Federal Budget Said to Shortchange Veterans

Federal Budget Said to Shortchange Veterans, Mental health, bureaucracy are chief concerns

February 25, 2005

By Michael Standaert and Josh Wilson

Weekly mortar and rocket attacks kept Army medic Patrick Resta and his companions in Iraq on edge.

But since returning to his native Philadelphia last November, it's the memory of a large roadside bomb that still replays in his head "from time to time."

"I don't consider myself to have ... flashbacks, or anything like that," Resta said. But the mental trauma is "an unavoidable product of the experience that I went through ... A lot of people, even some medics, had never seen someone that had been seriously injured or killed, and this affected them in different ways."

According to a recent Pentagon estimate, 30 percent, or about 100,000 troops, have or will develop mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after coming home.

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I'm new to this forum but spent 13 years in the Army, Spent time in Panama, the first gulf war and Somalia and many of the guys I served with still don't know why they're all jacked up. Please read all of this before you judge what I am saying.
I live in Colorado Springs and eat lunch in places these kids are eating and talking and it really seems to have messed up these kids heads. They're gun ho to go back and take care of their team members, it's not about where they are going or what they have to do when they are there, it's about taking care of their friends and buddies. While that desire is important to surviving and fighting it's all about making sure they don't loose anymore friends. They can't even think about why they are being sent they just want to bring everybody home in their team. It's a mania with them. Ways to survive bombs, fire fights, how long till they bleed out. it's not just one or two guys it's everyday I see them. I am unsure we ever treated it that way. We did want to bring everyone home, we were a team and good friends and we all swore we'd never leave anyone behind But with these kids it's almost frantic in talking about it all the time. They really feel like no one else will take care of them or their guys but them.
When they loose someone it really effects the team really bad to the point they have problems functioning.

Anybody else see any of this?

But I have empathy for a military which is being lied to and mis-used. I can understand the team mind-set which puts your comaraderie above political concerns.

Was entering the military a family tradition for you, or was it simply a career opportunity, or did you truly feel like you wanted to serve your country?

These days I feel that a lot of American kids enter the military for college tuition, to get them out of desperate situations and the like. They did not factor in the horror of war that would face and affect them so seriously. Some of them signed specifically to get bin Laden, and wound up in Iraq.

And once the military is done with them, the feds aren't there to pick up the pieces.

I have been honored that the veterans at the Soldiers for the Truth Forum have accepted me. I went to that forum after being referred there via Hackworth.com David Hackworth is a highly decorated veteran who has a nationally syndicated column entitled "Defending America". I posted what's below to be as biting as it could be, but sadly, the treatment described understates how badly our war vets are being treated. This is my second posting on this forum. I am weak on formating stuff to make it look pretty, so I'd appreciate any direction on how to gain skill using the HTML commands. Also, since it's only my second post here, and I thrive on attention, and positive feedback, both would certainly be greatly appreciated.

A Day in the Park With W’s Circle of Christian Conservatives

Athough the media's not contacted me about it, apparently my short essay about the “Vietnam War Sacrifices of George W. Bush & Today's Military” (see below) is being transmitted from person to person on the internet. Sadly, Christian conservatives ignore the prayer that is the last line :

Today, W continues to serve our country's country clubs. Let those born to wealth, like W, be thankful for the huge income tax cuts they have received. Let the undeserving poor, so foolish in their selection of their ancestors, be grateful for the little they get. May they render their gratitude by entering our military. And may God render their military service, serving all of us, to be as harmless as W's Vietnam War sacrifices.

If we all were in a park on a sunny day, they would run to attack those who assault the evanescent integrity of George W. Bush, trampling any standing in their way, even wheel chair bound disabled veterans, who've put the brakes on. Were you to call them into account for that crime, they'd say, "What Crime? THAT MAN said the President is a Liar. Why isn't he in Jail?"

Well, we've a democracy. The speaker does have the right to say that, but when you rushed toward the soapbox you tossed aside the disabled Vet in the wheelchair. When you stepped on the Vet, instead of stepping around him, you crushed his limbs further.

"You're right, " they reply, "You know they give traffic tickets for cars that block the thoroughfare. Why haven't the police arrested that guy who was in the wheelchair? Now he's lying there on the ground, unable to get up. How dare he block us from supporting the President. There's a double standard here in the marketplace of ideas. That liberal on the soapbox is allowed to speak while patriots like us go unheard."

YOU TRAMPLED UPON A CRIPPLED MAN. Forget about THAT MAN on the soapbox. Stay here and help lift up the Vet there on the ground and help get him to the hospital, please. It’s the right thing to do.

“You bleeding-heart liberal. Who the Hell are you to tell me what’s the right thing to do? I ask myself what would George W. Bush do? HE had the VA throw disabled Vets out in the street. I can't do worse and I'll be damned to listen to a bleeding heart liberal like you who says I can do better. Let him lie there. He'll pull himself up by his own bootstraps."

HE HAS NO FEET. The IED's blew them off.

"Well, if you want to help him, I won’t get in your way.”

That’s mighty big of you, Sir.

“Don’t come running to me if you break your leg.”

VIETNAM SACRIFICES OF GEORGE W. BUSH & TODAY'S MILITARY

Some decry George W. Bush's National Guard service during the Vietnam War. From April 1972 to May 1973, no one saw him show up to serve, but he served our country then as well as Dan Quayle. His daddy's V-P protected Indiana's golf courses from military invasion. W did no less. In fact, he did more.

A patriot, like George W. Bush, may serve our country in other ways, besides obligated military service. He may not have made it to the armories or airfields in Alabama, but he did serve -- and volley -- tennis balls with the daughters of Alabama Republicans.

Every day, W forthrightly faced the risk of dehydration in the hot sun. Sometimes, he even evinced humility -- or inebriation -- by sacrificing his game to the young women.

Hold a tennis ball in your hand. Picture our president's sacrifice away from the Alabama armory, away from the planes, very, very far away from Vietnam. Swatting tennis balls with young misses in the safe suburbs, he shielded them from our seedy cities. In only his early 20's, Bush sacrificed for his country -- club.

Today, W continues to serve our country's country clubs. Let those born to wealth, like W, be thankful for the huge income tax cuts they have received. Let the undeserving poor, so foolish in their selection of their ancestors, be grateful for the little they get. May they render their gratitude by entering our military. And may God render their military service, serving all of us, to be as harmless as W's Vietnam War sacrifices.