Joe Galloway has an excellent article today in the Miami Herald a McClatchy newspaper that calls the Bush adminsitration what they are
These frauds who love to pose as wartime leaders sat back and did nothing as a cruel bureaucracy sent bill collectors out to harass double-amputee veterans for thousands of dollars because they neglected to turn in their armored vests and other gear to the supply sergeant after they were blown apart on the battlefield.
I SALUTE Joe Galloway he has been a soldiers advocate ever since the battle at La Drang valley, and he learned up close and personal what soldiers go thru serving this nation.
In todays article he asks the readers to remember while they are shopping for Christmas presents and planning meals to think about those who have made it all possible for the past 225 years the soldiers and the veterans.
There are some new statistics that give us reason to be ashamed for the way that our country has treated those who have served and sacrificed for us.
Those statistics damn the politicians who start every speech by thanking the troops and veterans and blessing them. They indict our national leaders who turn up at military bases and the annual conventions of veteran's organizations and use troops and veterans as a backdrop for their photo-ops.
Consider this:
• An average of 18 veterans commit suicide each and every day of the year, according to recent statistics from the Veterans Administration. That's 126 veterans who kill themselves every week. Or some 6,552 who take their lives each year. Our veterans are killing themselves at twice the rate of other Americans.
• One quarter of the homeless people in America are military veterans. That's one in every four. Is that ragged man huddled on the steam grate in a brutal winter wind a Vietnam vet? Did that younger man panhandling for pocket change on the street corner fight in Kandahar or Fallujah?
Chris Adams the reporter Joe mentions has written these articles this year about the Veterans Administration
VA must act to curb veteran suicides
VA performance slips
VA PTSD care inconsistent
Chris Adams link to all his 2007 articles on Veterans
I applaud Joe Galloway and Chris Adams and the great people at McClatchy who attempt to hold the VA and the elected officials to account. Hopefully in the 2006 election we can replace the lawmakers who refuse to help the veterans and their families with some democratic office holders who will care.
If this nation can spend 3 billion a week for war, they can spend a few million a month extra to help the disabled veterans they have created.
Merry Christmas to all who read my Daily Kos posts.