dictatorship, you pinhead. The military was answerable to one man, and one man only. And even yet, there were some, like the great “Desert Fox” himself, Erwin Rommell, who did plot against him.
You’re deluded, and you still haven’t answered my argument.
It’s people like you who are the useful idiots of the right wing in this country. They seek to paint us all with the broad brush strokes of being anti-American, and pro-terrorist, and you seem to be eager to encourage this.
You’re no progressive, and it would appear, no democrat (small “d” intentional) either.
You have no credibility whatsoever.
P.S. “fodder’ is a collective noun, and as such, is not pluralized.
Citizen 1 has made the only ehtical comments so far
As for the rest, quit your snivelling and spare a thought or two for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and children slaughtered by our storm-troopers.
The only regret I have about US troops in Iraq is that too few are being killed by the resistance.
I personally will continue —within the bounds of international law, not US law—to do all I can to support the resistance of any country against the troops of an occupying power.
nofois dixit
I absolutely believe that returning troops should get the all the healthcare and assistance they need.
And yet, I am a bit tired of the way our culture, espeically the right wing, has hid behind the “heroes” of the ground occupation in Iraq and that any criticism of policy is a criticism of them.
And I’ve also grown a little tired of the new cultural idea that every troop, every volunteer solider is somewhow a hero. No, they are doing a job. I sympathize because while many of them would like to be fighting al qaida or hunting Osama in Afghanistan, they are breaking down doors in Iraq the middle of the night and rounding up “suspected insurgents.”
We have to admit, that by declaring all these men and women heroes (it’s truly heroic to volunteer to defend your country), but it wouldn’t take much research to know that occupying Iraq is NOT defending freedom in the US. It’s defending Halliburton et als right to ransack our treasury, our taxpayers dollars.
And by calling our Iraq troop heroes every one, we are implying that the cause they are involved in is just and right.
Sorry folks, but while these men and women may have bravely and patriotically volunteered to serve their country—they are simply an occupying army in what was a sovereign nation (with a brutal dictator–a lot like the dictators we’ve always supported in Latin America.
Eventually, even the troops will have to take some responsibility for fighting in wars that are immoral and unjust.
I don’t think we could even have that conversation now without being labeled traitor, terrorist lover and candidate for Gitmo. But eventually we’ll have to confront that.
The Wermacht that fought for Germany in WWII –many of them hated the Nazis, but they still invaded France, Poland, and the USSR and committed atrocities there. And we don’t excuse them for it.
nofois writes:
“The only regret I have about US troops in Iraq is that too few are being killed by the resistance.”
And you speak of ethics? What could such a twisted mind possibly know of ethics? I can’t really believe I’m reading this on CD.
Tell me nofois, do you really want to see a bunch of working class kids - you’re own countrymen and women - without alot of options for a better future in our increasingly unjust economic system, killed and maimed for life because a criminal Administration with fascist tendencies sent them to a foreign land to plunder it for THEIR profit? What’s wrong with you?
The ethical, moral position on the Iraq War is the immediate redeployment of all US forces out of the country. And don’t try to set up the straw man argument that because I choose to support the troops by doing everything I can to get them the hell home, and take care of them once they’ve returned, that that somehow means I don’t care about the astonishing, heartbreaking loss of innocent Iraqi lives. But such an intellectually, and morally bereft argument suits a feverish mind like yours, doesn’t it?
After an immediate end of the occupation, an international force under the auspices of the UN should be brought in to help restore security in Iraq. The United States government should fund this fully, and then provide for the complete restoration of the country’s shattered infrastructure. The contracts should only be rewarded to Iraqis. No US corporate interests should be allowed to make a dime off of it.
And if that sounds like a good idea to anyone rational reading this, then vote for Kucinich, because that’s his plan.
nahhhh. Kill the occupying us soldiers, I say. the more the better.
The ethical issue is that every trigger-happy grunt killed might save 10 iraqi lives.
