Tuesday, August 12, 2003

True Patriots will support our soldiers, not abandon them The phoniness and hypocrisy of the Bush crowd is never more sharply displayed than in their willingness to wrap themselves in patriotic flight suits and military trappings, while leaving our actual soldiers stranded and groveling in the dirt.   There is an increasing amount of anger building in the military community over the treatment of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a growing network of families communicating with each other and speaking out.   This is a very important development in the campaign against George Bush and his phony Americanism, and it needs to be picked up on by the Dean campaign, and all of us who knew the war in Iraq was deceitful and unnecessary.   We all are committed to the dignity, well being, economic security, and health of those who volunteer for the armed forces, and should be appalled when our government abuses them for political ends “to defend Dick Cheney's stock portfolio, or Donald Rumsfeld's massive ego” as one mother of a dead soldier put it.     Here is a roundup of some recent items:   The Wall St. Journal ran a front page story today [subscription] about a soldier seriously injured in Afghanistan, discharged from the Army with disabilities, who is then paid $731 dollars per month.   Relatives set him and his wife up on a roadside stand selling shoes, but he was too disabled even to do this, sometimes falling over or having seizures.   Only once the Journal began making inquiries to the Veterans Administration about this particular case did he suddenly receive special treatment, the army quickly reviewed his disability situation, and then increased his payments to $2900 per month.  The Journal says:  "The roughly 175,000 military personnel who have served in the war against terror have not begun to apply for VA services in big numbers. But about 50,000 of them will file disability claims in coming years, if the 30% rate of VA utilization after the Gulf War is any guide." "That will place added burdens on a system that has been swamped for years. The average wait to get a medical appointment with the VA is seven months, according to a recent survey by the American Legion. There's a backlog of 280,000 veterans awaiting a disability rating, which determines how much they should receive in benefits; 108,000 veterans are waiting to hear back on appeals of rating decisions." How many others are suffering alone, with no help from their government, who are not the subject of reporter's inquiries?  While being shortchanged on health care and benefits by the administration, who is prepared to love the soldiers going into battle, but to discard them afterwards, more and more military personnel and families are emailing and speaking out about their situation in Iraq.   Today, the army announced that all tours of duty in Iraq would now be extended to one year.  What happened to all the promises made to soldiers that the “quickest way home was through Baghdad”.   Also the Guardian in the UK did a fine write up of soldiers emailing friends and family about their intolerable situation.     A final web site worth looking at is that of  David Hackworth on which the Guardian story was partly based,  a retired decorated colonel , who collects a lot of email from soldiers in Iraq.   There is a movement in America not to take this anymore:  whether you are a GI sweltering in 120 degree heat, while your CO lives in one of Saddam’s air conditioned palaces, or you are an unemployed worker, who had one of the millions of jobs lost under the Bush administration, or if you are an educator tired of seeing your school’s budget drained away by reckless fiscal policy in Washington to provide tax cuts to the richest 1%.    This movement needs to connect with military families, and we all need to be aware of their situation as victims of the “worst government in America in 200 years.” 4:11:56 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2003 Toby Sackton. Last update: 9/27/2003; 4:51:43 PM.