The Disgraceful Treatment of Our Veterans
As you do your holiday shopping this year and think about a big turkey dinner and piles of gifts and the good life that most Americans enjoy, please spare a thought for those who made it all possible: Those who serve in our military and the veterans who’ve worn the uniform.
There are some new statistics that give us reason to be ashamed for the way that our country has treated those who’ve served and sacrificed for us.
Those statistics damn the politicians who start every speech by thanking the troops and veterans and blessing them. They indict our national leaders who turn up at military bases and the annual conventions of veteran’s organizations and use troops and veterans as a backdrop for their photo-ops.
Consider this:
- An average of 18 veterans commit suicide each and every day of the year, according to recent statistics from the Veterans Administration (VA). That’s 126 veterans who kill themselves every week. Or some 6,552 who take their own lives each year. Our veterans are killing themselves at twice the rate of other Americans.
- One quarter of the homeless people in America are military veterans. That’s one in every four. Is that ragged man huddled on the steam grate in a brutal winter wind a Vietnam vet? Did that younger man panhandling for pocket change on the street corner fight in Kandahar or Fallujah?
For the past four years, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been insisting that it’s doing everything it needs to for the nation’s veterans. That’s simply not true, particularly when it comes to the VA’s treatment of mental health issues.
As my McClatchy colleague Chris Adams has reported in a series of groundbreaking stories this year, the VA mental health system - even by its own measures - wasn’t prepared to give returning veterans the mental health care they need.
The experts say that between 20 and 30 percent of all troops returning from combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But many of VA hospitals didn’t have the special PTSD programs that experts say are vital. Soldiers returning from Iraq are allowed to slip unnoticed into their old lives, and neither the Department of Defense nor the VA does anything to monitor their mental health.
The VA keeps telling Congress that all is well. That’s not true, either. As Adams reported, the VA has been using fudged or inflated numbers to do so. And after years of promising that it’s getting a growing backlog of disability compensation applications under control, things actually got worse this year.
No matter whether they’ve been wounded and need follow-up care and support, or whether they’re coming apart at the seams and feeling suicidal, they sometimes must wait months for an appointment to be evaluated and treated at VA medical centers.
The same people who don’t blink at spending $3 billion a week on their war of choice in Iraq were the ones who cut the VA budget and privatized maintenance at Walter Reed Army Hospital and opposed every attempt to expand benefits for veterans old and young.
They’re the same people who turned a blind eye as their corporate sponsors and private donors looted billions of dollars from the Treasury with no-compete contracts and bloated bills for everything from food for the troops to fuel for their tanks and trucks.
As a wave of wounded troops suffering brain injuries from the blasts of roadside bombs and landmines poured into military hospitals, these people, posing as fiscally responsible budget makers, were cutting in half the money spent on research into brain injuries.
These frauds who love to pose as wartime leaders sat back and did nothing as a cruel bureaucracy sent bill collectors out to harass double amputee veterans for thousands of dollars because they neglected to turn their armored vests and other gear in to the supply sergeant after they were blown apart on the battlefield.
They did nothing as the Army became ever more conservative, even stingy, in the number of injured and wounded soldiers it judged worthy of full disability pensions. Soldiers who suffered brain injuries and PTSD so severe that they couldn’t function were put on the street with a 30 percent disability pension - $700 a month - to support a wife and three children.
Neglecting our war veterans and the widows and orphans that result from our wars is as American as apple pie. It’s nothing new. But in the past we always waited until after the war’s end to forget those who’d fought the war.
This may be the first time in our history that we began to neglect and forget our troops during a war.
All of this is shameful - shameful for a people whose freedom and prosperity rests on the backs of those soldiers but who’ve forgotten them so completely that they haven’t held their Congress and their president responsible for this stain on our honor.
The next smarmy politician who shouts, “God bless our troops” ought to be tarred and feathered and ridden out of Washington on a rail for sheer hypocrisy.
Joe Galloway writes a regular column for McClatchy.
© 2007 McClatchy
I agree with Galloway that the treatment of our vets (especially those returning from our preemptive incursions into the Middle East) is shameful, but I don’t agree that our vets “made our [celebration] possible.” There’s less and less to celebrate, and our celebration is less and less meaningful given the terrible things our vets have been doing in our name. No, I don’t blame them. I blame the current administration who’s gross web of deceit has made genuine celebration virtually impossible.
Maybe tarring and feathering a “smarmy politician” will salve our consciences, but it will do little to give the vets the help they need.
bobh (12:05 pm), in the thread’s first post, has already nailed the main problem with this article.
However, I’d like to amplify a point bob made about the article’s first sentence: “As you do your holiday shopping this year,…please spare a thought for those who made it all possible: Those who serve in our military…”
This idea is more than just wrong — it’s poisonous brainwashing. It’s an irresponsible capitulation to one of the Great Lies about our society, which threatens to do us all in. This lie is that the US military performs an admirable, if not positively blessed, function in our society.
This idea is completely wrong. The military is a core element of the disease of our society. This is not to blame the soldiers themselves, who for the most part doubtless do the best they can (and deserve better treatment, as the article argues; and are themselves victims of an unjust system, not perpetrators of it). But as an institution, the military-industrial-governmental complex must be understood as an advanced stage of a malignant cancer on society. Militarization of US society has already gone far beyond the point of insanity, making rational discussion of related subjects virtually impossible.
The damage done by politicians squawking about the need to “support the troops” could be the subject of a book, by itself. This article’s first sentence kow-tows to that madness.
Lyrics to “CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES” by John McCutcheon.
Hope you all hear it, and sing it with the Christmas carols.
It’s a true story. Happened in a dozen places along the Trenches, Christmas, 1914.
******************************
My name if Francis Tolliver,
I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the War was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders,
To Germany to here,
I fought for King and Country I love dear.
‘Twas Christmas in the trenches,
where the frost so bitter hung.
The frozen fields of France were still,
No Christmas songs were sung.
Our families back in England
Were toasting us that day,
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my messmates
On the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle
Came a most peculiar sound.
