Women: Defense Budget

Women legislators call for cuts to military budget

Women's Take - Georgia State Senator Nan Orrock: We are on a dangerous path to a militarized society

Def. Sec. Robert Gates: Radical Overhaul of the Pentagon's Arsenal

Pentagon Chief: Why I Tore Up the Army's 'Future'

Of all the hard choices Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to make in his radical overhaul of the Pentagon's arsenal, the toughest, he tells Danger Room, was the decision to gut Future Combat Systems, the Army's $200 billion effort to design a fleet of next-generation tanks and troop carriers.

"Most difficult of all of these for me was the FCS program," Gates says in a Pentagon conference call. "I actually didn't make up my mind once and for all on it until this weekend."

This link brings up Windows Media Player for conference call.

At the end of this phone conference, which last about thirty five minutes, the Defense Secretary talks about the Military and Veterans, as well as their families, care monies that have been off budget, or not even thought of or included, and in the supplementals these years of these two occupations, which now will be included in the Defense Budget, nothing hidden, we hope!

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And the mindset should Always Be: "War as a very last resort!!"! No Wars Of Choice Which Damages Our Nations Security And Moral Standing!!

Long Past Time: Where Do The DoD Budget Monies Go?

Every year our Department of Defense budget grows to ever Huge Proportions and we're givin the simpleminded reason that we're getting our National Security Protection, and we simply except, no questions asked, don't even get upset when corruption within is brought out, or outrageous costs for items we could purchase offshelf cheaper in a handware store.

Many have seen this YouTube Video of the barracks conditions for returning soldiers at Fort Bragg, or at least heard about it, which has brought about this,

The Army identified eight installations Friday that will get priority attention: Fort Lewis; Fort Polk, La.; Fort Gordon, Ga.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York; Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland; and Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.

One of those,

Fort Polk will receive $166 million for repairs to its barracks, which Sen. Mary Landreiu, a Louisiana Democrat, has called “80 percent unlivable.”
“Similar to the situation at Fort Bragg, the barracks are decades old,” said Stephanie Allen, a spokeswoman for Landreiu. “They’re rampant with mold and unfit for anyone to live in, much less our soldiers who are giving up their lives to serve their country.”

The living conditions, and apparently extreme ignoring of upfits to existing buildings, that soldiers are expected to live in and do, aren't a part of these bloated DoD budget requests that seem to alway pass, they also aren't important to the Country, who don't question where exactly the bloated budget monies go.

We also hear nothing of upset from the Military Contractors on the end of the bloated budgets, nor their Wall Street Investors, as their profit margins and returns grow. The investors seem quite happy with the No-Bid Contracts of the Haliburtan's as those bottom lines grow with each contract just given to them, and they seem to love our very own, now very wealthy, Mercenary Private Army, as they bank our hard working money with tax breaks on theirs.

Than one reads this,

At Martin Army, one of the nation's oldest Army hospitals, at least once a month corroding and antiquated pipes force the facility to shut down the entire plumbing system. If the water is out for longer than a day, patients are forced to bathe in portable showers.
The roof needs replacing. The electrical system is at capacity, making it difficult to add additional circuits, hospital officials said. The heating and cooling systems are so old that temperatures cannot be adjusted in individual rooms.
"With the influx of BRAC, we really need a new hospital," said Terry Beckwith, a hospital spokeswoman.

Controversial Iraq war spending bill includes funds to update Fort Benning hospital

Someone needs to explain the Why is this Included in the Supplemental Iraq/Afganistan War Funding Bill, why hasn't it already been takin care of, Long Ago, that will be partly answered in a moment.

"The quality of patient care remains high, but we want to make sure we don't have a Walter Reed situation," said U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga

We should never have had a Walter Reed Situation!

When the Republican controlled Washington were beating the drums of War and Occupations louder and louder, they should have seen this all coming, we've been through it before, and we supposedly have a professional military now, which means Everything should be under a Professional Atmosphere, the Best, Top Notch, not Second Place!

Those who "Your either with us or against us!" in the against, were considered unpatriotic, unamerican, enemy sympathizers {forget the fact of creating huge numbers of new 'enemies' by our actions}, yet many of us saw all of this coming.

Though the Army has long identified Martin Army as a high priority, the Iraq war has forced funding to be redirected, Bishop said.

Got that Redirected, mostly to corruption within the puppet governments we once again setup in our occupations, to the no-bid contractors, and to our very own private mercenary army!

"In recent years, the services have identified billions of dollars in recapitalization requirements for which current budgetary allotments are insufficient, but which desperately need funding due to the condition of the facilities," said Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs. "The funding problems will be exacerbated in the immediate future as installations like Fort Benning add thousands of personnel, dependent families, and departments due to BRAC, and as more wounded soldiers return from service in Iraq and Afghanistan."

In 'recent years'?, these should have been on going expected expenses, and the American People should be expected to pay, not bury their collective heads in the sand and cheer on Destructive Wars/Occupations of Choice, with their cheap yellow magnetic ribbons and their lapel flag pins which are symbols with no meaning behind them!

Occasionally we get representation, at least from the start, that looks promising in a Nation where only a tiny segment of it's society sacrifices, those serving and their families, Local rookie goes to bat for veterans, that rookie is Arizona Rep. Harry Mitchell, a grandfather in his 60s.

"I feel blessed to have been given the job that I landed in Congress," he told me last week.

And what is that job,

As a first-term member, Mitchell was named chairman of House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. It's a long title for doing exactly what?

"Trying to take care of our vets," he said.

This at a time when we are finding out, once again, just what wasn't done by the previous republican controlled congress and it's members and their staffs, as they continuely blocked the minority from holding the nessessary hearings and oversite, and now that they are in the minority play obstructionist.

