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kpete

(71,900 posts)
Mon May 30, 2016, 06:09 PM May 2016

Memorial Day Crocodile Tears from Those Who Create Wars

About 50,000 of the homeless on any given night are veterans, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Overall, more than 150,000 veterans are homeless during the year. The reasons for veterans being homeless are because of “extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income and access to health care . . . lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, which are compounded by a lack of family and social support networks,” according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. Under the Obama administration, which has focused upon assisting veterans, the number of homeless veterans on any given night has come down from about 80,000 six years ago, but even a few dozen homeless veterans are far too many.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans won’t be able to march in Memorial Day parades, or stand and salute the flag. They don’t have limbs, their muscles have atrophied because of extensive bed confinement, or they have other debilitating illnesses. About 2.2 million American veterans were injured during their service; about 1.7 million of them were wounded in combat, according to a Pew Research Center summary and analysis. About 200,000 military personnel who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder of have major depression, according to a study done by the Rand Corp. About 285,000 of the veterans of America’s most recent wars have suffered from traumatic brain injury. Among other injuries, according to the VA are chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia, hearing difficulties, hepatitis, malaria, memory loss, migraines, sleep disorders and tuberculosis.

More than 120,000 Americans won’t celebrate Memorial Day; they died in combat during the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq/Afghanistan wars.

During this three-day weekend, Americans will grill steaks, burgers, and hot dogs; they will travel to relatives’ or friends’ houses, or take mini-vacations. The nation’s politicians—from small town council members to presidential candidates—will go from picnic to picnic, from rally to rally, and deliver poignant speeches about how much they care about the veterans who were injured or died for their country, and how much veterans mean to the country, while delivering the underlying message to vote for them in the coming election.

But, it is these politicians who, without hesitation, will quickly send American youth into war, and claim that killing people a half-world away somehow protects American citizens. And once Americans are in combat, these same politicians will complain about the cost of war, and vote against providing adequate funds for decent medical and psychological treatment for those who come home damaged.



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http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/walter-brasch/67430/memorial-day-crocodile-tears-from-those-who-create-wars
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Memorial Day Crocodile Tears from Those Who Create Wars (Original Post) kpete May 2016 OP
I agree and nothing pisses me off more than the people who wave the flag will not support the vetera hollysmom May 2016 #1
Don Quixote from Gordon Lightfoot said it best: Feeling the Bern May 2016 #23
decades ago I had neighbors who would be tea partiers now but they are both dead hollysmom May 2016 #29
I want to give a shame shout-out to those that profit from wars, their puppet politicians, and the rhett o rick May 2016 #2
Amen to that! Plucketeer May 2016 #18
I've been saying that for years. Feeling the Bern May 2016 #26
This message was self-deleted by its author cyberpj May 2016 #3
And he has the media empire to keep him out of trouble and out of the news. Rex May 2016 #4
I remember and I will never forget! Silver_Witch May 2016 #5
Yes, it's so reprehensible, so stomach turning, so vomit inducing. bjo59 May 2016 #6
Veterans... Dont call me Shirley May 2016 #7
We should have a new law in this country democrank May 2016 #8
Thanks for This One Kpete McKim May 2016 #9
and the draft dodgers malaise May 2016 #10
K&R thanks kpete, from a Vietnam veteran Jeffersons Ghost May 2016 #11
WAR--it's America's biggest industry and makes the very rich richer. It fucks over everyone valerief May 2016 #12
It's a travesty we needed to stop decades ago Hydra May 2016 #13
A wise person on DU once said. . . Goldfish May 2016 #14
In keeping with the theme of this post WHEN CRABS ROAR May 2016 #15
Kicked and recommended. Uncle Joe May 2016 #16
Working with a homeless vet right now... Buddyblazon May 2016 #17
Thank you for sharing that. retrowire May 2016 #21
thank you for sharing your story LittleGirl May 2016 #32
Thanks for interjecting some reality into the corporate flag waving extravaganza. jalan48 May 2016 #19
Neither of the prospective nominees, either Dem or Rep, served a day in the miliary Stryst May 2016 #20
Drumpf weighs in DesertRat May 2016 #22
Seeing Bush's face makes me want to punch my computer screen Feeling the Bern May 2016 #25
Agreed. nt DesertRat May 2016 #28
We treat our veterans, teachers, nurses and minimum wage employees worse than shit on the bottom of Feeling the Bern May 2016 #24
Needed to be said here at DU. Thanbks for posting this. KPN May 2016 #27
Recall how gladly we sent troops into Iraq in 2003---all the fanfare and flag waving. McCamy Taylor May 2016 #30
The republican draft dodging hall of shame. Elwood P Dowd May 2016 #31
thank you for reprinting that obscene little list of hypocrits. niyad May 2016 #35
This should be a post of its own. geardaddy May 2016 #36
Okay, I get it and all awoke_in_2003 May 2016 #33
k and r niyad May 2016 #34