Says I, ‘Now listen up, me lads!’
Each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice rang out so clear.
“He’s singin’ bloody well, you know!”
My partner says to me.
Soon one by one each German voice joined
In the harmony.
The cannons rested silent,
And the gas cloud rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite
From the War.
As soon as they were finished,
And a reverent pause was spent,
“God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”
Struck up some lads from Kent.
The next they sang was “Stille Nacht;”
“‘Tis ‘SILENT NIGHT!’” says I,
And in two tongues one song
Filled up that sky.
“THERE’S SOMEONE COMING TOWARDS US!!!”
The front-line sentry cried.
All sights were fixed on one lone figure
Trudging from their side.
His truce flag like a Christmas star
Shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed
Into the night.
Soon one by one from either side
We met in No-Man’s-Land.
With neither gun nor bayonet
We met there, hand-to-hand.
We shared some secret brandy
And we wished each other well,
And in a flare-lit soccer game
We gave them hell.
We shared chocolate, and cigarettes,
And photographs from Home,
These sons and fathers far away
From families of their own.
Young Sanders played his squeeze-box,
And they had a violin,
This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us,
And France was France once more.
With sad farewells, we each prepared
To settle back to war.
But the question haunted each of us
Who lived that wondrous night:
“Whose family have I fixed
Within my sights?”
‘Twas Christmas in the Trenches,
Where the frost, so bitter hung.
The frozen fields of France were warmed
As songs of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us
To extract the work of war
Had crumbled, and were gone
Forevermore.
My name is Francis Tolliver,
In Liverpool I dwell.
Each Christmas come, since World War One,
I’ve learned its lessons well:
That the ones who call the shots
Won’t be among the dead and lame
And on each side of the rifle,
We’re the same.”
(instrumental coda: “The Minstrel Boy” by Thomas Moore)
Don’t forget the fact that tours of duty have been lengthened from twelve to fifteen months. Way to support the troops, Mr. Bush!
Lyrics to “CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES” by John McCutcheon.
Hope you all hear it, and sing it with the Christmas carols.
It’s a true story. Happened in a dozen places along the Trenches, Christmas, 1914.
The Generals of both sides were very angry about this, of course. It was weeks before either Army could shoot straight again.
******************************
My name if Francis Tolliver,
I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the War was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders,
To Germany to here,
I fought for King and Country I love dear.
‘Twas Christmas in the trenches,
Where the frost so bitter hung.
The frozen fields of France were still,
No Christmas songs were sung.
Our families back in England
Were toasting us that day,
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my messmates
On the cold and rocky ground,
When across the lines of battle
Came a most peculiar sound.
Says I: “Now listen up, me lads!”
Each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice rang out so clear.
“He’s singin’ bloody well, you know!”
My partner says to me.
Soon one by one each German voice joined
In the harmony.
The cannons rested silent,
And the gas cloud rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite
From the War.
As soon as they were finished,
And a reverent pause was spent,
“God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”
Struck up some lads from Kent.
The next they sang was ‘Stille Nacht’;
“‘Tis ‘SILENT NIGHT!’” says I,
And in two tongues, one song
Filled up that sky.
“THERE’S SOMEONE COMING TOWARDS US!!!”
The front-line sentry cried.
All sights were fixed on one lone figure
Trudging from their side.
His truce flag, like a Christmas star
Shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed
Into the night.
Soon one by one from either side
We met in No-Man’s-Land.
With neither gun nor bayonet
We met there, hand-to-hand.
We shared some secret brandy
And we wished each other well,
And in a flare-lit soccer game
We gave them hell.
We shared chocolate, and cigarettes,
And photographs from Home,
These sons and fathers far away
From families of their own.
Young Sanders played his squeeze-box,
And they had a violin,
This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us,
And France was France once more.
With sad farewells, we each prepared
To settle back to war.
But the question haunted each of us
Who lived that wondrous night:
“Whose family have I fixed
Within my sights?”
‘Twas Christmas in the Trenches,
Where the frost, so bitter hung.
The frozen fields of France were warmed
As songs of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us
To extract the work of war
Had crumbled, and were gone
Forevermore.
My name is Francis Tolliver,
In Liverpool I dwell.
Each Christmas come, since World War One,
I’ve learned its lessons well:
That the ones who call the shots
Won’t be among the dead and lame
And on each side of the rifle,
We’re the same.”
(instrumental coda: “The Minstrel Boy” by Thomas Moore)
The treatment of veterans by society isn’t surprising since the majority of Americans don’t really know what their veterans do. They are expected to return home like WW2 vets and be proud of their service. This hasn’t been the case since WW2. When Iraq vets come home they are often filled with contradictions feelings of betrayal. The way to support the vet is to be sure that you supported the war in which they fought. The problem today is that all our wars have become political wars in which the vet is going to be a loser no matter what the outcome of the war.
Hoa binh
If you want to do anything positive for the veterans of the past, present or future, you may want to get a commander-in-chief from the other party than the one in power these past seven years. He or she will directly determine the number of PTSD cases, will appoint the head of the VA, and will propose the budget of the VA.
The deprivation of care for many of our wounded and deserving veteran, who will now bear lifelong scars from this ill conceived war, is not only a violation of trust–but is contemptuous. As the worlds richest nation, we have always had the means to prevent & alleviate such dreadful inequities.
The unprecedented profiteering that has accompanying their sacrifices only adds to the outrage.
Responsible parties should be charged with criminal neglect. This includes those at the top.
The tragedy is having all these veterans in the first place. All our awful wars are about bigger profits for the Military Industrial Complex President Eisenhower warned us about so long ago. Our soldiers are not responsible for “the good life most Americans enjoy”. Our Constitution (whole sections of which have been deleted by the present criminal administration) sets the ground work to allow us to work hard to have a good life.
But not all of us enjoy a good life. Those young people who join the armed forces do so, not to protect our freedoms or spread the wonders of democracy around the world–but to have a job and a way to get a bunk and three meals a day. Of course they believe that they will get education benefits and other goodies the recruiters lied about. They need a job and want training and education to have a chance of that good life.
