this goes back to vietnam

second, too

For anyone to honestly believe that the Bush misadministration will be looked upon favorably in the History books is truly deluding themselves.

I can't believe how far America has fallen in just 7 short (rather long) years.

The Facts are finally starting to emerge regarding Homeless Vets. I wrote many months ago that after the Vietnam War thousands of Vets who had lived through hell in Jungle Firefights were coming home with little or no help trying to figure out how to blend back into society.

Drug use became rampant in those poor men, anything to help dull the mind of the horrors they had experienced. The Government did little or nothing to help as usual.

Now we are finding that 25% of the returning soldiers returning from Iraq are homeless and again turning to booze and drugs to ease their suffering, and facing a Government Agency who is underfunded and badly mismanaged. Soon out cities will be flooded once again with these poor men who have looked into the jaws of death and destruction and had their minds warped almost beyond help (even if there were help available.)

All of you brothers out there who were in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or any other hell-hole know what I'm saying here.

I'd like to encourage all of you to write to your Representative in both house's of Congress no matter what party they are affiliated with and let them know how urgent this is.

Our Government sent them into a Bogus War and they shouldn't have to return to a Bogus, Underfunded Veterans group for help.

Please help our Vets.

This is how the Bush and all his uncaring Reslugs take care of our Veterans.

I thought it was the Republic party that supported the troops...

Like they would tell us in the past, "If the Army wanted you to feel, they would have issued you emotions - suck it up and quit whining."

Is this the way a country treats its "heroes"?
As long as they are serving they are called "heroes"
Once they come home we're supposed to "thank them for their service"
Then what? They get cast out like yesterday's newspaper and they're on their own. No more hero, no more gratitude, no more nothing.
It's a national disgrace.

And we wonder why our society is so screwed up.

We continually start wars to support the elite and their military-industrial complex; we send our sons (and now, daughters) off to fight these wars and to be killed, maimed and emotionally destroyed; we give them a fake leg or a pat on the back and send them off to "resume" their lives as if everything will take care of itself. Then we find that all of these brave folks who "served their country" (i.e., were lied to about the US being attacked and needing to protect our security by fighting over there [this would apply to Viet Nam as well as Iraq], etc.) do not have all the resources they need to deal with their infirmities, whatever they may be. Then these diminished (mostly) men come home and go back to their families and places of work and can't cope - they leave their families, or worse yet, beat their wives and abuse their children, cause havoc in their work places, turn to drugs to make the pain go away, and some turn to crime to support their habits. Eventually, as we see, many end up on the streets - homeless dregs of a very rotten society.

This is a very long, ongoing, sad story. We should all be ashamed. Then we should act, by demanding that our veterans are cared for properly. Then we should act by impeaching Cheney and Bush and the rest of their criminal administration. Then we should act to find real leaders somewhere in our midst to ensure that America will no longer be a war-mongering country and so our sons and daughters will no longer be sacrificed in far away countries to appease the greed and hubris of a very small, elite group of sociopathic freaks.

There is a problem with these statistics. It is a problem that is inherent with any attempt to count homeless people. Simply stated it is impossible to to count them all; here's why:

1. It is embarrassing to be homeless. People who are easily identifiable as being homeless become "invisible." People pretend not to see them for fear they will be asked for help. Living on the streets among so many people who refuse to acknowledge you has an incredibly devistating affect on your psyche. I have known several homless people who did everything they could to appear to be anything but homeless. I even knew a man who slept standing up in a phone booth so he would not wrinkle his suit.

2. It is dangerous to be homeless. Besides being looked down upon and occasionally chased out of a warm/cool place that is public and accessible to everyone else homeless people are often mugged, robbed and every once in a while set on fire for sport or because the firestarter somehow blames the homless person for the nations ills. (Go figure.) As a result most homeless people who do not spend the nights in shelters and can not find a public place to sleep that is safe to sleep look for more elusive locations; abandoned buildings, wooded areas, under bridges and even sewer systems and in New York and elsewhere the subway tunnels.

