junk and crap, amen

A case study in willful negligence:

The Associated Press reports that veterans comprise 1/4 of the homeless population in the USA.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

Extrapolate to 2007, with the war in Iraq becoming deadlier every day, the US economy in deep trouble and the chasm between the rich and poor growing to obscene proportions. Things aren't looking any better.

And yet Bush can say (and his speech writer can actually write, and his staff can actually sign off) this with a straight face:

All of America's veterans have placed the nation's security before their own lives. Their sacrifice creates a debt that America can never fully repay.

If you can stomach it, skim over his Veterans Day speech. It has approx. 8 paragraphs about veterans out of a total of, oh I dunno, lots. Over 50. The rest of it is ridiculous and mostly insulting to veterans.

Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence: the Israeli presence on the West Bank, the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago. In fact, we're not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of killers -- and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. On the contrary, they target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory.

In one paragraph he rewrites history, denying veterans or their families accurate historical perspective, and insults their intelligence. GODZILLA IS COMING! Then he says he'll never stop sending people to die because there is no hope for any other course of action.

Labels: Bush, poverty, veterans

After my last post, I came across this story in The Edmonton Journal about Afghanistan veterans not getting needed mental health care.

Jeez, do I ever feel guilty. Here I am, eating up precious health care resources for my measly little cut finger while returning soldiers, fighting for my freedom, safety and access to universal health care (because that's really what we're there for, not for pipelines or natural resources or because the US told us to), are left out in the cold.

OK, aside from the criminal actions of the Canadian Government inside Afghanistan, when will politicians learn that if you're going to send people to die or be injured or suffer a mental breakdown because they're job is to kill people with the supposed reason of promoting democracy, freedom and our 'superior' way of life, you've gotta take care of them and prove that our system is worth the death and destruction when and if they come home.

Once again the futility, injustice and inhumanity of war becomes clear.

Is this concept really so difficult to grasp? The US has shown over and over that they are incapable of caring for their veterans properly, and in fact purposefully put them in harm's way, which obviously is tied to the insurance and profit dominated health care system there. But here in Canada, with universal not for profit health care, this is absolutely inexcusable.

Labels: Afghanistan, health care, veterans, war