We must stop the glorification of the military and cut the pentagon budget to the core. To have any hope for the “the good life most Americans enjoy”, we must not vote for the two corporate political parties. They both are corrupt. It is too close to call which is the lesser of two evils.
Wake up Americans. We are going into very hard times. Our political system, the eco systems of the earth and our financial system are collapsing. Citizens must stop being spectators at these events. Time to turn off the T.V and get out and do something! Start out by giving that vet on the corner a fist full of bills.
The lack of adequate Veterans services is reason not to enter the armed services. What informed person would enter armed conflict on behalf of the U.S. knowing that if injured they would not be properly cared for. Young persons need to be properly informed by their parents and others to resist the temptation to join up. Better yet, resist joining on behalf of other veterans already wounded until top quality care for all is in place and functioning well.
Remember too that in a police state it is the army that kills protesters and prevents free speech and citizen rights.
The ones that should be ashamed are the politicians who send them there in the first place and the businesses that benefit from it.
Amazes me that there arent more AWOLs given the fact that draft dodging Bush and Cheney sent them there.
EVERYTHING FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON RELIES ON OIL OIL OIL AND OUR VETERANS OUR SENT BY OUR CORRUPT POLITICIANS OF BOTH PARTIES TO FIGHT WARS FOR OIL WHEN INSTEAD WE COULD ALL ACTUALLY BENEFIT FROM ALTERNATIVE RENEWABLES SUCH AS SOLAR, WIND, GEOTHERMAL, TIDAL, HEMP, ALGAE, ETC …
Vets are used humans, discarded like a used condom.
Army vets are street scrap. They are recruited from the lowest of rungs of society into the worst job. The majority would not join if they had a living wage from a real job. A sign of the times is that conscription is not required. One question is, when signing up, were the vets mentally fit in the first place. Only desperate idiots,the hopeless, the naive, and those conditioned for death and glory would sign up.
They are conditioned to be non-human machines of following stupid orders controlled all the way down from a stupid administration. They administer death and destruction to foreigners. They are either broken or smashed, if not by the enemy, then by the army system. Far beyond the use by date, the broken ones get sent home, and end up back on the street. No provision money or acknowledgment of responsibility by their government is possible, as their government is morally and financially bankrupt.
Do we really have sympathy? Not here, but there is a problem in that those who do not kill themselves, are a growing number of mentally disturbed people, making up more of the fabric of US of I society, with dysfunctional minds and behavior passed by example and effect throughout the generations of people.
Perfect for the US of I becoming a nation of twisted rotten selfish evil bastards.
In a now gone shop that sold old magazines I ran across a copy of “Life” or “Look” from 1967. It contained an article about the deplorable conditions at VA hospitals, including the presence of rats.
Everything changes, everything remains the same.
Excellent posts. hedology, I have to be careful that I don’t go on a rant, but one factor that seems to me to be very strong in preemptively shaping potential military recruits these days is the prevalence of violent video games and TV. I’m no expert or authority in this department, but so many of the “games” available to young people seem designed to create fast-on-the-trigger crack shots and so many of the TV shows seem designed to glorify the kill-or-be-kiled attitude and dehumanize our sisters and brothers (especially minorities).
How very far we’ve descended since those WWI days when at least for an evening, enemies recognized their common humanity. Too bad not enough of us learned the lesson
“That the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame.”
hedology, I mostly agree with you, except with not quite the same degree of cynicism…but I must ask you: how many in the under 21 “target market” for new enlistees do NOT have some degree of naivety still?
I know with all my being that it is a crime to subject youth to such training and methods - before their prefrontal cortexes *are even fully developed*(you know, that section of the brain we’re so proud of; the one supposed to do with higher reasoning, judgement, morality, and decision making?)
We have become a nation of deplorables, giving slaughter to our future to save an already dying past.
We can change, we must. Now is the time to start asking for a renewable infrastructure to replace the crumbling petrol-based one…heaven forfend we solve our problems AND help the economy. How many jobs did building our Interstates create? How many jobs to the service and maintenance industries? We can do something similar, but we must begin the phasing out of the old now and creating the new.
If only we could put our youth to work on such dreams, instead of giving them these nightmares for life.
I am Canadian, the son of a Canadian WW II veteran who served 6 years ( 2 of them in France, Holland and Germany) in the Canadian Army. Having to help open up a German concentration camp gave my Dad nightmares for the rest of his life, even to his deathbed). Dad died last year at the age of 92 in cold drafty hospital gown in a local hospital in London Ontario. All Dad wanted was to die either at home or in the local Veteran’s hospital. On the day he died, the local Veteran’s hospital announced that it was closing 20 beds because of “cost savings” budget cuts. Rather than finding a bed for him there, he was on a search list that included hospitals as far away as 90 miles from the home he shared with my Mother (who was 86 years old!) Oh , yes and they had just renamed a local 4-laner, “Veterans, Memorial Highway” !!! (I want to vomit every time I drive by that damn road!) “A grateful country …..” my ass. Our hypocritical politicians in Canada are no better up here than yours, Yank.
A few points:
1) The health needs of American troops are sadly neglected. This saves valuable taxpayer dollars for the important business of waging more war, thus providing the military/industrial complex with more and more profits.
2) The health needs of American civilians are sadly neglected. This saves valuable taxpayer dollars for the important business of waging more war, thus providing the military/industrial complex with more and more profits.
3) War has been glorified for a long, long time, in movies and on TV and in song and in literature. This provides the military/industrial complex with more bodies to wage more war, thus providing the military/industrial complex with more and more profits.
4) America doesn’t make anything anymore because most of the products sold within its boundaries are made overseas, creating more and more poor Americans, poor Americans who end up enlisting in the military to avoid poverty, thus providing the military/industrial complex with more and more bodies to wage more wars, thus providing it with more and more profits.
5) Without propaganda and poverty there will be no war.