3. Many people are homeless but staying with a friend or relative temporarily. If their situation does not get better it usually ends up with these arraingements falling apart. (Imagine a relative coming to live with you indefinetly.)

The shelters i worked in always had a 33% or higher veteran occupancy rate. I see no evidence for this number dropping. I can only believe these stats have been fudged.

pissed off patricia @ 15:

Is this the way a country treats its "heroes"?
As long as they are serving they are called "heroes"
Once they come home we're supposed to "thank them for their service"
Then what? They get cast out like yesterday's newspaper and they're on their own. No more hero, no more gratitude, no more nothing.
It's a national disgrace.

But aren't these the "phony soldiers" Limpballs referred to?
I am so ashamed of my country...scratch that...I'm so PISSED at the assholes who are destroying this country....GAH!!!

This has been a problem for a long long time unfortunately. Its probably one of our saddest failures as a society. We claim to support our troops, we claim to look up to them... we even call them heroes (several military folks have told me not to call them that actually; because to them it was a duty - but I digress)...

But we don't provide a damn thing for them. We pay them a pittance to risk their lives. We don't help them with the trauma of war, physical or mental; and we even let people lose their homes after they fought and bled for their country!

I hate this war - but more than I hate this war, I love our soldiers. As I said, this has been going on for a long time, homelessness among veterans is not new, unfortunately, but its one of the things that gets me worked up the fastest.

Soldiers who are homeless must be phony soldiers. Those soldiers who complain about poor VA healthcare are phony also.

Rush told me so.

Rudy says ship these phony soldiers to Gitmo.

Mitt Romney says we should double the size of Gitmo to accommodate all these phony soldiers.

Pat Robertson says we should assassinate these phony soldiers.

Of course homeless activists never lie.

In the early '80s Mitch Snyder, the late founder of the Center for Creative Non-Violence, an advocacy group in Washington, claimed that there were 3 million homeless in America on any given night. He later admitted that he'd made up the figure.

Paul L. @ 27:

Of course homeless activists never lie.

In the early '80s Mitch Snyder, the late founder of the Center for Creative Non-Violence, an advocacy group in Washington, claimed that there were 3 million homeless in America on any given night. He later admitted that he'd made up the figure.

It is the Community for Creative Non Violence. I was part of this group off and on for twenty years. I was part of the original counting of the homeless across the country which was done, admitedly, unscientically. We contacted every shelter in the country by phone and asked them how many people stayed in their shelters each night and extrapolated.

Mitch commited suicide in July, 1990 and was suffering from a lot of self destructive behavior prior to this. I think this statement he made retracting these figures was part of that behavior.

There's about 200,000 homeless Vietnam vets. Also, as many Vietnam vets have now committed suicide as died in the war itself. I can't imagine what toll the current wars will take on our veterans, what with the longer tours of duty and continued lack of care upon their return home. Everytime I hear Bush say "support the troops" I want to puke.

10 Chicago Joe Says: Thank you, proud courageous warriors, for risking life and limb to allow freedom and democracy ring - we are forever grateful…………………………oh, the cameras are off? Fuck off, Private, and go find yourself a cardboard box.

And vote Republican - early and often!

Is that a bush quote?

Paul L. @ 27:

Of course homeless activists never lie.

In the early '80s Mitch Snyder, the late founder of the Center for Creative Non-Violence, an advocacy group in Washington, claimed that there were 3 million homeless in America on any given night. He later admitted that he'd made up the figure.

Among other mistated facts in the article Mitch did not "found" the Community for Creative Non Violence. It came out of a discussion group about the War in Vietnam at George Washington University in 1970. Mitch joined the group in 1973.

Beyond the yellow ribbons

Both the Veterans Administration and private veterans service organizations are already stretched, providing services for veterans of previous conflicts. For instance, while an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them.

"You can have all of the yellow ribbons on cars that say 'Support Our Troops' that you want, but it's when they take off the uniform and transition back to civilian life that they need support the most," says Linda Boone, executive director of The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

After the Vietnam conflict, it was nine to 12 years before veterans began showing up at homeless shelters in large numbers. In part, that's because the trauma they experienced during combat took time to surface, according to one Vietnam veteran who's now a service provider. Doctors refer to the phenomenon as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Here is ONE veteran who happened to be a friend of mine.

xoites defends Constitution @ 38:

Paul L. @ 36:

There’s about 200,000 homeless Vietnam vets

Or who claim to be Vietnam vets.
See The Wall Within
8.2 million
Number of Vietnam-era veterans. Vietnam veterans account for more than 3-in-10 veterans, the largest share of any period of service. The next largest share of wartime veterans, 4.4 million or nearly 2-in-10, served during World War II. (From the upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2004-2005.)

You want to talk about numbers, that's great.

But i have a question.

Why is there one veteran on the street? Why is there one child on the street?

Is having two million people on the streets all that much better than having two point one million?

Whoa...damn good point!!!

One of the bushite crowds favorite thing for years has been to piss and shit on the troops. Oh sure they'll talk on and on about how they support the troops but when it comes to actual support not so much.

Here's an interesting approach to the poor and homeless.

I'm surprised the Publicans haven't tried it.

The Burning of the Sick and Poor
Vlad Dracula was very concerned that all his subjects work and contribute to the common welfare. He once notice that the poor, vagrants, beggars and cripples had become very numerous in his land. Consequently, he issued an invitation to all the poor and sick in Wallachia to come to Tirgoviste for a great feast, claiming that no one should go hungry in his land. As the poor and crippled arrived in the city they were ushered into a great hall where a fabulous feast was prepared for them. The guests ate and drank late into the night. Vlad himself then made an appearance and asked them, "What else do you desire? Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in this world?" When they responded positively Vlad ordered the hall boarded up and set on fire. None escaped the flames. Vlad explained his action to the boyars by claiming that he did this "in order that they represent no further burden to other men, and that no one will be poor in my realm."

Chicago Joe @ 22:

No, it sounds like you got off.

Uhhhhhhh, no...the only ones "getting off" on the whole debacle of how this government treats members of its military AFTER their service expires is the government itself.

Use, abuse, discard - that's exactly how each of them are treated. And I blame not only this administration, but administrations going back to Nixon. It was almost like a "You fuck with us, we'll fuck with you." scenario. And it still goes on today.

That goes back further than Nixon. Does thebonus Army ring a bell? What about the untold veterans of WWII who happened to also be of the black/latino/native American persuasion that were swept under the rug just after they were done fighting for someone else's freedom? It seems that treating our veterans like shit is as American as apple pie.

What I am at a loss is how on earth, with such a track record on taking care of its own... the Army never seems to run out of volunteers to get their life screwed up. Like Lennon said: What if there was a war and no one showed up?

xoites defends Constitution @ 19:

There is a problem with these statistics. It is a problem that is inherent with any attempt to count homeless people. Simply stated it is impossible to to count them all; here's why:

The shelters i worked in always had a 33% or higher veteran occupancy rate. I see no evidence for this number dropping. I can only believe these stats have been fudged.

Now did they show a DD214 to you or did they SAY they were veterans. Even this number of 25% seems awfully high especially from my experience seeing people leaving Army. The Bush boys have treated the military like their own GI Joe action playset but I think this number may have been "tweaked". (The divorce statistic has to be true. I've seen a quite a few divorces on my last deployment. Guys will spend their leave moving his stuff out of his houseA)

ysbaddaden @ 45:

Here's an interesting approach to the poor and homeless.

I'm surprised the Publicans haven't tried it.

The Burning of the Sick and Poor
Vlad Dracula was very concerned that all his subjects work and contribute to the common welfare. He once notice that the poor, vagrants, beggars and cripples had become very numerous in his land. Consequently, he issued an invitation to all the poor and sick in Wallachia to come to Tirgoviste for a great feast, claiming that no one should go hungry in his land. As the poor and crippled arrived in the city they were ushered into a great hall where a fabulous feast was prepared for them. The guests ate and drank late into the night. Vlad himself then made an appearance and asked them, "What else do you desire? Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in this world?" When they responded positively Vlad ordered the hall boarded up and set on fire. None escaped the flames. Vlad explained his action to the boyars by claiming that he did this "in order that they represent no further burden to other men, and that no one will be poor in my realm."

