Jun 22, 2014 - The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost us between $4 and $6 trillion dollars, but that is not the true cost of war. The true cost of war is counted by the dead and wounded, 6,640 U.S. service members who were killed and 50,540 who were wounded through Feb. 5, 2013. Of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines deployed, 103,792 were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 253,330 service members were diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) of some kind. A total of 1,715 service members received wounds that required amputations and 1,493 lost an arm or leg.
The cost of war includes those whose lives will never be the same whether they have visible wounds or not. Horrific scenes will haunt the dreams of the young men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of their lives. Suicides, alcoholism and drug abuse will take even more of those who served. The costs of war are counted in broken marriages, domestic abuse, and homelessness. The costs of war will be counted for more than just the generation that served.
On December 8, 2004, Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, was asked this question by Specialist Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee National Guard: read more>>>
Gen Shinseki had a target on him after speaking Military Truth and the bushco fired him with the cheers of the flag wavin poser patriots!! They praised the bushco VA administrators, as those did nothing, as they do under any conservative administration also doing extremely little but photo op legislation, not funded, to carry that Poser Patriotism for their Poser Patriots!!
19 June 2014 - Local members of Veterans for Peace gathered Thursday to voice concerns about the "massive under-funding, massive under-staffing and effort to privatize" the Veterans Administration that they said has been occurring for the last 15-20 years.
The VA currently enrolls 9.1 million of the estimated 21.6 million veterans living in the U.S.
Buzz Davis, an Army veteran who served in South Korea from 1967-70, said the VA budget hasn't increased enough to correspond with the country's growing number of veterans and its aging population. The U.S. has a propensity to forget its veterans after they return from war, he said.
"What we have is a massive meat grinder. We put in young men and women at the top of the meat grinder," Davis said. "The military, the Department of Defense, all these good politicians who never go to war but think war is just wonderful are grinding that handle on that meat grinder. And out of the bottom of that meat grinder comes men and women who are slightly messed up, or are dead. It goes on year after year. We’ve now been in almost 15 years of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are not learning. We lost in Vietnam, you can’t fight ideas ... you can’t shoot a bullet through an idea. Same thing in Afghanistan. Same thing in Iraq." read more>>>
As well as 'massive' ignoring or denying issues even exist, PTS for decades, Agent Orange contamination for decades, Gulf War Syndrome now for decades, homelessness and crimes and the mitigating reasons driving some towards, with so many more from past conflicts and already ignoring many from OEF and OIF like burn pit contamination! Which finally, even though grossly underfunded but with the help of this entire executive administration and it's cabinet, the Shinseki administration had started addressing, what other VA secretaries, executive administrations, congress and the people they represent, avoided as the people served ignored they exist!
No comments:
Post a Comment