Billions have been spent on these Wars of choice! With those Billions spent Billions were made by many, new multi-millionaires with connections were produced as well as a high priced merc private army and more. Directly and indirectly over the decade of these ongoing conflicts!
With the Wars came Tax Cuts that were recently extended, especially for the Wealthy who received the bulk of added to the write offs they already received for business, investment and personal!
During the last decade, the recent political campaigns, the so called debate on tax cut extensions nor in public comments, did anyone, the politicians, those wealthy, the power brokers, wall street, talking heads, media, the so called outraged tea party .........., Demand the Country 'Sacrifice' as those who serve and are sent, as well as their families, do and are the only ones, many now as veterans of for the rest of their lives! And the wars continue!
Coburn Dukehart/NPR: Sarah Wade, 36, and her husband, Ted Wade, 33, of Chapel Hill, N.C., often travel to Washington, D.C. for his medical care after he was injured while riding in a Humvee in Mahmudiyah, Iraq, on Feb. 14, 2004, and suffered a traumatic brain injury, as well as an above-the-elbow amputation of his right arm. Sarah has also been actively lobbying to get the right kind of care for her husband.
December 20, 2010 - During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation therapy — a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home.
Many neurologists, several major insurance companies and even some medical facilities run by the Pentagon agree that the therapy can help people whose functioning has been diminished by blows to the head.
But despite pressure from Congress and the recommendations of military and civilian experts, the Pentagon’s health plan for troops and many veterans refuses to cover the treatment — a decision that could affect the tens of thousands of service members who have suffered brain damage while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. {continued}
For us older vets, especially of our other conflicts since Korea, it's just DeJa-Vu all over again. War supported, results of not funded! So number crunchers, in the VA especially, have to do with what the country gives and take the condemnation that should be pointed directly at the citizens who don't serve and refuse to 'Sacrifice'. For the pentagon it's a different story, not an eye is batted as to the ever growing defense budgets, even when the corruption and incompetence within is outed, they call that strong on national defense, so the money goes to WMD's but not Proper Care for all!
Visit the NPR site for the rest of this report as well as back links of the added investigative related journalism reports on this issue done in collaboration with ProPublica
This isn't about shifting funds, from other needed public paid issues, as one so called political party keeps demanding, to pay for needs. This is about the rubber stamping of Wars of Choice but not the Proper Funding, and little mention of, as to the long term results to those very few who serve and are sent and the families of!
UpDated Followup Report
One of the very few extremely wealthy, billionaires, multi-millionaires or millionaires that actually do 'trickle down', but he had to get angry first! The Military, nor us Veterans of, serve just the individual wealthy, nor the wealthy class, they serve the Country and it's up to the Country to pony up the costs as to the results of their wars of choice! And this wealthy citizens, even though mad, can only help a few.
T. Christian Miller and Daniel Zwerdling, of ProPublica and NPR, bring a followup of the above report and reports at site'
Bobby McKinney, 29, prepares to groom a horse at the Chastain Horse Park in Atlanta as part of the cognitive rehabilitation therapy provided by the Project Share program, which aids brain-damaged soldiers.
One afternoon this fall, Bobby McKinney hunched over a coffee table with a clear glass surface. A lamp with a bare light bulb illuminated it from below. Pencil in hand, the former Marine traced the pattern for a tattoo across delicate paper, a swirling, intricate design reminiscent of a Celtic cross.
McKinney's small apartment faded from his thoughts: The closet filled with shirts and pairs of jeans, hung three inches apart, all facing exactly the same direction, the way the Marines had taught him. The box packed with a dozen brown plastic medicine bottles. The worn couch that he slept on instead of the bed. The eraser board on his refrigerator where he had scrawled "A coward dies a 1,000 deaths. A warrior dies one."
Suddenly, a nurse's aide knocked on the door. Had he checked the oven? McKinney leapt up and ran to the kitchen, pulling out a tin of brownies on the point of burning.
"I guess I was just very focused on the tattoo design," he told a counselor later, pushing a camouflage baseball cap back on his head. "I set the alarm. I guess I just didn't hear it."
"Try to work on one thing at a time," she told him. "Multitasking is just asking the brain to do two or three things not too well."
snip
To see what cognitive therapy looked like, ProPublica and NPR spent several days with McKinney and fellow soldiers and veterans at Project Share, a charity to help brain-damaged soldiers. The program is based out of the Shepherd Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Injury in Atlanta, a nationally recognized hospital for head injuries.
Former Home Depot magnate and philanthropist Bernie Marcus founded Project Share in January 2008 to fill the gaps left by Tricare and military and veterans hospitals, which often lack the expertise and staffing to provide a full-scale program of cognitive rehabilitation therapy. {continued and listen to report}
No comments:
Post a Comment