"...went down to see the v.a man - he said son, don't you understand..."
I'm a little late; i actually forgot that i meant to do a post for Veteran's Day (or, as i undertand the Canadians call it, "Remembrance Day" - a much better name than ours, really...).
Veterans are about 11% of the population of this country.
Veterans make up about 26% of the homeless in this country.
And a disproportionate number of homeless veterans are what i can only call victims of the two Bushes and their wars in the Gulf.
So, one day a year, we say good things about our veterans, we give parades in their honour - after, of course, carefully moving all the homeless bums somewhere else so the good citizens won't be offended by homeless men wearing beat-up old bits of military uniforms, getting around pon crutches, looking for handouts because, somehow, the same country that can spend billions (or even, probably, in the end, trillions) on fighting the wars doesn't seem to be able to spare much to help the people whose lives were wrecked fighting the wars...
Oh, fuck it.
You either already get it or you never will.
I'll just say that, there but for the grace of Something, go i...
Just never fucking forget what you owe to those homeless vets ... to those names on that black wall in DC ... to the guys under those white crosses at Arlington...
Even if their wars were meaningless and futile, they answered the call, they served, and they deserve better than a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere...
(And on the subject of why we owe our veterans - and serving military for that matter - more than we can ever repay, i recommend the SF novel Rolling Hot [click for my review] by David Drake. Rolling Hot is not available by itself, but is available in a collection of Drake's stories, The Tank Lords. I particularly recommend following the link from my site to Amazon and reading my review and that of Drake's fellow combat vet and fellow SFC author Michael Williamson...)
My Trusted MOGs
"While there are military victories, there are no military solutions" - David Miliband, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (UK)
Great post, thanks Fairport.
My Trusted MOGs
Just saw an item that indicates that a Congressional agency has estimated that the cost of the war may well eexceed $1.6 trillion (yes, "trillion" with a "T"), rather than the "mere" neary-a-trilllion the President projects.
But, you know, we don't have the money for decent health care and services for our vets. (The VA clinic where i get semi-annual checkups on an out-patient basis has a sign up saying that it can no longer accept new clients...)
My Trusted MOGs
I read those statistics yesterday - vets are 11% of the population and 26% of the homeless population. It's hard to wrap my mind around that and figure out why. I know the standard answers, but it just doesn't seem like those issues should be effecting so many vets. It's odd and troubling.