Tag: veterans

For over forty years now whenever I hear the loud demands, especially by the elected representatives of the people, for tax cuts my first thought has always been the long underfunded Veterans Administration and related to our wars of choice, second is the ever growing, with no objection, defense budgets year to year!

And yes I do realize there are ‘Gold Star Children’ who have lost Mothers, especially in these two long conflicts, not minimizing the fact that many of the women soldiers killed were possibly Mothers as they all were Daughters, Sisters or Nieces and Aunts, the greater numbers killed still in war are male.

CBS sought out a message with meaning for Fathers Day, that aired June 17 2011, and I totally agree with the one they found which among many messages it should send ties our long war of choice, Vietnam where this Country said it would remember the lessons of, to both current wars of choice, Afghanistan and Iraq, lessons forgotten five minutes after Vietnam and so many DeJa-Vu’s of then repeated with many enhanced and coming on faster.

And now we’re over a decade of oh so many lessons not learned and in not one but two theaters of with a third front being bombed and invaded right next door to one of the two and joined with NATO in bombing another that the previous administration had brought the leader of back into the fold after years of calling him a terrorists supporter and supporting terrorists criminal acts!

One of the many problems with this extremely slow growth is the jobs being created are more towards the lower wage so called service sector, that sector that doesn’t really produce a product but the workers try and still give a quality job while getting low wages and few benefits and seek respect for what they do.

I’m not going to add anything except this to what I’m posting below, we’ve got a decade plus of living the reality while also no mention of the Country demanding ‘Sacrifice’ for what they readily support,

The Country doesn’t even understand the damage they’ve created with the actions of these two now long running occupations and the hate rhetoric towards others, as a group, that still continues!

<——- Remember these? They were a big joke and joy for a group still calling themselves republicans and happened as the Country were sending Military Troops into war once again, wars that still continue, and never a real apology for their joke. I’ll bet some of them still have some handy to be used and laughed about when their need arises to do so as they wave the flag and condemn others who don’t agree with them. Oh and while they seem to get joy about Soldiers being wounded in our wars and awarded the “Purple Heart” these were pointed directly at a brother In-Country Vietnam Navy Veteran, my tour there, as a Navy GunnersMate 3rd, was my last year of my four ’70-’71.

Or how about the many forms of these ——->

Till they quickly blew off the SUV’s and other vehicles never to be replaced, only ones you’ll see now are the very rare bumper stickers that only weather will remove after they fade out to much effort needed to remove by the owners.

Or who can forget these ——–><——–, that any who wore suits, especially representatives hired by the people, if they didn’t wear were called unpatriotic, unsupportive of our soldiers and veterans, even enemy sympathisers and much more, why the FOX couldn’t stop supposedly reporting on these traders of the U.S. and {non}Americans.

In the previous election did anyone hear any mention by the so called great movement of royally pissed off americans, corporate sponsored and corporate media hyped, still, TEA Party and their many talking heads as to any Demands for Finally ‘Sacrificing’ as Soldiers are still sent into two conflicts, their families waiting for their return, and those who survive come back as Veterans of their Military Service to the Country. I didn’t, all I heard once again were ‘tax cuts’ which every time I’ve heard these last some forty years, as a Veterans Advocate and Activist, says the Country doesn’t want to pony up for the results of it’s Wars and our brother and sister veterans will continue facing an underfunded Veterans Administration and be in constant catch up mode which in the long run constantly costs more to give what is owed and promised. One of the results of that around the country, contributing to as well is the collapsed economy from failed economic and business practices the past thirty years, has been the cutting back or shutting down of local Veterans offices that help the millions of Veterans coop with the system and the paperwork etc. needed to get that promised help as it took the past four years to finally start not only catching up with what wasn’t done but bring the VA into the 21st century.

So will I and many many Veterans Senator Murray, so will we!

The recent past is still fresh in the minds, the 108th and 109th Congresses and still ongoing two Wars of Choice, the ‘purple heart bandages’, the ‘magnetic ribbons’ {till they blew off} and lapel flag pins as well as the hate rhetoric which continues. The total lack of Demanding ‘Sacrifice’ from the Country especially in the just completed political campaign season as well as since the start of the 112th Congress. We will be watching, especially, the House, and your Senate colleagues “like a hawk” as well, we already started.  

A Decade Later, a Year in the making. What should have been demanded by the Country right at the beginning of that destructive decade of lies, failed policy and increasing the threat to National Security as well as destroying our place of leadership on many issues on the World Stage. The Soldiers sent, over and over, and their Families are getting Support from across this Administration, this added to what the DoD and Veterans Administration have been doing, finally, these past couple of years.  

Retired Capt USAF, Myles Spicer, USAF 1954-57 retired from reserves, lays out the long over due ‘Support’ for those we send into occupations theaters and then forget about. The so called (T)’s {oh the fun with the ‘purple heart bandages’ as the wars raged}, once long ago (R)’s and even conservative, won’t like this, they want but don’t want to pay for, and not just war, as most of them were the ones that remained silent for over a decade, still ongoing silence, as to Real Support but very loud as to support of the failed policies and related lies and costs.