We heard a lot in the debate between Senator Biden and Gov. Palin. Biden is well versed and experienced. He was reluctant to admit that when it came between what he said about Senator Obama's views and what Biden thought was wrong has lead him to change his mind. This happens all the time when you have people speaking out with their own ideas and not being willing to listen to others. Palin came off as charming but was reluctant to answer all the questions, often saying she did not want to talk about the issue presented to her. In the 90 minutes of debate, what we did not hear was that while both candidates have sons in the military, how we take care of them when they come home was never brought up.
The issues;
National Guards and Reservists families dealing with the economy, loss of income and jobs while deployed, food stamps and foreclosures
Redeployments with the lack of dwell time
Suicides and attempted suicides
Backlog of claims to be processed along with misdiagnosis of TBI and PTSD
VA unable to keep up with patient flow in far too many states
The list is endless involving both candidates along with Senator McCain, who also has a son in the military. What we also did not hear is how McCain has voted against veterans funding with a deplorable record of actually supporting the troops demanding plans for conclusion of both occupations, demanding accountability for the waste of funds on contractors with cost plus billing, demanding accountability for the billions of dollars missing, as well as any of the factors contributing to the suffering of wounded troops within the DOD and veterans in the VA system.
We can talk all we want about Afghanistan and Iraq, the economy and the reputation of this nation, but what we cannot do is ignore the fact these things are all tied together. While we cannot end either military action today, we can and must take care of the wounded today. If we do not then when all the troops come home, we will be unable to take care of any of them. Right now, today, we have veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War, Vietnam, Korea and WWII, waiting for care and compensation. We have them suffering from TBI, PTSD, depleted uranium, Agent Orange, sexual assaults along with other illnesses directly related to their service to this nation. We heard nothing about any of this.
The only one to approach what the troops are lacking is the MRAPS that Biden brought up that McCain voted against. These men and women are not only serving the nation, they are Americans who are suffering because they served and it's time they became at least important enough to be included in every debate and speech given. They can argue all they want about who voted for what, which is important and brought us to where we are, we can argue about who has the best plan to fix what we are into, but if the men and women serving, risking their lives, continue to be ignored by the people seeking to control it all, then we have not honored any of them.
There needs to be a debate about the best person to take care of the men and women serving in the military and those who came before them. They need to be included in the speeches given by those seeking to head this nation. Every senator and representative running for election or re-election needs to address them with all speeches they give and hold their record accountable.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
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
