The War on Veterans
February 9, 2006
This is what I added to the beginning:
Not Waiting Till They Become Us Older Vets, Getting Them Fresh Out Of Theater As Their Buddies Are Being Killed!!
And the 'Majority' in this Country 'Could Care Less', Nothing New There Though, That's How It's Always Been!! Send them off to Invade a Small Country, who's people didn't deserve the Death and Destruction, for those on these shores their Military is Out Of Site-Out Of Mind, In Theater and At Home!!!!
This is the VCS E-Mail Body:
"I last saw my armor when it was pulled off my bleeding body," says First Lieutenant William "Eddie" Redbrook, a 25 year-old West Point graduate injured when his Bradley Fighting Vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb last year. The West Virginia resident was shocked when, on his medical discharge from the Army last week, he was stuck with a bill: $700 to replace body armor which was damaged and bloodied, then torn off his body following the injury.
For Rest of Above
This is not the first time this has occurred. Early last year, Mark Benjamin of Salon reported on the move made by Walter Reed Army Hospital to charge injured soldiers for meals eaten at the hospital, at a potential cost of hundreds of dollars per month. "I think it sucks," said a soldier from West Virginia who broke his neck in Iraq after falling off a roof. "I think that people should be able to eat. They get us over there, get us wounded and shot up and then tell us: Fend for yourself. You are all heroes, but here you go."
For Rest of Above
Iraq War veteran Jason Thelan wrote of the Dallas VA hospital almost a year ago: "unclean and had foul odors, walls had buildups of grime, and stretchers had dried residue of bodily fluids. The administration did not collect or analyze mortality data, and patient injuries such as falls were not recorded. Waiting times for an appointment can stretch up to a year. There was no evidence of a plan for better management, and the director of the North Texas VA system quit several weeks ago."
For Rest of Above
In another article by Mark Benjamin, a young soldier is quoted: "I'll sign anything as soon as I can get my hands on it," he told me several days before being released from the hospital. "I loved the Army. I was obsessed with it. The Army was my life. Fuck them now."
For Rest of Above
Most of us would expect that news of this nature would make waves in Washington. Heads would roll, budget priorities would change, and we would do everything in our power as a nation to provide the best for the young men and women whose lives and bodies have been shattered by this war.
Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case.
Despite repeated defeats by Congress, the administration has once again gone back to Congress with a budget that will "cut costs" at the VA by increasing fees and payments -- doubling co-pays and introducing enrollment fees. The American Legion has hailed the budget for increasing the VA healthcare budget by $3 billion, but criticized it for raising the fees. Additionally, VA's current budget includes saving $1.1 billion in "management" efficiencies, which the General Accountability Office said were baseless in a report issued only a week ago.
HERE
and HERE
Congress and the administration repeatedly say they "support the troops." But actions speak louder than words. For a review of just how they support the troops, see our brief survey of articles to the right.
It's time to get in front of this train attacking returning war veterans and put it a stop. Veterans for Common Sense will continue to fight to ensure returning veterans get the help they need. We'd like you to join us in the fight.
Visit: Veterans For CommonSense
CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) is a Washington-based nonprofit organization founded by Marla Ruzicka, who was killed on April 16, 2005 by a suicide bomb in Baghdad while advocating for the families of Iraqi civilians killed and injured in the conflict. CIVIC believes that civilian casualties should be counted and their families assisted by the governments responsible, and is working to identify victims and help their families.
^^^^^^^^^^
"All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for thir future security." :
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
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