..and calm down, now. Take a chill pill.Your mind is the feverish one, not mine (hey, YOU started the ad hominems, not me)
drift November 11th, 2007 1:14 am
“a bunch of working class kids - …… without alot of options for a better future in our increasingly unjust economic system, …… sent (them) to a foreign land to plunder it”
Oh yeah. Where have I heard that one too? The hired killer had a life style to maintain so he had to kill and earn money; the rapist had to rape because he …. you know…. They all sing the same song, there is always an excuse.
I only hope that all the economically disadvantaged Americans don’t buy into your logic, and start plundering, killing and robbing in their neighborhood, because they are “without alot of options for a better future in our increasingly unjust economic system”.
I can’t and won’t support our troops because they kill, maim, torture and rape innocent civilians.
By the way, they were not “sent”, they “went”.
The both of you desire only more violence and suffering. You are so much more than merely anti-American, you’re anti-Human. Your hatred has made you blind. You don’t serve progressive values, so why don’t the two of you start your own nihilist website and plot and scheme there instead?
Citizen 1, nofois, et al…… I never thought I would be saying this, but I too came to the conclusion a while back that the soldiers fighting in this immoral, illegal and unjust war must NOW bear a large part of the responsibility for the continued slaughter and poisoning of the sovereign nation of Iraq. I absolutely refuse to believe that after almost 5 years, they do not know the truth behind the indefensible INVASION of Iraq. For these soldiers to continue to slaughter civilians, including women and infants, can only be considered acts contrary to any international law. Knowingly poisoning a nation and it’s inhabitants with depleted uranium munitions can only be considered an act contrary to international law and laws of humanity. A few truly brave soldiers have opted out. They are the heroes.
Everyone from bush on down to the poor grunt on the battlefield must now shoulder the responsibilty for this continuing catastrophe.
To the family and friends of soldiers who have died in combat, you have my deepest sympathy; as do the Iraqi families and friends of fallen soldiers and CIVILIANS..now totalling over one million.
To those soldiers who have been injured, maimed and left blind, limbless and brain damaged, I can only pray that the United States government shows them the respect, care and support they well deserve.
Soldiers, please lay down your arms and help us all regain our dignity and atone for the atrocities committed in our name.
Our troops raid an innocent country; maim, rape, torture civilians; destroy the infrastructure; cause death of one million people; make 4 millions refugees…..
One party says: support our troops.
The other party says: our troops should be held accountable.
One party is supposed to be “anti-Human” (see drift November 11th, 2007 9:53 am)
I rest my case.
Have a nice Sunday!
From an “Anonymous” post elsewhere that serves well on this thread…………………………………..
Friday, November 09, 2007
Anonymous said…
An open letter to the U.S. military:
On behalf of the American people and the people of the world, I write, with all earnestnes and urgency, that the American military machine - and all its personnel, be they civilian or uniformed - need to come to the aid of the citizens they are bound by oath to protect. Our government has been hijacked by the very people that The Founders, previous presidents and other leaders, and recent, truth-loving patriots have warned us about. We are being led down th road to tyranny, which is impossible without our great military, which is bound to protect us from exactly that.
I urge all of you who are in present military service to lay down your arms against those whom you have been told are your enemy and return home by any means necessary to defend your country against the leaders who have invaded it and the private and foreign armies they have at their disposal to arrest, detain, confine and kill at their whim, in full affront to everything that the United States was founded upon - and in true and full compliance with your sworn responsibiles.
We need you now, more than ever, to defy illegal orders. The war in Iraq is illegal under our own laws and international laws. Even the resolution passed by congress, authorizing military force in Iraq, had conditions, and those conditions were never met. Any bullet fired in Iraq or Afghanistan is illegal; you are under no obligation to follow-through with any orders given. There has been no declaration of war, and there has been no legal authorization of military force. The only way we are going to defeat the forces that are attempting to destroy you, human rights and the American people is by getting you home before all of you are slaghtered.
If the United States military attacks Iran, our forces will be decimated, by simple, remote attacks on military bases and positions in Iraq, and by attacking the sitting-duck carrier fleets we have in the Persian Gulf.
This will leave the true prize wide open for those who own the money and who set the price of gold in the City of London: America. We will be defenseless, since our soldiers and National Guard have been sent overseas to die (if the IED doesn’t get you, the DU will on the way home).