Well, Good old Vlad had to provide for that whole banquet, and that costs money. Ergo GOPers would never go for that. Plus it requires manual labour, boarding up a whole hall and all... that is hard work. It is easier to keep them out of sight and out of mind, takes no effort from their part!

I've a client whose love interest is back from Iraq almost two years. Only she can't see him because his crippling panic attacks keep him in his room drinking just about every day.
He is a pilot who flew the bush cabal (and cargo flights) all over the ME and Germany.
He was promoted twice to lieutenant after being refused a return home from tour twice.
He finally returned to the u.s. with a tube draining his chest dec. '05 and recovered at his mother's home for 2 months, not a military hospital.
He now works at the Pentagon in a cubicle. He refuses treatment because, he says, he could lose his position. So he sweats it out, life between a cubicle and his room.
Too emotionally crippled to form a relationship.

Before getting into this mess, we were warned that it might create 10,000 bin Ladens. The bigger threat is from the 10,000 McVeighs.

Sapper @ 49:

xoites defends Constitution @ 19:

There is a problem with these statistics. It is a problem that is inherent with any attempt to count homeless people. Simply stated it is impossible to to count them all; here's why:

The shelters i worked in always had a 33% or higher veteran occupancy rate. I see no evidence for this number dropping. I can only believe these stats have been fudged.

Now did they show a DD214 to you or did they SAY they were veterans. Even this number of 25% seems awfully high especially from my experience seeing people leaving Army. The Bush boys have treated the military like their own GI Joe action playset but I think this number may have been "tweaked". (The divorce statistic has to be true. I've seen a quite a few divorces on my last deployment. Guys will spend their leave moving his stuff out of his houseA)

Many recieved disability checks (not enough to house themselves with) others spent their time fighting with the VA. When you have a 1400 bed shelter with so many veterans there is little chance of pretending to be a Vet, the other vets would have figured it out.

Gotugye @ 54:

Perhaps it's time to begin organizing the homeless vets into a moral and physical force that will help wrest power from a corrupt and privileged elite that have betrayed the people.

Its a nice idea, but people don't end up on the street because they are functioning on all cylinders. The problems they are facing are their number one priority. Many have been and are active in protesting their plight and some write and speak. This is not a simple matter to overcome. Why don't think about organizing the entire society instead?

the rightie bloggers don't care about the vets. They only care about the boom boom instant gratification

kevin @ 12:

the sad reality is how the "Rush Limbo" crowd thinks most of them are "phony soldiers". The movie characters of John Wayne and Co never had any of these problems. "They" are the real soldiers who do their duty and follow orders and are "real men". Therefor these "weaklings" don't deserve any thought or caring. The army is forced to lower the bar to meet recruitment goals. Then when something happens the injured soldier is denied benefits because of a "pre-existing condition".
Any person brave enough to volunteer and serve, then injured during their time of duty should be offered assistance for as long as they need it.

I had always thought Earthlings had the capacity to feel EMPATHY.

This information will be included in my report to my homeworld.

Transmission ended

Wasn't it said, "following orders" isn't an acceptable excuse?

Why cant they pick themselves up by their BOOTSTRAPS?

All they want is a handout... and my tax money!

CUT WELFARE... CUT SOCIAL SERVICES... CUT TAXES!!

PAY THE PENTAGON WHAT EVER THEY WANT!!

PAY THE DEA AND THE PHARMA-PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX WHAT EVER THEY WANT!!

FUCK THE POOR!!! THEY ARE POOR CUZ GAWD WANTS EM THAT WAY!!!!

I am sure they are not even really Veterans... At least not as much of a WAR HERO ...NOT LIKE REAL AMERICAN WARRIORS! .. Like Ted Nugent, Bill O'Rielly, Sean "A-rab eater" Hannity, George "Greatest Prezident Ever!" Bush, Ronnie "Nazi Killer" Reagun, Dick "Caged Animal Shooting" Cheney, and just about any other Anti-Commie, Librul Hatin, Arab Slaying, God Luvin, Red, Wriech, n Blue blooded patriotic Amarikan you can name!!

