On my left was the cannon fodder going up; on my right was the cannon fodder coming back. ~ WWI ambulance driverWhenever I see one of those "Support the Troops" magnets on the back of someone's big-ass SUV or Lincoln Town Car I want to grab them by the throat and shout "Hypocrite!" into their fat, puffy faces. No class of American citizens is more sorely neglected than her troops. Taught to kill and die for God and Country, when they cease to be of use in that service they are thrown away with less care than an empty water bottle. That would be littering but no thought is given to littering the nation with the wasted lives of her veterans.
All wars are wars among thieves who are too cowardly to fight and who therefore induce the young manhood of the whole world to do the fighting for them. ~ Emma Goldman
The VA's backlog of disability payments is between 400,000 and 600,000, with delays of up to 177 days to process an initial claim and an average of 657 days to process an appeal. ~ Law.com, July 24, 2007That is a half-million disabled soldiers thrown out onto the street to wait for six months for the help they had been promised, if they are lucky. Some have family and friends who can supply support. Too many others are simply discarded like garbage, forced to sleep in bushes and beg for quarters as a reward for serving their country. But, it is a question of fiscal responsibility. Many of these veterans die of exposure, suicide, or drug overdoses before any disability checks are issued, thereby saving the government millions of dollars.
Good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they’ll fill a pit as well as better [men]... ~ William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1For the Republicans in power, the lives of these men are meaningless. To call them pawns would be to overestimate their value. A chess player regrets the loss of a pawn. In fairness, the United States of George Bush is not alone in the horrendous treatment of her returning soldiers.
In England, a soldier who lost a leg in the Iraq War is still waiting after three years for disability payments. The government has decided to kick him out of military housing, over Christmas no less. Penniless, thanks to a government that refuses to compensate him for his loss in service to his country, this crippled man and his family will be forced to survive winter as one of England's homeless (Source).
You're going to make a lovely little motherTo God's White House Warriors, this is all a woman's womb is worth. Breeding fodder for the next war.
You're going to make a hunk of cannon fodder
That's what your belly's for. ~ Bertolt Brecht, Abortion is Illegal
4 comments:
I thought the Democrats were in power.
They didn't seem to have any trouble passing a pork loaded water bill over the Presidents veto.
Maybe their hearts just aren't into the veteran thing as much as they are into passing out other people's money where it will do them some good.
And the Rs are no better.
let's see, the water bill votes came from Republicans and Democrats didn't they?
view from the Far North
Simon, dear boy, remember that the Chief Administrative Officer for the country is one George W. Bush (R-GIT). It is the Administration that is responsible for administrating (or failing to administer) veteran's benefits. One would think, after seven years in office, if Bush and his cronies had any interest in "Supporting the Troops" we might have seen it. There is ample evidence (Remember Walter Reed?) that Bush only cares about war; he doesn't give a rat's ass for the men fighting it.
How do you propose the President should be spending money that Congress did not appropriate? If Congress was serious they would raise the budget. Benefits get denied to keep the agency within budget.
Don't we have a separation of powers thingy here?
In any case governments are never efficient and it has nothing to do with Bush.
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