We will be subject to martial law, merged with the countries at our borders and primed for the global government that is planned - based on control, greed and a hatred for humanity. These people would rather see the world destroyed than give up their influence over it. The United States military is their plaything; The USM also becomes a means to our salvation from them. Come home and defend us. You’ve been told, deliberately and wrongly, that our enemies are foreign - except for our
“one ally” in the middle east. It’s time for you to realize that the entire, rest-of-the-world views the United States and Israel as the enemies to world peace. Please do a little thinkng and do a little research and, please, come home.
I don’t own a gun because I don’t want to kill anyone or hunt anything, but I, my daughters and my friends might find great need of fellow Americans who were trained in such things and armed accordingly. Please come home and help us. Your enemy is the one who has taught you to use force against their enemy, and they are the greatest enemy to the country you are sworn to defend. Don’t be fooled.
The United States of America is defined by it’s Constitution, its internationally recognized borders and its people. It is not defined by the policy of any federal government that has chosen to steal the resources and people of its borders. It is not defined by those who hold office and act outside of its constitution or the will of the people. You are sworn to uphold us, who would rather not have you fight at all. Please come home and defend us.
With love and respect.
Friday, November 09, 2007
willybill,
Thanks for the intelligent, rational contribution. I disagree with none of the sentiments expressed. What I disagree with is blaming the grunts for the crimes of our monstrous Administration, and calling for more of their deaths. Bring them home now.
drift…….Precisely. Bring them home now. Stop this insane rhetoric over how “defunding” will cause more of our soldiers to die. They were defunded at the start of this debacle when that immoral Rumsfeld decided to play “John’s Bargain War” and left our troops without proper armor and adequate equipment. I would love someone to explain the rationale of how bringing the troops home immediately would cause MORE deaths. This has simply been spin that the Dems and Repubs have used against the wishes of the majority of American citizens. It does not hold up under logic and scrutiny. The MSM just keeps allowing this nonsense and nobody seems to ask for an explanation.
Citizen1,
The troops are not war criminals. They have to follow orders…but the ones who sent them there to begin with based on false pretenses and greedy, power-grabbing intentions…well…
This illustrious admininstration is allowing our troops and the civilian population in Iraq to be radiated with depleted uranium….being homeless will be only a part of the problem…their health issues will be outrageous.
When the Pentagon makes calls to reporters to insure the info isnt out on depleted uranium..you know something is up….or going down….
You might research the internet for the site where lawsuits are cropping up on depleted uranium contaminating the countryside in our own country….
You don’t have to fire missiles at someone these days to have a nuclear war….bullets will do the trick now….especially at the rate of 340,000 tons(dumped on Iraq)
hubcap
I don’t know too many troops who want to be there. I have a daughter there on her second tour…now extended….she is NOT happy. She was also in Kuwait.
Follow orders or go to the brig, dishonorable discharge…nice choice.
This admin is to blame. The country has spoken…now who will listen to the voice of the people?
The troops are heroes for even showing up….I support the troops, but admin who sent them there needs to be dumped in a depleted uranium dump ground for a year themselves.
Easy for the Congress and current admin to sit up there and haggle over issues….sent troops to their deaths and misery…let them go over ill-equipped and share the war for a while…without benefit of Blackwater thugs to protect them on their walks through the Green Zone.
To Anonymous…
The troops arent the problem….
The private armies that are building up in the US WILL be the problem.
Blackwater is searching for base sites. Back when Clinton was in, there was talk of privatizing the military. It is happening.
There are roughly 180,000 members of private security(private armies) working in Iraq….they don’t have to follow Iraq law…they aren’t subject to ours….its a free for all.
I content a large of amount chaos and killing is being done by them…and going unreported…and unchecked.
I want the troops home…now. And I want them to receive all the benefits they deserve and whatever it takes to get them back in the mainstream and healthy.
Thanks for the recent rational posts, folks. Thought I’d fallen into the Twighlight Zone there for a while arguing with sociopaths like Citizen 1 and nofois.
