THE TRUE SHAME OF THE IRAQ WAR - Yahoo! News

Fri May 23, 7:58 PM ET


WASHINGTON -- This is what I thought was the American social contract when I was growing up in the land of the free and the home of the brave: You could work your way through college, and if you got a decent job, you could buy a house within a few years.

And, you deserved a bit more if you served in the military: money or loans for college and something of a break on mortgage loans. The point goes beyond the danger of military service; the important fact is that you deserve something more than being underpaid if you give up two or more years of your life while your peers are working on careers, beginning families, or getting educations that will pay dividends for life.

That's the way it was for me, and I think kids today deserve the same. I could earn enough for college working summers and part-time; the military (Air Force ROTC) paid some of the bills. I got a job as an engineer for Ingersoll-Rand, and six years after graduation, with a little help from my parents, I was able to buy a small house on a lake in New Jersey.

Now, of course, college is more expensive -- as a father of five I have seen those costs rise faster than the cost of oil -- and houses in metropolitan areas are often more than young families can afford. That bothers me, a lot; it is a failure of the American way. But that bother is nothing compared with the screwing the government is giving to the young men and women serving in harm's way in Iraq.

Whatever one thinks of the war and the officials who planned it, those soldiers and reservists out there deserve more than moral support. My stomach literally turned when I read this paragraph in The New York Times last Thursday morning:

"President Bush is threatening to veto a bill that would pay tuition and other expenses at a four-year public university for anyone who has served in the military for three years since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A main reason is that it would hasten an exodus from the ranks."

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates put it this way: "Serious retention issues could arise."

I bet they could. And should. The war is being fought by a tiny percentage of the American people, and many of their lives are being ruined. You want a war, Mr. President? Then ask Congress to declare one. You want soldiers to be retained? Then ask for a draft. You want to support our boys and girls? Then support their education as other presidents and Congresses have done since the passage of the great GI Bill of Rights during World War II -- legislation that is still benefiting this country.

What is being done to our troops in Iraq is more than a failure of political leadership; it is an outrage. Forget the fact that we never declared war, or that we never had a real plan about what to do in Iraq, or that we are fighting on credit, leaving the bills for our children and grandchildren. Remember that only a small number are involved in this -- the same people, professionals and reservists, are being called back into harm's way again and again.

Those young men and women, serving a government without the guts to even talk about a draft, are essentially indentured servants. Worse. At least indentured servants knew when their obligation would be over. This is more than unfair; it is shameful, a stain on the democracy and its leaders. And now the president is considering depriving them of a reward they deserve because some of them might actually take it and not re-enlist.

This is a professional army? There was a time when troops treated that way, no matter how well-trained or equipped, were called cannon fodder. We owe them. The president whose ignorance put them in the Middle East owes them. The Congress, which is ever looking the other way and has not declared war on anyone since 1941, owes them.

This war is not worthy of a free country. And unless we do something for the young people bravely taking the punishment for the failings of their elders, we have no right to claim this is a land of the free.

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"All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian."

~ Pat Paulsen for President

the rat bastard is trying to save a dime and cheating the troops returning with PTSD. I suppose he'll get a "heck of a job" backslap from dubya.


MILITARY -- VA SECRETARY CALLS VETS' CONCERNS ABOUT PTSD 'OVERBLOWN': Over the weekend, VA Secretary James Peake visited Alaska with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). While there, they met with Vietnam veteran John Guinn, who questioned the Secretary about the growing problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst veterans. Peake suggested that some concerns about PTSD are "overblown," adding that many of the brain injuries were "akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered." On Saturday, Peake also said that many vets with PTSD may just need "a little counseling" and shouldn't "need the PTSD label their whole lives." Peake's comments are disturbing, especially in light of new numbers released by the Pentagon this week showing that the number of new PTSD cases "jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007." Additionally, as Brandon Friedman at VetVoice points out, Peake's comments are undermined by VA psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who has stressed the seriousness of PSTD: "Combat PTSD is a war injury. Veterans with combat PTSD are war wounded, carrying the burdens of sacrifice for the rest of us as surely as the amputees, the burned, the blind, and the paralyzed carry them."

PR Web Version

edit>> if you go to the link, there are links within this paragraph to follow about the story.

