Then came the invasion of Afghanistan. Given the history of Afghanistan and what the Russian troops faced, I knew it would be a long, brutal fight. The problem was, no one in the White House was getting ready for any of the wounded that would come. They sold it as an easy move to the American people. We only lost 12 taking Afghanistan. Too many in this country figured it was a done deal. Over and done. By 2002, 49 more lives were lost from the US and 20 from the coalition. The propaganda of the need to invade Iraq was taking full control of the Sunday news shows and the selling off of American lives was already carved in stone. No one listened. All the evidence, not suggestions and claims, pointed to the fact there should have been a lot more skeptics asking a lot more questions, but too many were jumping on the "patriotic" bandwagon. I was leery. I wrote a piece about if it was a good idea or not. It turns out, all these years, all the people who were way ahead of me were all right. They were the people who were attacked for being right and paying attention.
Scott McCellan just proved what was already know with the Downing Street memo.
McClellan Rips Bush, White House
By Mike Allen,Politico.com
Posted: 2008-05-28 09:04:36
Filed Under: Politics News
(May 27) -- Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/mcclellan-rips-
bush-white-house/20080528063409990001?icid=1615988631x1203152132x1200309168
I am not so trusting that I could not believe that needless wars have been perpetrated before, any more than I am delusional enough to think we would have learned from the past, but I did not think anyone would be so callous with the lives of the men and women being sent they would pull troops out of Afghanistan in order to just do it. They did.
For years, we've all heard about the need to defend this nation by what we were doing in Iraq and the media allowed them to never mention Afghanistan. Anyone daring to ask was regarded as a traitor and told they were against the troops. The manipulation of the propaganda was in full swing. The few in congress daring to speak out were no longer allowed on the 24 hour news channels. Only the timid were allowed to go up against the zealots so they could be easily controlled and silenced.
When we had generals resigning, no one wanted to hear from them. These are the generals who spent countless years not only participating in combat, planning and adapting, they made it their careers.
Still in all of this, the worst part is, no one got ready for the wounded. No one cared. Had they cared about the lives of the wounded that they knew would come, none of these reports would be occurring. Walter Reed would not have been a problem. The lack of mental health professionals would not have been a problem. The lack of services in outreach would not have been a problem. Suicides would have been an oddity. Outreach work would have begun in 2001. The VA would have had whatever funding they needed to prepare by hiring all the workers they could find and have them trained ahead of time to not only care for the wounded but process the claims with all sense of urgency they deserved. None of this was done because they ignored the obvious. The data was all in from Vietnam. They decided against even looking at any of it.
Perhaps the most appalling thing to come out of all of this is the fact those who supported the combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq decided the outcomes of both were not their problem. They didn't care about the wounded or the suffering of the troops as long as they got what they wanted. Waving the flag replaced honoring it. Defending Bush replaced defending the truth. Patriotism became associated with appeasement of the White House and no one was allowed to have questions answered.
Had they acted in honor, none of the reports that came out since the invasion of Afghanistan would have been possible. These are just some from today.
Huge spike in troops diagnosed with PTSD
Baltimore Sun - United Statesby Aamer Madhani Nearly 14000 US service members who had previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan were newly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress soars in US troops
Reuters - USABy David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly diagnosed cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among US troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan surged 46.4
Veterans seek help for the wounds of war
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USAA panel of experts addressed such issues as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and homelessness.
Readers of this blog have been aware of the problems since August and many more from my other blog going back to 2003. Even more going back to the posting I've done on AOL blogs and message boards. With all the news that has come out since 2002 how is it possible, how is it morally possible that no one bothered to take care of all of this until it was totally out of control? Didn't the lives of the men and women serving this nation matter enough to invest the time in paying attention to the rest of the people in this nation?
We can bicker all we want about getting the troops out of Iraq or the need to keep them there, but in the process, we devalue their lives by not taking care of their needs. Solutions will come either by way of public pressure to address both occupations or by the fact we can no longer afford to do either one. Set all that aside. Nothing will change with Iraq or Afghanistan until there is a new president and a new administration who will take the lives of the troops seriously enough to act. What we can and need to do today is find out who knew what when and why they did not know more.
The law suit filed by Veterans For Common Sense has provided some of the answers and none of them reflect the notion we are a grateful nation because they were allowed to pull all of it off. Who has been held accountable? Who has been charged or fired? How many of the dishonorably discharged have had justice provided to them? How many of the misdiagnosed have had their cases reviewed and honored? How many of the claims filed and denied wrongly have been made right? Where are we on any of this?
The VA and the DOD do not have enough mental health workers. They do not have enough Chaplains. Where are we on any of this? Have they changed the rules to allow trained Chaplains from the IFOC, who happen to be good enough for law enforcement and emergency responders, but are not good enough for the VA to provide vital services? Have the advocates been able to provide their knowledge to the Washington elected so that solutions come instead of more countless hearings reviewing what is already known?
There are so many questions we need to address and so many solutions that need to be implemented but if we just wait and wonder, the problem will only get worse for all of them.
Let's get our heads together and figure out how to make Washington hear us now. They didn't hear me in the 90's and they didn't hear me in the beginning of all of this. Will they listen now?
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
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
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