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The real "face" of Republican "Support the Troops" BS
By Michael Bailey (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Michael Bailey - Writer
These men and women are coming home from the middle eastern wars of the Bush Administration and being tossed dog bones and hoping they will be grateful enough to sit home and shut up. The trouble is the dog bones they are throwing are leaving a lot of empty stomachs, marriage problems, repossessed car, and homes in their wake. ENOUGH
We are slowly hearing stories of the fraud and abuse of the war profiteers, Haliburton, the Walter Reed Contractors (former Haliburton execs) Military officers taking kickbacks in Kuwait and Iraq, everyone has their hand in Uncle Sam's back pocket, and the truly deserving are being tossed a few dollars, to make up for life changing medical problems. There is one paragraph that brings tears to my eyes:
Before they leave, someone from Hampshire County's Heritage Days parade calls to see if Troy wants to ride on the veterans float. Troy declines. It's not just the crowds.
"Other people got wounded, and all I got was a mental thing," he says.
Michelle raises an eyebrow. "It's still an injury."
"I think about that doctor down there," Troy says, referring to a psychologist at Fort Stewart who suggested he was faking it. "Plus, the fact that guys are missing arms and have bullet holes and everything else. Ain't a scratch on me."
To remember who Troy used to be, Michelle keeps a photo of him hidden in her camera case. In the picture he is smiling and eager, ruggedly at home in his Army fatigues. Now she looks at the man in the recliner. "It's people like you that made our country," Michelle says. She goes back to filling out forms, and Troy goes back to Nickelodeon.
Troy's case is exactly the kind of discharge the Army has been accused of lowballing since this war began, at least in his case they did discharge him for PTSD apparently at the 10% rate which should have been a 30% or higher so his family would be entitled to TRICARE and they would have military ID cards to use military bases and their facilities. He could have been accused of having PDO like 22,000 other soldiers and denied any benefits.
But his statement "Other people got wounded, and all I got was a mental thing," he says. is indicative of so many veterans and soldiers, they have been ingrained that mental health issues aren't a "real injury" when in fact they are, there are no purple hearts for them or Traumatic brain injuries as they are "unseen wounds". These type of wounds are far more devastating than "flesh wounds" that are decorated for but in the military they are seen as "faking it to get out of work, or in some cases to get out of the military completely. Many men and women will surpress the symtpoms of PTSD and try self medication with alcohol, drugs, both legal and illegal, some people become work aholics. They blame everything on wives, kids, bosses, co-workers, customers, in some cases it takes decades before they come to terms with the real demons, the heart of the PTSD and their nightmares, their flashbacks of the incidents, their 0-angry outbursts in seconds. Even Max Cleland a famous Vietnam war vet did not seek help for PTSD until this past year, more than 40 years after his service in Vietnam, and he was a US Senator and the former Secretary of the VA.
PTSD and TBI are very real problems and instead of treating these veterans like leeches, the government should be doing everything it can to help these veterans and their families.
I read the story about Troy and Michelle, and I saw my wife Dori and myself in this article. I luckily have gotten the full help I needed and Dori stays on top of my treatment, I think both Troy and I would be lost without these strong women in our lives.
I SALUTE them both and all of the other spouses that stick by their loved ones dealing with these unseen wounds or war.
You can help by contacting your elected officials and demanding the Congress put the new VDBC Recommendations into effect, and the Dole/Shalala Commission also be given action. Congress has the blueprints for fixing it, they just need to take the action NOW not a few years down the road.
Let the Democratic majority take the lead to fix this broken system, let the military and veterans know who "truly supports" them and it has NOT been the Republicans, despite the flag pins and the magnets, the Republicans have failed to pass the badly needed overhaul of Veterans Affairs that are now out of date, the Omar Bradley Commission last looked at veteran benefits in the early 1950s.
Help the spouses like Michelle and Dori take care of their injured veterans.
http://vets4politics.blogspot.com/
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