6) Propaganda and poverty are the stocks-in-trade of the military industrial complex.
7) All of the above are why people like Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are either ignored or demonized by the M$M, which feeds the military/industrial complex.
9) We, the poor (and middle class), need a voting revolution. And we have to do it ourselves, because no one is going to do it for us.
ticonderoga (8:24 pm) - Unless I’m misunderstanding you, you seem to be saying all this war stuff has something to do with “profits!”
In the unusually worthy (for Hollywood) film “Reds,” there’s a great scene in the very beginning, where Warren Beatty (playing journalist John Reed) is speaking to a “concerned citizens” group in Portland, Oregon about the ongoing war in Europe at the time (World War I). Everyone is expecting a detailed lecture from the famed journalist, who has personally been at the front lines. He’s supposed to address his audience on the topic, “What is the War in Europe About?”
So he stands up at the podium, & someone introduces him, saying, “Now Mr Reed will explain to us just what this terrible conflict is all about.” Reed stands up, clears his throat, looks seriously at his audience, and says, “Profits.” Then he sits down, having completed his remarks.
Doom n Gloom 121/15/2007
The lack of adequate Veterans services is reason not to enter the armed services. What informed person would enter armed conflict on behalf of the U.S. knowing that if injured they would not be properly cared for. Young persons need to be properly informed by their parents and others to resist the temptation to join up
*****************************************************************
You always know when someone has never served, has not lived in a shi@@y part of a city, or a lower class white neighborhood.
Why is it you presume they would know this? 17 year old kids, impoverished areas, one-way ticket out, Recruitment Centers are purposely placed in these areas. They like them young and uninformed, they sure as hell do not inform them. Recruiters wear the masque of death, they steal your children with $$$$, 10 to 30 K, to those kids it is a gazillion. What parents? Where are you from?
They promise them education, healthcare and travel. They just do not mention they are traveling to Iraq, Afghanistan or per chance Iran.
They come home missing faces, limbs, traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. The kids with the different war crime time mental illnesses are being underscored and misdiagnosed by improper persons that are not medical professionals familiar with the new litany of mental disorders affecting these kids. Underscored means no long term medical care, no long term disability, no jobs because they discharge them due to Psychiatric disorders, no home, no meds, self medicating, alcohol or drugs, open mouth, place pistol in, close mouth, statistic. 120/week.
You want to help? Ask your Rep. or Patrick Murphy, since he sits on those Committees, House of Armed Services, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, he is 8th District PA, why 633 bills affecting these newly returning disabled Vets are sitting in Committees waiting to die as certain as the suicides of those kids.
These 2 Bills directly address this problem; S 1817 and H R 3167
H R 3167: Fair Mental Health Evaluation for Returning Veterans Act
Sponsor: Rep. Phil Hare [D-IL] cosponsors-25
The majority of bills never make it out of Committee.
The length of tour now is 15-18 months, return home 2 to 3 weeks and back again.
If it is your son or daughter what would YOU do?
Join the Navy.
This is criminal. Remember after WW II and the GI bill and government loans for housing to vets. That was the America I grew up with. They knew how to treat it’s critters, we were still a democracy then.
There must be a lot of disgruntled veterans from this war. Probably a lot of guys want to be veterans but are not allowed to return from Iraq as they are on extended stays. I had a crazy idea that maybe the reason we want to keep so many National Guardsmen and Reserves in Iraq, and make sure those at home have no equipment, and those who already returned broken or poor since their employer did not hire them back as they were supposed to under the law, is that these are the guys who would be the fiercest resistors to any attempt by government to turn the country into a Totalitarian regime under Martial Law. I know, thats nuts, even for me.
But seems I remember a report not too long ago which suggested we should have gun control for Vets because they might be unstable.
Quick search and check out this site
http://www.gunowners.org/netb.htm
Oh my, a Veterans Disarmament Act has been proposed, HR 2640.
HR 3167 is the companion bill to determine which Vets to disarm.
Guess I am not so crazy after all. Fellow critters, good luck.
I hope you aren’t crazy, because I agree with everything you just wrote MiMi.
RichM, you got me. “Profits” was my point. (Was wondering if I was being too oblique or something. I guess not.) Interesting little book written by the much decorated war hero, Smedley Butler, called War is a Racket, written shortly after World War I, said much the same thing. Guess things haven’t changed much. Just got more efficient ways to kill people and bigger profits at stake.
Diehard conservatives say we live in a welfare state, when it’s really a warfare state. Well, we have a welfare state for the extremely wealthy and a Charles Darwinian “survival of the fittest” state for the poor.
And MiMi, I don’t think you’re nuts.
Thank you, Mr. Galloway, for putting this word out with such emphasis and justified scorn.
There is a simple solution, really. One that I have proposed in response to other articles about this issue.
We have, what, about 160K troops, more or less, in Iraq? Re-delpoy half of them to the VA, to process claims.
Imagine the folks, fresh from active conflict, reading claims of their fellow service personnel, along with the stacks of claims from Veterans of previous ‘adventures’ of our ‘enlightened’ foreign policy over the decades.
And this would go all the way back to the World War II folks, who are also in the cue for compensation, which is, according to VA’s own policies, an ‘entitlement’.
I wonder if they would be so cold-hearted and unresponsive to the circumstances contained in those claims they’d be reading. And I do so as the person who advocates for Veterans, of all service periods, as their county Veterans’ services officer.
I see the Vets every day, and the burden on my Heart grows with each encounter, along with the maddening frustration with an overworked and under-funded bureaucratic system that just isn’t there for them.
The scenarios I relate to others are usually met with disbelief, to the point of denial that it could as it is. But the sad fact is the statistics put forth in this article are made up by each human being who lives the truth of it through their struggle with a body and/or mind that has been damaged because they served.
I encourage everyone I can to bear this in mind as we enter an election year, that we as citizens who have and do continue to benefit from the service of our Veterans, have the issue of true support for them be something to which those asking to hold public office will commit and act.
Thank a Veteran for their service, with your words and your vote.
