Picking Political Sides Left Military Crushed in the Middle

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 19, 2014

There are many things we should argue about politically because that is how things change. There are somethings that we should never argue about. One of them serves this country everyday and the other served her yesterday.

It seems as if everyone has a strong opinion about how things got so bad for our troops and veterans. The truth is, both sides did it. Both sides continue to feed the myth of everyone in this country picking their side but the truth is most of us are just average folks. I am a full time American.

Republicans think I am a Democrat and Democrats think I am Republican. No one wants to claim me and that is a good thing.

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."
Groucho Marx

The issues facing the troops range from not getting enough pay to provide for their families, unsure future for their careers, to being mistreated for claiming benefits they were promised if they needed them. The veterans face the same things they have faced for decades. Sorry but not much has changed.

Both sides of politicians got us to believe it was the other side's fault but again, truth is stranger than their fiction. Everyone complain about how sequestration hurt the military when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats controlled the Senate and both sides refused to work together. Strange thing is, no one was paying attention to the troops risking their lives in other parts of the world, working together as a team, putting their lives on the line ready to die for each other and those folks couldn't manage to even talk to each other to at least support them.

When I was young, I wanted to change to world. I had an opinion on every topic. I lost every argument and never managed to change a single mind on any of them. My Mom, a very wise woman told me it was time for me to pick just one battle, learn everything I could about it and give it all I had. It was not until I received an email from a Marine serving in Iraq that I finally, really understood what she meant. Back then I was politically twisted. I was so involved in supporting my own political views, I settled for what I was being told. The Marine asked me if I was doing what I did for them or myself. The answer made me cry. I wasn't serving them no matter how hard I tried to convince myself I was. That's when Wounded Times started 7 years ago.

The truth is all of this falls back on Congress and both sides put a pox on both sides of the House. Troubles in the military started long ago and kept going just as they did for veterans. Media and online posers like me had the ability to research and understand basic history but they must have not thought it was all that important or they would have known the truth in our history. The truth is we always sucked at taking care of the most unselfish among us.

"Odd how that seems to work all the time. They give all they have and ask for little in return, so that is exactly what Congress gives them."

Kathie Costos

"Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray: Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for they know not what they're doing. Amen."
Will Rogers

While there are thousands of postings right now on Bradley Stone and the people he killed, other stories far more pressing have fallen into the abyss. Bradley Stone cleared by Veterans Affairs doctor one week before murders, suicide was the headline on the Washington Times. "A Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist cleared former Marine Bradley Stone of suicidal or homicidal tendencies just a week before he went on a killing spree, slaying six others and then taking his own life."

The headline we needed to pay attention to was on the Dallas Morning News because it involved a lot more lost lives but no one seemed to care. INJURED HEROES, BROKEN PROMISES about PTSD wounded soldiers in the Warrior Transition Units being treated, well, like crap. They were told to get over it and suck it up for 7 years. This after hearing from the DOD they got it. Understood it and were addressing the problems apparently with the wrong address and stamping them with return to sender families.

"As far back as 2008, the House committee received similar complaints from soldiers, Thornberry said. At that time, the committee required improvements from the Army." Rep. Mac Thornberry, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

Things were so bad that the Army actually had to issue orders to stop abusing them.

The training order required all WTU leaders to attend a day of training. The order highlighted the need to treat all soldiers and family members “with dignity and respect.” It includes the warning: “There is zero tolerance for hazing, abuse, or discrimination in our Army.” Col. Chris Toner, head of the Warrior Transition Command

Who is to blame? Congress obviously for starters but suggest you pick up a mirror because no matter which letter you voted for, if you didn't pay attention to what was going on, you may as well have picked up a shovel to dig their graves and made yourself useful.