hollysmom

(5,946 posts)
1. I agree and nothing pisses me off more than the people who wave the flag will not support the vetera
Mon May 30, 2016, 06:29 PM
May 2016

at home where they need it.

not to mention will not support reform for the twisted military management for the women who have been raped on duty.
Thousands Of Sexual Assault Victims In The Military Have Been Denied Veteran Health Care

 

Feeling the Bern

(3,839 posts)
23. Don Quixote from Gordon Lightfoot said it best:
Tue May 31, 2016, 11:02 AM
May 2016

"See the soldier with his gun who must be dead to be admired."

Love the soldier, hate the veteran
Love America, hate Americans.

hollysmom

(5,946 posts)
29. decades ago I had neighbors who would be tea partiers now but they are both dead
Tue May 31, 2016, 12:00 PM
May 2016

anyway I had a flag on my porch under the roof, and they said I should hang my flag out more,but under the roof I could turn on the light if I left it out at night so it would not be in the dark. They had their flag pole screwed to their porch column and left their flg out 24 7. I can't tell you how many times I told them the flag can not be flown in the dark, but nothing and that it should not be out in the rain, the punch line of this is - they left their flag out in the rain and it got so heavy the pole started to bend and the flag was dragging in the mud. One day I just took it off and washed it. It took about 2 weeks for them to notice it was gone and then they were all "someone stole my flag" and I brought it over and explained once again the rules of displaying a flag. We were friends, but that fell on deaf ears, they left it out again and I gave up. I was thinking of reporting them to a boy scout troop or something,, but they sold their house and moved. They had home owner rules in their new house complex and no more flag displaying.
that is just flag wavers who know nothing about the flag is like soldier admirers who know nothing about veterans.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
2. I want to give a shame shout-out to those that profit from wars, their puppet politicians, and the
Mon May 30, 2016, 06:34 PM
May 2016

many enablers. The Left is against war for profits while somehow the so-called moderate centrists seem to be ok with them. The Left believe those that profits from wars should share their profits to help care for the troops and families were ruined by war. Of course the centrists disparage the Left calling us ideologues. This primary is a battle between the Left and the other side that like to call themselves centrists because it sounds better than Republicon Lite.

 

Plucketeer

(12,882 posts)
18. Amen to that!
Tue May 31, 2016, 09:43 AM
May 2016

And let's not forget how the offspring of these war enablers seem to magically elude time in a uniform.

 

Feeling the Bern

(3,839 posts)
26. I've been saying that for years.
Tue May 31, 2016, 11:07 AM
May 2016

DLC Triangulators love war. Hell, one of them is running for president, voted for a war of choice and called it a business.

Now, she wants to put troops in Libya and Syria. When is enough enough?

I support troops so much I want them home fucking their spouses or significant others, not getting fucked by their bought off, corrupt and bloodthirsty government.

But I'm just a wacky peacenik who doesn't understand foreign policy.

Response to kpete (Original post)

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
4. And he has the media empire to keep him out of trouble and out of the news.
Mon May 30, 2016, 06:41 PM
May 2016

The ones that never gave, seem to think they can call all the shots without any repercussions.

 

Silver_Witch

(1,820 posts)
5. I remember and I will never forget!
Mon May 30, 2016, 06:42 PM
May 2016


I never celebrate this day, no sales, no picnics. I spend the day working and thinking of those who have come before me and not lived to enjoy the day and those who come behind me who will be trapped in the United States never ending wars. 15 years and counting on this latest "War On Terror".

I would say we are losing....but it is our children who are losing.

democrank

(11,052 posts)
8. We should have a new law in this country
Mon May 30, 2016, 08:07 PM
May 2016

If you`re a politician who votes for or crusades for a war that sends other people`s loved ones to be killed or maimed, you can not march (smiling and waving) in a Memorial Day or Veteran`s Day parade. Instead, you`re required to work those day at a VA hospital.