Impeach The Bastards
This administration’s use and abuse of our military is consistent to its abuse of the poor,and the middle class in this country. Most of our military are from modest income families. Serving in the military is the only way of getting an education, and a ticket to a better life.
The Republican philosophy for prosperity, is to increase the holdings of the rich. We only have one pie, and if the privileged get a larger peace, working people and the poor, will get a smaller peace. They would like to eliminate all the new deal social programs. Being unable to do that, they have set out to do the next best thing. Make social programs work better for the wealthy. Bush was unsuccessful in putting our Social Security money into a Wall Street Crap Shoot. He was successful in putting our health care system into private insurance companies. Private insurance companies don’t provide health care. Their only purpose is to make money for them selves. The only thing that this worthless middle man does, is take money that could be used to provide better health care for everybody. Privatize, Privatize, Privatize, is the Republican rant. If you can’t rob the government fast enough, put those tax dollars into private hands. Walter Reed Medical Center is a good example. By privatizing they were able to turn one of the worlds best hospitals into a flop house. They made money doing it, and they don’t care about the solderers.
Courageous young people who have volunteered to serve their county, are being used to rob, murder, and commit crimes in the Middle East. All the reasons we have been given for going to war have turned out to be lies. The only reason we invaded Iraq, and Afghanistan, was to generate huge profits for the rich in this country.
Our poor soldiers have been lied to, used, abused, and when they are down, the vultures in Washington are picking their pockets. Can you imagine a soldier being charged for equipment that was blown off his body? This should not be a surprise. These are the same chiselers who are to cheep to offer good medical care to our wounded troops when they come home. George Bush, and his gang of thugs need to be removed from office and locked up. Impeach the Bastards.
Hedology accidentally expressed the cynical viewpoint that the top Republicans hold for our military (no disrespect to you). The top Senate Republican,Mitch McConnell,put it this way on Dec 07,”Nobody is happy about losing lives, but remember, these are not draftees, these are full time professional soldiers”. When I was in the Army Infantry over 40 years ago, I found that draftees died just as quickly as “lifers” when they were hit with flying scrap metal. A couple years ago I thought I had talked a young man out of joining the Army by telling him that there was no glory or girls, but only guts, grime, and grief. Both he and his brother signed up, still thinking that there is some sort of glory in surviving a big gun battle (It’s mostly luck, being prepared, and knowing when to duck). Their mother almost nonchalantly told me, “I worry, but we are Christians and if they get killed, they will go straight to heaven”. The only thing I could conclude was that one of the BS talking points of the recruiters is that Iraq/Iran is a new Crusade and the naive religious kids fall for that line. The proselitizing of our troops and trying to get them more Christian before the battles is going to be disillusioning when they find out that being a Christian, quite like being a Muslim, doesn’t keep you from getting killed in battle. It is really important for people who hold our views to make your point in “Letters to the Editor” and members of Congress.
Solid comments on Galloway’s article.
RichM; I forgot that scene in ‘REDS’. Thanks for the reminder.
Iwfrey; Thanks for the poem. I’ve mentioned many times on CD for folks to research ‘THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE’ of 1914, during the “WAR TO END ALL WARS”, ( how come it didn’t, my friends? ) If you can’t find the video, you can probably buy the DVD from the HISTORY CHANNEL . At least research it on the internet.
The first thing we have to do is ask the question: why do we have so many (combat) veterans to begin with? An honest evaluation of the question will lead to John Reed’s answer.
Ticonderoga; Correct! We have got to stop the ‘glorification’ of the military and the ‘macho man’ imagine as a way to resolve problems. To my way of thinking, those Buddhist Monks in Burma are more ‘manly’ and ‘masculine’ than any Special Forces soldier or Navy Seal. The only way to stop war is not to participate and be used as cannon fodder for others to “PROFIT” from.
MiMi; I’m with the others. You brought up a good point. This Administration and Congress are so corrupt, they can’t pass laws fast enough making all American citizens ’suspected terrorists”. The most recent was warmongering Jane Harmon’s Bill in the House.
People need jobs and the blood money and benefits the military provides is more than most can make in civillian life nowadays. Look at the psychological damage many are afflicted with. The physical wounds are tangible and can be seen, but the intangible ones are silently harming the victim, some by suicide. For what!
“HELL NO, WE WON’T GO!” should be the battle cry. Send Bush, Cheney, and their comrades ‘over there’, to lead the charge.
@ RichM December 15th, 2007 12:40 pm
Solid comment Rich, I absolutely agree with you that the MICom (military-industrial-complex/command) is out of control. BUT you confuse the individual soldier, who does deserve respect, with MICom for whom they have been brainwashed to obey.
I recognize that the military is a “volunteer” system, but the methods used to entice the young and impressionable are today more sophisticated than the old techniques of shanghaiing men (and women) to serve on sailing ships. I do not blame young man and women for serving in the military, many are there not of their own free will. Please take it easy on the individuals.
@MiMi - scary comment. One that requires more research.
The gross neglect of returning military veterans is the clearest sign of the criminality of the American ruling class who are happy to send the mostly young volunteers coming from the lower middle class to fight in misconceived and immoral imperial interventions. The sad truth is that the cynical and spoiled American ruling class is only interested in using the military volunteers and once used and returned they are left to their own devices to either sink or swim. There are many, many disgraces and crimes committed by the US ruling class in recent years, but the neglect of returning veterans is one of the most egregious. When will the military wake up to its real interests and switch sides from the fascist elite to the people?
What do you expect from a man who knows nothing (Bush), and a man who is really calling the shots and wants everything at any cost. (Cheney)
I think the treatment of former U.S. soldiers is deplorable. I take exception, however, to the characterization that all the recent recruits are “desperate and dumb”. Two fine young men from the fraternity chapter I used to belong to have been killed in Iraq, and one has been wounded. Two came from middle class or upper middle class families. One came from a wealthy family. All were fine young men.