GET A BRAIN MORANS!!

(wow... even attempting that consciousness for a satirical goof sucks the brains right out of you!--)

john wayne?

Another repug fraud.

61 jr Says: the rightie bloggers don’t care about the vets. They only care about the boom boom instant gratification

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdaDZslJavA

When I came home from Vietnam I was fortunate that I was able to come home to a stable environment. That is one of the keys in helping someone who has seen the horrors of war to return to normalicy. But we Americans have never really cared about vets once the glory of war is over. We will wave from the overpasses, raise the flag and applaud at parades but that's about it. Heaven forbid if we are asked to increase our taxes to pay for their rehabilitation. I am not a fan of this administration and Lord knows they have done more to damage the VA but it is really all of us. It's our problem and we need to address it.
grumpyoldvet | 11.08.07 - 2:54 pm | #

Like with the unborn the right has no use for children once they are born, so it is with the US soldiers. When they're fighting they are heroes, when they come back you hear nothing from the right about helping out these heroes. They're not useful to them anymore.

This is what Prisoner of Starvation has to say about your "newsflash" :
Disposable Heroes

By Pham Binh
(From ISR Issue #55 November–December 2007) http://www.isreview.org/issues/55/veterans.shtml

The Washington Post exposé last February of conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center unmasked an ugly reality: the government these injured veterans fought, bled, and killed for does not give a damn about them. The articles that sparked the political firestorm[1] revealed that medicated amputees suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were put in charge of other injured soldiers even though their problems made them incapable of caring for themselves much less for anyone else; that outpatients were warehoused in rat-infested decrepit buildings; that medical paperwork was routinely lost; and that veterans and their families received no help, guidance, or counseling from hospital staff. The hospital lost track of patients, one of whom died of alcohol poisoning, while another was killed in a drunk-driving accident after wandering out of the facility. No wonder former Secretary of the Army Togo West Jr. decried the “virtually incomprehensible” inattention to building maintenance and “almost palpable disdain” for the welfare of injured troops when he released the findings of his investigation of Walter Reed ordered by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.[2]

Today’s veterans are the latest victims of the U.S. government’s oldest tradition—betraying those who fought for it. Although every generation of veterans has been betrayed since the U.S. won its independence from Britain, this article will examine only some of the most notable examples.

The Revolutionaries Betrayed

Contrary to what we are taught in school, the nation created by the American Revolution was not an idyllic democratic republic free of class conflict. In fact, post-colonial America was rife with struggle, and veterans of the Revolutionary war played a key role in it.

The Continental Army that fought the British reflected the class structure of America at the time: the rank-and-file were poor farmers and urban laborers while their officers were wealthy merchants and/or slave-owners. This was no accident. For example, when the state of Connecticut enacted a draft for all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty, it exempted government officials, ministers, Yale students and faculty, and anyone who could pay five pounds.[3] As the war dragged on, mutinies and rebellions became more common, triggered by abusive officers and failure to pay the troops on time or in full.

Upon being discharged, troops were given stubs for future payment instead of cash, and many had accumulated large debts while they were away from their farms fighting. Local courts seized the land of farmers who were unable to pay their debts, triggering Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786. Revolutionary war veterans Daniel Shay and Luke Day organized thousands of local farmers into squads and companies and led armed marches to local courthouses to prevent judges from ruling against them. The local militia defied the orders of the sheriff and sided with the rebels, who were their friends and neighbors. In Rhode Island, debtors seized the legislature and began issuing paper money to pay their debts. In New Hampshire, rebels surrounded the state legislature and asked that their taxes be returned and paper money issued; they dispersed only after being threatened with force...

[Edited for length, Fair Use. Just to keep within Fair Use parameters, we can't allow whole articles to be posted. It's a great article, and I urge people to read it in its entirety at the link supplied]