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“One of the things that I learned in the school yard was: the folks that are talking tough all the time, they’re not always that tough. If you’re really tough, you’re not always looking to try to start a fight. If you’re really tough, sometimes you just walk away. If you’re really tough, you just save it for when you really need it,� Obama said.

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"All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian."

~ Pat Paulsen for President

You can file your complaint here >>>>> United States Senate Committee on Appropriations - Subcommittee on Defense

These are the folks that actually control all of the defense spending.

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Victory in Iraq

Caring for the All-Volunteer Force, Our Wounded Warriors, and Their Families
Compensates servicemembers. 3.4 percent pay raise for military personnel, bringing the total basic pay increases since 2001 to about 37 percent.

Provides high quality medical care. $42.8 billion in resources, including $10 billion in mandatory funding, for the Defense Health Program, more than doubling the 2001 level, to ensure that the brave volunteers who serve our country get the high quality medical care that they deserve.

Sustains the health care system. Aligns military health care premiums and copayments for retirees under age 65 with general health insurance plans to ensure the sustainability of a high quality health care system for our military while preventing unnecessary tradeoffs with critical military capabilities.

Cares for wounded warriors. Continues to implement recommendations made by the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors.

Supports servicemembers and their families. Provides for activities such as family support programs and child care programs for military dependents. DOD is committed to providing military families with a quality of life that is commensurate with their service, and recognizes that the strength of our soldiers is reinforced by the strength of their families. Budget FY 2009 - Department of Defense

Out of a $515b defense budget it looks like they ought to be able to take care of the wounded troops....and PTSD is a wound. The guy who thinks he is going to screw them out of care needs to be relieved of his position and get in line with what the American people want for the troops. Spend the money here instead of in Iraq.

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“One of the things that I learned in the school yard was: the folks that are talking tough all the time, they’re not always that tough. If you’re really tough, you’re not always looking to try to start a fight. If you’re really tough, sometimes you just walk away. If you’re really tough, you just save it for when you really need it,� Obama said.

It's simple.
The people in Congress saying "Spend the money here, not in Iraq" are the ones that are spending the money in Iraq and not spending it here.

Americans want change in Congress.

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Victory in Iraq

We're about to get it too, with real majorities in both houses come November. The pubs will not be able to stop progress anymore.

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“One of the things that I learned in the school yard was: the folks that are talking tough all the time, they’re not always that tough. If you’re really tough, you’re not always looking to try to start a fight. If you’re really tough, sometimes you just walk away. If you’re really tough, you just save it for when you really need it,� Obama said.

You must be joking?
Do you actually think Democrats want to end the war in Iraq and give our troops better care? LMAO!


News & Culture in CA | Dianne Feinstein resigns

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction, it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.

Two years ago, before the Washington Post became belatedly involved, the online magazine Salon.com exposed the horrors of deficient medical care for Iraq war veterans. While leading MILCON, Feinstein had ample warning of the medical-care meltdown. But she was not proactive on veteran's affairs.

Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases—often without the benefit of competitive bidding—to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch.

As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and Welcome to FedSpending.org, three corporations in which Blum's financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

# Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.

# Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent noncompetitively awarded.

# CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector.

You would think that, considering all the money Feinstein's family has pocketed by waging global warfare while ignoring the plight of wounded American soldiers, she would show a smidgeon of shame and resign from the entire Senate, not just a subcommittee. Conversely, you'd think she might stick around MILCON to try and fix the medical-care disaster she helped to engineer for the vets who were suckered into fighting her and Bush's panoply of unjust wars.

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Victory in Iraq

BushCo policies will be junked in January. Then we'll see some oversight on contracts and participants. It will be interesting.

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“One of the things that I learned in the school yard was: the folks that are talking tough all the time, they’re not always that tough. If you’re really tough, you’re not always looking to try to start a fight. If you’re really tough, sometimes you just walk away. If you’re really tough, you just save it for when you really need it,� Obama said.

ROFL... Well sure, I mean it has no element necessary for a contract to exist, but the leftists 'felt' he was anchored in the protections offered by such.

Look girls, there is no such thing as a social contract; that is just one of the myriad of lies the leftist ideology has foisted upon you people.

This article is a classic example of the pantywaist, cradle to grave warrantees that the left deludes themselves into believing is possible and stands as a great example of why they should never be allowed in the same TOWN with a voting booth.