Sorry, Kem patrick, Mimi, H R 3167 has nothing at all to do with what you, CHUCKLE, HAHA, persons said about it. It only requires that these returning Vets are diagnosed by the proper medical professionals, like real MD’s in Psychiatry. If they aren’t they are misdiagnosed then you 2 can have your F@@ked up opinion of these kids mental status. That is when you worry, misdiagnosis, wrong discharge screws them for life.
The cases not covered are specified. WTF, you think this is a joke? ‘Join the Navy’, grow the F@@k up! Have a son, a daughter?
Think not. Collateral damage to you two. I would never wish this on anyone, I certainly hope neither of you have such an experience, you are both apathetic, petulant, horrid and nasty persons, KEM, with the ‘Oh so wonderful tale’ to Cindy, show her both posts from you and mimi, ask her how that makes her feel, F##KING ASK HER!!!!
Read some of the articles from the website below. You’ll be surprised!
www.globalresearch.ca
Pascal; What a shame! Countries are taking our worse exports, greed, selfishness, deception, and privatization, and slowly but surely, ‘conditioning’ their citizens to except these as necessary to exist and survive.
John J. Coghlan ; Money and Power, all for themselves. Well said, John.
Aarky; Too many folks of all ages are conned by the ‘black magicians’ in the churches who preach fear and intolerance. It’s amazing so many people still fall for it in 2007 AD.
Those of you who haven’t should read some of the articles on the website above.
re; H R 2640, the bill H R 3167 is the preventative measure to
H R 2640. Man, just use Thomas and read the proper wording, all of these sites that anyone can make up, use Thomas with bills.
Commondreams readers it appears are all in agreement that because of the military industrial complex our governments actions are more representative of industry than they are of veterans, and the lower class. No shit.
So what you gonna do about it? Revolution? Vote democrats in?
I have as much fun as anybody else talking about how fucked the system is, but now is a time for pragmatism, so lets talk about what needs to be done today in our communities, rather than talking about all the “bastards” we should impeach in Washington. We all know Washington’s the problem, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t local solutions.
Homelessness is a clear issue for veterans that CAN be addressed. There are currently affordable housing developers, probably in a town near you, that are struggling to find a place for their housing because no one wants a bunch of single, mentally ill, drug addicted homeless veterans in their backyard. People like you and me have the power to push city officials to promote permanent housing for single homeless males.
Housing is only a start. There are many local ways to ease veteran suffering. Veterans have serious self-esteem issues.
Organizing a local veterans day parade or American Legion can help homeless veterans get in touch with other veterans that are trying to better themselves. This approach of veteran networking is extremely helpful in helping veterans overcome self-esteem problems which are a main cause of veteran homelessness.
See, there’s plenty we can do besides moping around about the federal government.
The WWII vets numbered in the millions, and saw what fascism/imperialism did - the US government was in no position to challenge that many well-trained armed men coming back to a broken economy - that’s the only reason the GI bill gave them a break. Since then, there have been no mass-mobilizations, and no collective drive to support returning vets since civilians are not a part of the ‘war effort’ as they were in WWII.
On the other side of the coin, the military now brainwashes recruits into thinking they are ‘different’ (as in superior to) than ‘civilians, so many soldiers have no respect for the very civilians who are trying to look out for their welfare. Divide and conquer - oldest tactic in the book. Just watch how regulars look upon the anti-war bunch with contempt and disdain - they should be joined in solidarity, but their brainwashing sets them against their best allies. Hell, look at how Guards and Reserves are treated! That’s the whole idea - divide and conquer. Just like calling these poor kids ‘volunteers’ causes a lot of civilians to look upon them as deserving what they get… but kids under 25 are not fully developed - it is true that the cognitive functions of the pre-frontal cortex are not fully developed and they are unable to make ‘adult’ decisions. No child should be allowed in any military - no one under 25. But when the hassle about the drinking age being 21 while draft age was 18 became an issue, the solution was to lower the drinking age, instead of raising the draft age! Talk about cowardly abusive behavior! Where were you then?
We could have fixed all that after Vietnam - instead, we let a feeble-minded B-actor tell us we could sweep the whole mess under the rug - oh yeah, it’s ‘morning in America’ all right - more like ‘mourning in America’ I’d say… and where is that ‘peace dividend’ from the end of the ‘Cold War’ - another pile of rotting BS sold to Americans for decades. What a load. So don’t expect anyone to ‘do the right thing’ now - Americans didn’t do that when it would have been easy.
Get elected to your local school board and insist that accurate history be taught to students, along with a REAL civics course and the truth about war. We wouldn’t be in this mess if you guys would have done that years ago, as the Right-Wing religio-fanatics did. Now the Air Force is infested with Crusaders - and everyone is brainwashed in every branch of the US military. Hell, it worked for the Nazis and the Japs - that’s why the US adopted their military training methods - which is why my father quit the service. (His father quit too, when his conscience wouldn’t let him commit war crimes.) I’m pro-military, but not pro-fascist - and there is a difference!
The VA is a lost cause - I’ve fought them before, on behalf of vets, and they fight dirty. They don’t have the money because broken soldiers are simply discarded - that’s the way it’s always been - should have thought about that after Vietnam, or the first Gulf War - we can’t fix this until we fix the whole damned fascist system. Hell, it wouldn’t be a problem if we had national healthcare - think about that!
Run for school board - start with the kids of the next generation or they too will be facing the same fate some day. It’s easy and it will be effective - that’s how these radical thugs took over education in the US - Dewey’s dream of ‘training’ people instead of ‘educating’ them has finally come true. He wanted a stupid unquestioning populace - and now that’s what we have. If you’re not involved in your local school, you’re part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. You can make a difference!
DKent; You make a good case for housing. Look at the poor Katrina victims in New Orleans. And people losing jobs and their homes or apartments because of the system. It didn’t get like this overnight, and will get worse as time goes by. I agree. A lot needs to be done, but at the moment, the deck is stacked against the working poor (everybody with a job thinks they are middle-class) as well as veterans. Some of us help in different ways. Most don’t care. But, you are on the right track.
Armybrat; You can’t be a “brat” for writting with such compassion and concern. Remember one thing. The military is to serve the “rulling-class”, not the citizens per se. When you say “you’re pro-military, but not pro-fascist-and there is a difference,” what is the difference besides terminology of words? As long as one is willingly “pro-military”, why would a person in 2007 still want to follow orders from Bush and Cheney, after all that’s transpired since the selection of Bush by the Supreme Court in 2000?
Money and a steady job with “bennies” (benefits)
How about the disgraceful treatment of the people that the troops killed when they were in action? All “soldiers” are hired killers and thugs regardless of who they kill for. I applaud the poor treatment of these murderers when they return to America. Let them bear the full price for their willingness to murder for money! Maybe that will discourage future generations from their mindless and morally disgusting choice to accept money to kill other human beings. Take your little yellow ribbons off of your gas guzzler SUV’s. You are encouraging more of these miscreant anti social “minds” to make the same decision that killing is a good thing.
Undergoound Pirate, would a soldier be a “thug” or a “murderer” if they were fighting against Hitler, the Janjaweed, or any other perpetrators of genocide?
Soldiers fight because they are convinced it is for the greater good, not because money is more important to them than killing people.
Also, many soldiers received an inadequate education in our countries inadequate education system. They have not been exposed to the realities of the US military.
They also believe that risking their own lives for what they are told is the greater good is their only way to make it out of poverty.
In other words, they believe they are there to save lives, not to end them, and our society is structured so that a large population has few mainstream economic opportunities.
Please don’t blame the victim, Undergoound Pirate. Blame the education system for giving them an awful education. Blame inequality for giving young people no other option but to enlist. Blame the media for not exposing the US military for what it really is.
I hope in the future that it is the leaders, those who deceive and foment fear , that pick up the first weapons against each other. Our society has been manipulated into equating killing strangers in a strange land with patriotism. Patriotism is love of country, not love of those who rule.
“Army vets are street scrap. They are recruited from the lowest of rungs of society into the worst job. The majority would not join if they had a living wage from a real job.”
Can anyone cite a source supporting this? I can’t find anything.
This administration asks our young men & women to serve and die for their own illegal interests and then, if they survive, won’t pay for their medical or rehab. Any government which cannot take care of it’s own veterans needs to be replaced.
Just a question. Doesn’t the treatment of our Vets (of which I am one (1966-1968) reflect the arrogance and indifferent attitude of our elected representatives to those who have served? The people of this country are, for the most part, unrepresented in government. Our young and those in the reserves and National Guard are tools for those in power to maintain their power and grow their wealth. They could give a rats ass about suicide rates, vermin infested hospital wings, sewage for drinking water, no armor (the army you have…) et cet. Yes it is a disgrace. But who is listening to your protests. Donate to those charities that are having a direct effect on the lives and health of Veterans, and give those homeless some of that loose change you have.
Write your papers and the networks. Write your representatives. Don’t let them say they didn’t know or just became aware.
peaceman: The US military is corrupt - but a strong military is necessary to prevent intimidation by others and to defend the country. I do not support a corrupt military, a corrupt government, or a corrupt society - but we need all of these elements.
My father quit the US military when he realized it was becoming exceedingly corrupt (along with the US government). My grandfather quit the Russian military for the same reasons - aggression and government corruption. A defensive military is necessary to protect society - there is a difference. Most of my family have served in one military or another, but draw the line at committing atrocities and war crimes. All would serve again to defend our country - but not the corrupt rulers, be they ‘presidents’ or ‘tsars’ - we need an honest, honorable, educated military!
I imagine that $hrub will blame the VET’s high suicide rates on anti-war sentiments.
armybrat; If the military is corrupt, then the government is corrupt, because it controls the military. Needless to say, our society is somewhat corrupt because we tolerate and patronize corruption within the government and military. But I do agree with you, we (unfortunately) do need a military to fight against a ‘foreign invasion’ on our soil. Not for imperial ambitions as we are currently doing in Southwest Asia and Iraq.
Which is why I think more and more of our citizens would support our military people who resist the fascist and imperialistic agenda of this administration. They will be looked upon as heros rather than deserters. The ‘Courage To Resist’ movement is growing and the DC criminals are worried about it.
We The People, and that goes for everyone on this planet, need to unite and resist tyrants in power. Only by manipulation of a non-thinking and non-questioning public are wars (legalized murder) started.
I salute your father and grandfather for “doing the right thing” once they figured out what the game was.
As for, “we need an honest, honorable, educated military”, If I may finish the sentence with; we also need honest, honorable,and educated civillians as well.
nspire; Probably. Do you think he actually knew how to fly a jet plane? He looked dashing on the flight deck, but…
We don’t learn the lessons of history. You don’t have to go that far back to notice the patterns:
In WWI, the Brits complained that the war could have been ended, but suspected that some wanted it to continue because of profits. The soldiers were being used, they claimed. Appreciate the soldiers. The brave (or coerced), those who served their country and made the sacrifices.
After WWI, the “Bonus army” had been promised a bonus by 1945. The depression hit. The corporations had made their profits already, had their bonuses. The Bonus Army traveled to Washington and set up their shantytown. The House passed a bill to pay the bonus, but the Senate was going to kill it, and if the Senate didn’t, Hoover probably would have vetoed it. A frightened VP called out the Marines prematurely, but they were cheered by the vets, who struck up conversations.
Eventually Hoover ordered the veterans evicted and had Douglas MacArthur lead the troops to evict them.
FDR read the news and figured he would not have to campaign against Hoover. He’d had the election handed to him on a platter. Eventually the GI bill was passed, and that helped create the middle class.
But meanwhile, some of the richest corporate Americans were not too pleased with FDR and his New Deal.
We were not in the war yet, and with the depression, there was a sense of isolationism. Why get into the war in Europe, when we had enough trouble at home?
Some of the rich were fans of Italy’s Facist government and asked retired Marine General Smedley Butler to lead a coup–angry vets against their own government–to replace FDR, get rid of the New Deal. Or maybe they’d save FDR as a figurehead and revise the constitution to include some other, more powerful executive.