Drift,
You might want to reread the thread before you write off other posters as “sociopaths.” I think what Citizen 1 and nofois were trying to say is that if you have to choose between valuing the lives of soldiers in an occupying army or the lives of those innocent people whose nation is being occupied, you choose the latter. That’s not too hard to understand, is it? It might not sound too ethical, but I’ve always had a hard time with occupying powers (or their citizens) claiming the authority to define what is and isn’t “ethical” regarding their occupation.
The problem, as always, is American exceptionalism. We can’t accept the FACT that the US soldier in Iraq is there as an occupier. Period. Not as a liberator, not as a hero, but as an armed person in a country where he or she does not belong. We wouldn’t have too much problem with the “ethics” of shooting an occupying soldier in, say, Minneapolis or Houston. While I feel sympathy for every parent, spouse, friend, lover, sibling, or child who loses a loved one in Iraq, I must ask why it is that we Americans feel SO MUCH sympathy for our invaders and occupiers and VERY LITTLE sympathy, if any, for the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of invadees? I think the answer is because we Americans, even we “progressive” Americans, can’t get over the suspicion that WE really are different and that our shit doesn’t really stink.
Does that mean I hope that more US soldiers get killed in Iraq? Not at all. I would like nothing more than to have each and every one back AT HOME IN THE US with their families by Thanksgiving. If the choice comes down to a US soldier or an Iraqi bystander, though, it’s a no-brainer. And that choice gets made every day by US soldiers with nifty weapons, soldiers that then get hailed as “heroes” by a populace that wouldn’t know heroism if it was court-martialed for refusing to follow orders. (And since when did “just following orders” become the get-out-of-Nuremberg pass for soldier-war criminals?)
Sorry to say it, Drift, but occupying armies get what they deserve. You might think that makes me a sociopath; I call it being an anti-imperialist.
Willybill and Anonymous,
If you believe the troops are there illegally and should come home, then don’t tell it to the troops. They don’t have a choice. That’s not the way the game is played. The troops swear an oath to defend the constitution and obey the orders of the elected officials. That means its up to our elected officials to perform within the bounds of the law and for us as voters to get rid of those officials if they aren’t doing that.
The way this works is that those of us who do not wear a uniform must demand of our elected representatives that they require the withdrawal/redeployment/disengagement of our troops.
The President may be the Commander in Chief and tell the troops how to fight, but the Congress is still the group with the authority to tell the President if he is allowed to use the troops to fight. The only way that happens is for non-soldiers to huff and puff at the ballot box. Want to send a message? Make sure no incumbent member of Congress survives their Primary election.
Impeach Bush and Cheney? With Pelosi as their replacement? No thanks. Maybe if you can replace Cheney with someone the Congress will rally behind if they impeach Bush it might happen. But not before.
Do you want to stop this? Then bring back the lottery draft with no deferments and fire all contractors. Force the children of the rich and privleged to fight this war. The war will be over quickly and other solutions will be pursued.
And, as far as withdrawal goes, consider this. We are in as big a mess as we are because we as a country not consider the consequences before we acted. I would like to be out of Iraq as much as anyone, but let’s make sure that we have accounted for what happens when we go. We don’t want to create something that is even worse than we have now.
No, JPBM, I think what you write is lucid and valid. In fact, I agree with you. But your analysis differs from theirs significantly. Here’s a reminder:
“I don’t support our troops… Homeless? So what? They should be glad that they are not being tried for war crimes.” -Citizen 1
“The only regret I have about US troops in Iraq is that too few are being killed by the resistance.” -nofois
These kind of views are sociopathic. So I’m sticking to my guns.
Now to address your point, bringing the troops home now avoids having to make some sort of crazy choice between who I’d rather see die. I want the killing to stop. Period. I don’t want to see anyone else die. I want it to happen yesterday. And I want the responsibility for this tragedy to be laid at the feet of those who are actually responsible for it. To wit, the Bush Administration, and only the Bush Administration. Not some scared out his mind 19 year old kid who’s going to need mental health care for the rest of his life to help him recover from his PTSD.
Whaddya think, JPBM? Am I off base here?