One of my commenters sent me this. It's from The Agonist and it speaks to what the veterans of the Mess in Mesopotamia might be finding here when they return. A government that thinks they are not casualties, because, well, it's inconveeenient...
"The first Iraq war produced four classes of casualties--killed in action, wounded in action, killed in accidents (including "friendly fire"), and injuries and illnesses that appeared only after the end of hostilities. During 1990 and 1991 some 696,778 individuals served in the Persian Gulf as elements of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Of these, 148 were killed in battle, 467 were wounded in action and 145 were killed in accidents, producing a total of 760 casualties, quite a low number given the scale of operations. As of May 2002, however, the Veterans Administration reported that an additional 8,306 soldiers had died and 159,705 were injured or ill as a result of service-connected "exposures" suffered during the war. . . . In light of these deaths and disabilities, the casualty rate for the first Gulf War may actually be a staggering 29.3 percent."
Needless to say, this is not a topic the mainstream media wants to discuss.
Especially in an environment when military benefits are being cut.
Excerpt taken from The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
To learn more about this subject see: Traprock Peace and Doug Rokke.
And that was from Poppy's war...remembering that it was Dickless Dick in charge of the DoD at the time, and for quite a while afterwards. Look at the 1600 Crew's current instructions to the VA: stop telling people about your services, cut off benefits for some veterans, and oh, by the way...there's no money for you VA lowlifes anyhow.
Yeah, they care about vets as much as most Chickenhawk politicians do, which is to say: NOT AT ALL.
posted by Jo Fish on 02.22.04 at 10:30 PM
Comments:
They have also limited access by the Disabled American Veteran's service officers "because of privacy concerns". If the DAV gets a request they can visit, but they are accompanied by a hospital escort who remains during the interview.
I don't guess we can have these people finding out that they may be due Purple Hearts and more benefits. We can let them join the end of the year+ waiting list for a review of their case.
posted by: Bryan on 02.22.04 at 11:29 PM [permalink]
Asked Clark, after conceding the race, to at least make a statement on Depleted Uranium and its affects on our soldiers.
Question never made it to him though. Perhaps Kerry needs to do this and compare it to agent orange exposure...
posted by: Mr.Murder on 02.24.04 at 12:47 PM [permalink]
