My father's passionate rant, for Veteran's Day

[Huckleman2000]

I got this email from my Dad today. I called him last night to let him know I was sending some scans of some craft items he wants to build, and he and my Mom were watching Saving Private Ryan. They are both 78; he left HS early to join the Navy, since enlisting meant that he could choose which branch of the service he went into. He was a SeaBee, and worked in the Aleutian Islands building air bases to support the final days of the war in the Pacific Theater. I don't think he saw combat, personally, although the islands were bombed by the Japanese. He did say last night, though, that he had a buddy from HS that was killed in the D-Day invasion. I leave his punctuation and spelling errors intact - he's a hunt&peck typist, though he has a PhD. in Education.

Hi
Next year the damned Bush administration will be raising copay for VA from
$7.00 to $15 per month. That means I will be paying $120 per month up from
$56.00.What this will do is really hurt many vets who were PROMISED medical
help. When I see the many vets at the VA and the terrible shape they are,
it is terrible for the stupid Bushites to give tax breaks to the filthy rich
and make the lowly vets pay the bill This is more frightful for the young
men coming--thousands of them, who get very little. help compared to what
they had suffered.
That's the kind of respect we get from a bastard who did everything possible
to get out serving in combat.
Yes, I am very angry about the treatment levelled at veterans. Then when
the hypocrite goes to Arlington to lay a wreath at the tomb of unknown
soldier on Nov 11
This increase in my expenses, accompanied with increase in gas prices, which
also greases the pockets of Bushes oil friends, will seriously curtail our
travels in 2005 Plus , there will be a change in any hospital help for me
as well.
Hopeful, I will live more than four more years when there may be someone who
has a better understanding of our needs.
Love, Dad

 

[Edward Teach]

Your dad's letter makes me both sad and angry, Huck. To me, this is perhaps the most puzzling thing the Bush administration has done. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Ed

 

[KarenAM]

There should be no copay for vets -- they should recieve their prescriptions for free. I don't mind paying higher taxes to make this happen.

There is no excuse for the disgraceful way this country treats its veterans.

 

[sweetnpetite]

It pisses me off that they say 'support our troups' and people just jump in line behind that.

Any politician can say 'support our troups' and turn around and do whatever they want regarding veterans and no one even notices. I think that many people probably don't even connect the two!!!

I support our troups. I support keeping them home w/ their families unless absolutly necessary. That's not unAmerican. That's support.

What could be more supportive than *bring our troups home!*?

But politicians say it to mean 'don't argue with my decision to send them off to war, it's bad for moral.' support our troups means 'back the war' it seems to mean 'support them now, so we can use up the best of there lives and discard them when we don't need them and/or they become useless to us'

But just try saying *that* No one listens. It's not a soundbite.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Thanks, Ed. I have the same reaction.

My father is no saint, but in his later years he has mellowed considerably. He is a child of the Depression, an adolescent of WWII, and an adult of the GI Bill, the Great Society, the Civil Rights movement, and then the Reagan Revolution and so forth... The Federal Government has been both a huge positive, and negative, force in his life. And also, a positive and negative force in how he made his way in the world, through public education and government-sponsored programs to help African and Native American schools.

I can't help but feel his disillusionment, when the traditional routes to upward mobility in our society are being abandoned by our government, along with the promises made to those who helped (and help) us become a so-called superpower.

 

[HornyHenry]

I agree

With Sweet and Huck's dad.
MY dad was in WWII for more than 3 1/2 years, in Patton's 2nd armored division all the way across N.Africa, into Sicily, the through Italy, then England and Normandy, D-Day+5, across France, and was with the first group to cross the Rhine into Germany.
He had an eye problem due to a welding/soldering accident and found that they lost his service records! So, he was denied treatment by the VA. He did get some other drug and other kinds of help from them before he died 2 years ago. He got a $100 marker for his grave. Not too much else.

I served 4 years in a political "War" that I was drafted for. Four years that I can never get back, 4 years that put me behind all those that didn't go in experience and senority. I went willingly because supporting our country is what Americans are supposed to do when needed. You know the Vietnam War? Know what the Vietnamese call it? The American War! It wasn't their war. It was ours. Don't get me started.

I called the VA recently because I'm going through some rough times right now. They said to call back when I'm homeless and they can help me then! That may not be long now that Bush is back.