Many VA hospitals are understaffed. I`ve seen it with my own eyes a zillion times. There are bed pans to empty, dressings to be changed, night sweat terrors to be sat through, artificial body parts to be attached, paralyzed veterans to be turned, pain medicine to be administered, people to be spoon-fed. That`s what these politicians need to be doing on Memorial Day and Veteran`s Day.

McKim

(2,412 posts)
9. Thanks for This One Kpete
Mon May 30, 2016, 08:32 PM
May 2016

Thank you for this. My brother in law died in Vietnam for a lie. The hoopla and fireworks and ceremonies of Memorial Day are a smiley face on the crime of war.

valerief

(53,235 posts)
12. WAR--it's America's biggest industry and makes the very rich richer. It fucks over everyone
Mon May 30, 2016, 08:43 PM
May 2016

else. But everyone else doesn't matter.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
13. It's a travesty we needed to stop decades ago
Mon May 30, 2016, 08:51 PM
May 2016

No veteran should be homeless or destitute when the 1% hold trillions in their hands. Nobody should, but veterans least of all.

Support the veterans we have hurt, and create no more.

Goldfish

(71 posts)
14. A wise person on DU once said. . .
Mon May 30, 2016, 08:56 PM
May 2016

"Soldiers are rich men's toys." I don't know who it was, but I have never forgotten this.
So when I heard Bernie say "War should always be the last resort, not the first." I knew
he was the candidate that I will give my wholehearted support to.

WHEN CRABS ROAR

(3,813 posts)
15. In keeping with the theme of this post
Mon May 30, 2016, 09:15 PM
May 2016

Remember the ones that died, they didn't give their lives, their lives were taken.

 

Buddyblazon

(3,014 posts)
17. Working with a homeless vet right now...
Tue May 31, 2016, 09:08 AM
May 2016

He is like the Rainman of cannabis growers. Has taught me much. Let him stay on my couch for a couple months. We got him into a home. He comes by several times a week and garden together. The garden is definitely where he is meant to be. For his time, he takes cannabis with him and his fellow vets at the home. Says they're really appreciative as cannabis seems to do the best overall for all of them for their myriad of maladies...from pain and insomnia to PTSD and anxiety/depression.

And the only acceptable politicians in this vets eyes are Warren and Sanders. Talks for hours about sanders as we farm. Believes sanders is the only politician to truly be interested in the plight of vets. Guy gets worked up to tears over the crap he's been put through by a system designed by today's politicians to practically ensure getting the help he needs is a long tedious, frustrating process that can seem so insurmountable that some vets take their own lives during the process.

Guy adamantly believes Bernie is the only politician that cares. Has all his vet friends at the group home on the same tip. I'm trying to brace him for Bernies loss in the primaries..."expect the best, be prepared for the worst.", is what I continue to tell him...but he truly believes that with all the stuff he's going through desperately trying to get help from a VA whose job it appears is to make it as difficult as possible for vets in some weird insurance-like repetitive denial process, a loss by Bernie will mean the death of him, but also many other vets lost in a system that doesn't end and is egged on by all other politicians.

I just tell him that this too shall pass...mind the plants....concentrate on the zen and peace of gardening and everything will fall into place eventually.

How the fuck do you tell the hopeless to "chin up"? He and his fellow group home vets deserve far better treatment than this for the sacrifices they've made for their love of this country. Physical and mental scars they have obtained from their defense of this country...they carry those with them until they're laid in their graves.

Its really an embarrassment that we allow them to be treated like this.

Stryst

(714 posts)
20. Neither of the prospective nominees, either Dem or Rep, served a day in the miliary
Tue May 31, 2016, 10:36 AM
May 2016

Nor did any of their children. Will that stop them from sending American soldiers into harms way in conflicts that have nothing to do with us? I doubt it.

 

Feeling the Bern

(3,839 posts)
24. We treat our veterans, teachers, nurses and minimum wage employees worse than shit on the bottom of
Tue May 31, 2016, 11:03 AM
May 2016

someone's shoes in this country.

And it only gets worse with every passing generation.

But at least we suck the teet of law enforcement.

McCamy Taylor

(19,240 posts)
30. Recall how gladly we sent troops into Iraq in 2003---all the fanfare and flag waving.
Tue May 31, 2016, 12:24 PM
May 2016

We should be waving twice as many flags when they come home.