Yet retired Marine General Smedley Butler, twice a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, didn’t like the conspiracy, and he turned them in. It was investigated by congress. But they usually don’t include the attempted coup in high school history books (do they ever include it at all? Or Butler’s “War is a Racket”?).
FDR probably offered the rich who were implicated a deal: Support the New Deal, and you stay out of prison, and/or avoid getting hung for treason. So the congressional hearings ended without charges or convictions. As the Chinese saying observes, the law is like a spider-web that catches light objects (like the poor), but heavy objects pass right through.
An account published in the UK claims that not only the Duponts and other wealthy families were in on the plot, but that Prescott Bush (grandfather of W) was in on it too. Imagine that.
Butler complained about profiteering on his speaking tour and in his little book, “War is a Racket,” but he was considered a gadfly. Sort of a retired general turned Dennis Kucinich. (Except Butler wasn’t into new age religion, and didn’t have a 29 year-old Brit with a tongue-stud for a wife.)
Meanwhile, FDR insisted on basing the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, against the strong advice of his top admiral, and in spite of same admiral’s resignation. FDR basically provoked Japan into attacking through a variety of policies that Japan opposed. FDR needed a reason to motivate citizens to support a war.
In 1930 Journalist Ludwell Denny wrote about how the US aspired to surpass Great Britain as a world empire, but instead of imposing explicit military rule, the US would simply own the world through economic influence. Denny also quoted Calvin Coolidge, musing about how the future of world politics might be determined by who had the most access to petroleum resources.
We let the war rage in Europe long enough to take Great Britain’s empire down a notch or two. Then we got into the war in time to win all the marbles.
That veterans got the G.I. Bill at all was a stroke of good luck for the veterans, but possibly just as much a very political act to win their support. So we got the middle class, and strong labor unions, for a while.
The same forces that conspired to install a Facist US government eventually wanted to dismantle welfare and New Deal, so the rich could get richer off the backs of the poor. Enter Reagan, Bush, Bush, etc.
We were perhaps lucky, for a while, that things unfolded as they did, if you look at it from the viewpoint of the middle class and the vets.
If you look at it from the viewpoint of most of the world (poorer countries, cheap resources and labor) that had to yield to growing US empire (which also fed the middle class cheap goods), not so lucky. One man’s empire is another man’s slavemaster.
We won’t improve the lot of veterans (in substantial ways, and long-term) and the “little people” if we don’t understand the patterns, and how soldiers are used as pawns in the military-propaganda-empire-profiteering game.
PF-Flyer; 1;30 am post…Exceptional commentary. My hat off to you!
I don’t know if you read what I wrote last week (it’s in the CD archives) regarding the A-bomb attacks in Japan or not, as well as a bit about the war profiteers.
More importantly is what you just described.
My new activity is asking folks whatelse do the do to help the vets other than putting a yellow ribbon on thier cars.
I think most of them put one on to compensate for feeling thankful that they aren’t ‘over there’
Peacemon:
Thanks for the tip about your post. I didn’t know about the suicides, or about Brigader Gen. Holderidge and the extra year. Interesting stuff. How did you learn that about Holderidge? Have you a source? I’d be interested in reading more. I could Google it, but if you could recommend a good source from among the Google haystack that might result, I’d appreciate it.
I knew of the racism in Japan against China (and some “superior race” writings in the US, even in Reader’s Digest). Also of Japanese tests to dust the wings of birds with anthrax and release them over Chinese towns. But not of the suicides. There are so many stories we would benefit from learning. It’s tragic we don’t have more emphasis on history in our culture, but instead, have sit-coms and American Idol.
PF-Flyer; Glad you’re interested. First thing; About Brigadier General Herbert C. Holdridge, a few of my in-laws knew him personally (I never met him) and would have long conversations about politics, current events, vegetarianism, the American Indian movement (before it became one), and war itself. He helped the Hopi people in Arizona, and was harrassed by the police sometimes for it. He retired in 1944 during WW2, and we aren’t certain why. There are different speculations as to why, but I don’t know myself.
If you Google his name, there are many sites with pro and con stories about him. Again, according to my relatives who knew him when he lived in Beverly Hills California, he was a very humane man and tried exposing falsehoods and corruption in, I guess you can say, an unorthodox manner. For that he was ridiculed by the powers that be. I’ll check some of the sites and see which is the most accurate, and reply back to you in a few minutes.
Your last two sentences in the above post are extremely important if we want to continue in this so-called Democracy which has become a corrupt oligarchy.
PF-Flyer; That wasa long few minutes. I looked at several sites on the General, and I have to search more. I didn’t realize there were so many web sites for him. One important retired military man was the late Col. Fletcher L. Prouty whom I admired immensely. During the mid-80’s he talked from his home in Virginia on the telphone, to a radio talk-show host in Los Angeles for one hour. I think it was twice a week, and I recorded about a half-dozen shows and passed the casettes to friends to listen to.
Prouty spoke with ease and profound knowledge on a variety of subjects. He said the asassination of JFK was the coup de etate’ against the American people. But he spoke about so many things.
Google Fletcher L Prouty
PF-Flyer; Google> karl loren interviewing fletcher l prouty< click on the radio news and check it out. Also the ‘official site at www.prouty.org
Peace, Harmony, and Understanding
Peaceman:
I found this interesting title at Amazon:
Platform of the peace general for President of the United States (Unknown Binding)
by Herbert C Holdridge
(1952)
unavailable
Maybe we need a new book about Marine General Smedley Butler, and the “peace general” (Holdridge?), and Eisenhower warning of the Military-Industrial Complex.
Instead of the three tenors, the triumvirate of…?
Title: A clip from that common phrase that claims soldiers, more than anyone, would rather not go to war…. (A questionable assertion, if you know “Red Badge of Courage”….
PF-Flyer;
Sounds good. I’ll be off the computer for a few weeks. Did you check out the Col. Prouty site that I listed above? I like the three tenors, but you’ve got something there. The triumvirate of…?