Why avoid the obvious insult to the troops?

Honoring veterans
By James Wright October 6, 2007

LAST WEEK, the new Ken Burns series on World War II aired on public television around the country. As we remember that generation and all it accomplished, let us not forget our current generation of veterans from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I fear, in the midst of the debate over troop levels, exit strategies, and assessment of the war's progress, we have lost sight of the men and women who are fighting this war. To be sure, there is deference to them, but too often they are seen as abstractions, as numbers and not individuals, as heroes or helpless pawns. Those who gave their lives are remembered for but a moment, except in their hometowns. Those who have been seriously injured seldom even have the moment.
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It is a great piece of writing, however, what keeps getting missed is that they knew how long this would last and what price would be paid by the men and women they sent. Set aside the usual argument just for now. Put aside why we invaded. The utter shame this country has on its hands out of ignorance is shocking. No one has addressed the fact that from 1991 until 1998, Cheney, along with everyone else involved with the Gulf War, knew exactly what they were sending the troops into, no matter what they claimed this time, because it was all captured on tape. It was all known and predicted. The shocking fact is not just that they did it anyway, but they did nothing to prepare for the wounded bodies or minds.

In 2005, with the VA already under-funded, Bush and Nicholson decided the VA didn't need to be fully funded and they cut the budget. No one cared about the troops or the wounded combat veterans they would become. This cannot be ignored.

I keep hearing from people on both sides of the Iraq debate, but what cannot be avoided, dismissed or passed off as just politics, are the lives paying the price for surviving combat. How anyone can dismiss this glaring example of disdain for the men and women who serve this country, speaks volumes of the gratefulness of this nation, or the lack of it. We avoid the disgrace we all carry when they come home and the help is not there.

Each report I read mentions the statements of "they didn't know" because that is what they claimed but the truth is, it was all known well in advance but no one did anything about it. So please, tell me how any of this is supporting the troops when we allow them to keep saying this? How is supporting outrageous lies supporting the troops? Is it just so impossible to admit we have a president and vice president so detached from the lives of those in their hands they cared nothing for them?

Is it because we see pictures and news footage with them surrounded by men and women in uniform and think they must love the troops? While the pictures of the smiling faces behind the Commander-in-Chief, may be worth a thousand words, what he actually does is worth billions, hundreds of billions, he always has no problem asking for on emergency basis claims, while he fails to use the same sense of urgency for the sake of the men and women wounded by where he sent them to go.

Enough of the "they didn't know" because not only was it their job to know, it was their moral obligation to know all the facts and make arrangements for what the facts and history predicted.

Read the article anyway because it is very good but keep this important fact in mind when you do. They did know. Quagmire is not something Cheney suddenly said. He said it right after the Gulf War and kept saying it until 1998! PTSD has claimed too many lives and too many futures, along with other wounds, for them to have not made every plan they could do to take care of the wounded they knew would come. The rate of PTSD was already known and the Army released a report a couple of years ago about the increase risk of developing PTSD by 50% for each time they were sent back, yet they didn't increase the numbers of troops enough to avoid this. They just increased the number of times they sent them back.

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington