USA is fecked up if soldiers come back from war and end up homeless...

I'm sure the stockholders of Halliburton are not homeless...

From Hero To Homeless

(CBS) For 25-year-old Herold Noel, this winter, like the war, has not been kind, reports CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts.

When "Iraqi Freedom" began, Private First Class Herold Noel was a soldier in the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, pounding a path into Baghdad.

"I fought for this country," he said. "I shed blood for this country. I watched friends die."

And like so many, Herold Noel came home a hero, but he wound up homeless.

He started living out of the back of his jeep when most of his clothes and all of his military medals were stolen at a homeless shelter

"If ever I need to go on an interview, I got my tie, my shirt, so I keep it as clean as I can.

"For a job interview?" Pitts asked.

"Yeah."

When the war in Vietnam washed up the first wave of veterans in need of shelter -- the Department of Veteran Affairs had no homeless programs at all. While today, they offer services in every state. Still, as many as 275,000 veterans will likely sleep out in the cold tonight.

more...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/eveningnews/main683247.shtml

I was watching FIRST BLOOD last night and realized that, in sharp contrast to the dumb Reaganite sequels, it's a quite anti-war, pro-vet film that addressed a very real and overlooked issue: the misunderstanding and mistreatment of vets by conservative thugs who looked down on them not for being "baby killers", but rather because they didn't win a war the thugs had supported.

Yeah, I know it's just a movie and movies aren't real life, but I just needed to throw in this musing. It may be Hollywood fantasy, but it is still a heart-wrenching film to witness.

You can't sit through that final scene of Stallone sobbing to his former C.O. as he recounts the horrors he experienced at Vietnam and back home, without feeling pity for displaced veterans. Too bad the sequels did an about-face and became chest-thumping action flicks for morons.

They're still going through that. The Vietnam War for many of these veterans never ended. They're still struggling with their souls and their lives to this day.

FYI, I thought the ending of the movie was quite powerful.

I had to read Morrell's novel to understand why the Brian Dennehy sheriff character hated Rambo so much; it's only hinted at briefly in the film itself. The sheriff who abuses him is a decorated Pacific war vet. He won his war, and felt Rambo should have won his.

That final scene has never been equalled... Rambo desperately pulls his C.O. down and clings to him. All he wanted was for one person to actually care about him.

but the government didn't give a shit, they'd served their purpose and were no longer of any use. :grr:
The same thing is happening again. Where are all of those people who "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" now? :shrug:

We keep cutting away at the VA budget. PTSD Vets will learn life is a ravenous beast that will consume your every moment's happiness and suck you into a pit of miasmatic despair, without any support, and that only your inner strength will get you through if you harbor any notion of survival at all.

This creates a murerous rage in some akin to the disconnect they had to put their minds through to kill in the first place.

God help them , and all of us.

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We need facts on this, and when he publishes his report, then we can get down to the numbers.

and holding a cardboard sign, "Homeless Viet Nam veteran."

He's tall and gaunt, bearded and dirty, with sharp eyes and bad teeth. He stood up when I approached him.

"What do you think of this new crop of vets they're creating with this war in Iraq?"

"Nobody tells you what happens to your mind. They don't tell you, you'll never think the same again. It does things to your head. My mom took me in when I got back. Some of these guys, they killed themselves." He talked like a survivor, out on the streets. He has dignity.

Its so odd to see the yellowmagneticmadeinchinaribbonontheSUV set march past him for their triplesoydoublesowcowcaramelmochalatte.

I'm worried about the minds of these soldiers who buy the line of the war and remain rigid in believing the lies-- as well as the ones who bought the line and later realize that they were lied to. That the lives of hundreds of thousands of people were squandered.

The emotional toll of Bush's war is devastating.

This is how I say we support the troops-- we honor their service and their lives and tell this president, don't WASTE their lives for your private agenda.

:evilgrin:

Honor the warrior, not the war.

Did you do anything to help the vet you talked to?

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, one third of all homeless males are veterans.

www.nchv.org

Funny, with one in five homeless being HONORABLY DISCHARGED veterans.

But it's no secret that Republicans don't respect anything but money.