Yes, I believe in supporting America, and one good way to do that is to get our troups out of a country where we have no business being, (Except for business/oil reasons), and stop killing out people and wasting billions of dollars when it could be better spent here in America

Support people like the wonderful Strom Thurmond who singlehandedly has done more for the servicemen and veterans than anyone else in the country.

Too many wars and killing have been committed because of religious reasons. N.Ireland- over 40 years, The Crusades- ~150 years, PLO, the killing of Jews only because they are Jews, etc. I wonder if God tells Bush to go have our people killed and to waste our hard earned money doing it? He says he is guided by his religious beliefs.

 

[oggbashan]

Veterans' benefits have deteriorated since the Roman Empire. Their retired soldiers were given Roman citizenship and land. That made them wealthy by the then current standards.

After the defeat of the Spanish Armada the wounded English sailors were put ashore and just left on the streets for the charity of passers-by.

In one of the wars against the French the government didn't have enough troops to send to the West Indies to form a garrison. They shipped out the veterans from the Chelsea Hospital as 'troops'. All of them died before they reached the West Indies.

'Homes fit for heroes' was an election slogan at the end of WWI. The 'heroes' never got the homes.

Even now, if a married UK soldier is killed, his wife and family are given a few weeks notice to leave their home because she is no longer married to a soldier and therefore not entitled to married quarters.

Remembering the debt owed to the dead is easy to say and costs nothing. Paying the debts to those injured who survived and to the dependents of those who have died has always been a low priority.

Og

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Originally posted by sweetnpetite
What could be more supportive than *bring our troups home!*?

Supporting them in completion of their mission, instead of emphasizing their abandoning it.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Joe, what mission? There is no damn mission in this war. But a) I'm tired of arguing with people about things I can't personally change and b) Who really gives a shit about reasons or implications or whatnot? People like war. They won't admit that, they dress it up all nice and politically correct and patriotic, but deep down people like war and the absolutes and victories it brings. "Support the troops" just gives us all the excuse to feel good about it.

Separate point in answer to Huckleman. My grandfather did the island hopping in the Pacific Theater. He also lived almost his entire life in New York. The rant he made about Bush and the decrease in Veteran medical care not so long ago would have burnt carpet fibers but at least set aside family worries that he might be getting Alzheimer's.

Completely unrelated point. Has any else noticed that the easiest way to make a war novel or story tragic is to present it from all viewpoints. I've been reading a bit of Turtledove where he borrows War and Peace's style, saw Gundam when it made a pass on CN, and reading other things of that vein. They show all the stories of bystanders, soldiers, etc and the humanity behind the brutality and kill-to-survive nature of war. And through this style it always becomes sad and tragic and wipes away the veneer of glory. I thought this was interesting, though I don't know if it has any real point. And if it did, who cares? Support the troops, rah Team America. Win, win, win. Score another touchdown. Blah, blah, blah.

 

[KarenAM]

Supporting them in completion of their mission, instead of emphasizing their abandoning it.

Well, it's too late in Iraq, I'm afraid. The military people are doing their best, but they've been betrayed by a failure in the political leadership, who entered the war having no idea what they were doing, and who still don't. The simple fact is that Iraq is a much more complicated place than this administration gives it credit for, with ethnic and religious divisions that baffle even specialists in the region. To make things worse, the Arab world is in a state of extreme social and political crisis right now, for reasons largely beyond our control, and what we've done is place some 100,000 American troops directly in the middle of what will probably be a bloodbath whether we are there or not. Abandoning this mission will almost certainly happen one way or another and the only thing we really control is how many American personel are killed before we leave.

Afghanistan is slightly different. There we do have a clear objective, though we haven't been pursuing it very well, so there I will agree with you, Joe, that one way we can support our troops is to pressure our political leaders to get the job done and hang the leadership of al-Qaeda and the Taliban up in pieces somewhere.

But, that said, this thread isn't about debating the wars. It's about veterans, a majority of whom are no longer active-duty military personel and who are getting the shaft from our government after they have served us in the most apalling conditions imaginable, often sacrificing their bodies and souls for this country. It's the worst sort of hypocricy to claim to be a pro-military president when one denies even the most basic benefits to veterans (as both Democrats and Republicans have done).