Elwood P Dowd

(11,443 posts)
31. The republican draft dodging hall of shame.
Tue May 31, 2016, 01:09 PM
May 2016

An old list from back in the Bush Jr years. They love sending young people off to war, but just don't care much for taking care of them when they come home.

Spencer Abraham
Elliott Abrams
Ken Adelman
Roger Ailes
Lamar Alexander
George Felix Allen
Richard Keith "Dick" Armey
John Ashcroft
Harvey Leroy "Lee" Atwater
Haley Reeves Barbour
Bob Barr
Roscoe Bartlett
Robert Leroy Bartley
Joseph Linus "Joe" Barton
Charles Foster "Charlie" Bass
Gary Lee Bauer
Glenn Lee Beck
William Bennett
Richard B. Berman
Wolf Isaac Blitzer
Richard Blumenthal
Roy Blunt
John Andrew Boehner
Clint Bolick
John Bolton
Pat Boone
Neal Boortz
Max Boot
James Paul David "Jim" Bunning
George Walker Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush
Carl Cameron
Kirk Thomas Cameron
Andrew "Andy" Card
Gerald Posner Carmen
Clarence Saxby Chambliss
John P.H. "Pecker Head" Chandler
Richard Bruce "Still Dick" Cheney
Thomas Leo Clancy
Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn
Roy Cohn
Norman Bertram "Norm" Coleman
John Cornyn III
Ann Hart Coulter
Toby Keith Covel
Larry "Wide Stance" Craig
Dinesh D'Souza
Thomas Dale "Tom," "The Hammer" DeLay
Steven James Doocy
Charles Gwynne "Chuck" Douglas III
John Mathias Engler
Donald Louis Evans
Jerry Lamon Falwell
Don Feder
Douglas J. Feith
Jim Finnegan
Bryan Fischer
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama
Frank Gaffney
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich
Rudolph Wiliam Louis "Rudy" Giuliani
Alan Gottlieb
William Franklin "Billy" Graham
William Franklin Graham
William Phillip "Phil" Gramm
Lee Greenwood
Judd Gregg
Sean Hannity
Paul Harvey
Dennis Hastert
John Edgar Hoover
Brit Hume
Asa Hutchinson
Young Timothy Hutchinson
David R. Ignatius
Laura Anne Ingraham
Frederick Walter Kagan
Robert Kagan
Joyce Kaufman
Francis Anthony Keating
Ronald Kessler
Alan Lee Keyes
Brian Kilmeade
Charles De Ganahl Koch
David Koch
William "Bill" Kristol
Jon Llewellyn Kyle
Wayne LaPierre
Michael Arthur Ledeen
Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Joseph Isidore "Joe" Lieberman
David Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III
William "Bill" Loeb III
Chester Trent Lott, Sr.
Frank I. Luntz
David Martin McIntosh
Joseph "Joe" McQuaid
Gerald McRaney
Michael Medved
John Luigi Mica
Don Nickles
Grover Glenn Norquist
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent
William "Bill" O'Reilly
Patrick Jake "PJ" O'Rourke
Marvin Olasky
John M. Olin
Ted Olson
Richard Norman Perle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle
Michael Reagan
Ralph Eugene Reed, Jr.
Robert James "Kid Rock" Ritchie
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson
Willard Mitt Romney
Karl Christian Rove
Marco Antonio Rubio
Antonin Gregory Scalia
Charles Joseph "Joe" Scarborough
Todd Andrew Schnitt
Melvin Floyd "Mel" Sembler
Richard Craig Shelby
Alan Kooi Simpson
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra
Willard Cleon Skousen
Robert Anthony "Tony" Snow
Britney Jean Spears
Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone
Kenneth Winston Starr
Michael Stephen Steele
Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein
Mark Steyn
David Alan Stockman
Roger Stone
Thomas Gerard "Tom" Tancredo
James Taranto
Clarence Thomas
Fred Thompson
Meldrim "Mel" Thomson
Donn Tibbetts
Clyde Anderson Tolson
Robert Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Jon Vincent Voight
Christopher "Chris" Wallace
John P. Walters
John "Duke" Wayne
John Vincent "Vin" Weber
Michael Alan "Michael Savage" Weiner
William Floyd "Bill" Weld
George Frederick Will
Walter Winchell
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz

 

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)
33. Okay, I get it and all
Tue May 31, 2016, 01:59 PM
May 2016

but the worship gets out of hand. If people got 10% as worked up about Labor Dsy, we might still have Labor in this country

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