The first-term congressman also has been among those who have worked to improve military hospitals since news broke of the awful conditions in some of them.

"The war doesn't end for a lot of these folks once they get home," he said. "Some concerns go on for years and years."

Maybe at age 60 he remembers,

"Solving these problems isn't easy," Mitchell said. "But we can't wait. That's one lesson we learned from Vietnam. At least I hope we've learned it."

We didn't learn that lesson nor the many other lessons of 'Nam, we're repeating them all and making new extreme failed policies that will haught this Nation for decades to come!

Mr Mitchell, as a rookie, is also a primary sponsor of what he calls a "21st-century GI Bill.".

Another of what shouldn't be needed but the Country should have been upgrading right along, for those who give service to it, the G.I. Bill, the benefits of a 'Thank You' for your Service!

Why hasn't it been, I'll give you a hint from the article,

The bill passed in the House but it included a surtax on individual incomes exceeding $500,000 to pay for the cost. Mitchell and others want that removed in order to improve the chances of approval.

A country and it's citizens that want everything but don't want to pay, nor give their time or lives for, especially those who gain Wealth from the hard work of the rest!

Oh and on the recent VA E-Mail and the seeming want to play Political Putdowns, it has brought about, because a certain Senator, running for President, saw the wrong in it and called for Senate Committee Investigations:

May 16, 2008, Washington, DC - Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake today, in response to a recently disclosed email from a VA mental health professional which suggested that time and money could be saved if VA stopped diagnosing veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Akaka also made a statement on this matter earlier today, calling the email “disturbing and disappointing.”

You can add Mr. Akaka's name to your political putdowns, though he isn't running for president. Never mind asking the one Question that should have been asked: "Why didn't Senator, and 'Nam Veteran, John McCain come out right after this hit the wires and question it's meaning and do the requesting for a further in-depth Senate Investigation?"!

Walter Reed - Care Of Military Personal

Two interviews on the recent Washington Post Report on Walter Reed Army Hospital.

Remember as you read about All Of This, or listen to the many news interviews, these Military Personal are still Active they fall under the care of the DoD not the VA!

Think Extremely Bloated Defense Budgets And Who Actually Gets Those Monies

This one was on the PBS NewsHour on Monday 2-19-07
Army Hospital Struggles to Provide Iraq Veterans Adequate Care

Some Iraq war veterans returning to the United States for medical treatment have found that Washington, D.C.'s Walter Reed Army Hospital has failed to provide them with adequate care. Dana Priest, a Washington Post reporter who broke the story, describes the problems.

You can listen to this report with the Real Media Audio

Or view it HERE
The transcript is at the title link.


This one was on the Diane Rehm NPR Show on 2-21-07
Outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Guest host: Susan Page

Two Washington Post reporters describe the challenges some injured marines and soldiers face as outpatients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Guests
Dana Priest, intelligence correspondent for "The Washington Post" and author of "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military"

Anne Hull, reporter, "The Washington Post"

Lt. General Kevin Kiley, U.S. Army Surgeon General Commander, U.S. Army Medical Command

You can listen to this interview on Real Audio
or
Windows Media Player


Recent YouTube Video's Just Passed On

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Painful Wait for Needed Help

Backlog of 400,000 Cases

Troops return to painful wait for needed help

By Andrew Weaver and Ray McGovern

February 4, 2007

The California Nurses Association reported that in the first quarter of 2006, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "treated 20,638 Iraq veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, and they have a backlog of 400,000 cases." A returning soldier has to wait an average of 165 days for a VA decision on initial disability benefits, and an appeal can take up to three years.
This is unacceptable and reprehensible.

The saying "War is hell" doesn't begin to describe how horrible it has been for tens of thousands in our military in Iraq and Afghanistan. War inevitably involves witnessing and sometimes engaging in gruesome acts of violence. It is a shocking confrontation with death and devastation. It is normal for human beings to react to war's psychic trauma with profound fear, anger, grief, repulsion, helplessness and horror - or with emotional numbness and disbelief.

Trauma is the Greek word for "wound." Just as a physical wound from combat can cause suffering in the body, psychological trauma can cause acute suffering of mind and spirit.

It is not surprising to find that an assessment of more than 220,000 military personnel returning from Iraq published in the April Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly one in five has significant mental health problems. Repeated tours of duty increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder by 50 percent.

At the same time, we are hearing disturbing news reports that these traumatized soldiers are not receiving the mental heath care they urgently require. Last month, National Public Radio journalist Daniel Zwerdling did an extensive story on the military's treatment of personnel returning from Iraq who suffer from emotional problems, including PTSD.

Veterans coming home stated that their superiors have harassed and punished them for seeking help for psychological problems triggered by their service in Iraq. Several of the soldiers' supervisors acknowledged the callous treatment.

A recent national study by the Government Accountability Office found that most of the troops who show signs of PTSD were not referred to mental health professionals, despite Pentagon claims, in NPR's report, "that providing support to soldiers with emotional problems is a top priority" and "that resources are being made available to returning veterans."

If the same disastrous pattern unfolds that affected Vietnam-era veterans, and these PTSD sufferers do not obtain appropriate and timely assistance, tens of thousands will become unnecessarily and tragically addicted to drugs or alcohol, and many may commit suicide. Besides the 58,000 lost in combat, we lost tens of thousands of Vietnam-era military personnel to suicide and drugs.

The American people must actively advocate and demand appropriate treatment for veterans who have been psychologically wounded by war.



Andrew J. Weaver is a United Methodist minister, research psychologist and author in New York City. His e-mail is aweaver747@aol.com. Ray McGovern was an Army officer and a CIA analyst and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. His e-mail is rrmcgovern@aol.com.