Monday, March 12, 2007

Home of the Brave?

I was reading about how our soldiers are being sent to be maimed and killed and everything you already know and then they are treated shabbily by the VA when they come home.
Nation, prepare for a generation of very fucked up Iraq war veterans when they finally come home en masse. It will be horrifying.
As I have said too many times, callousness trickles down from the top, so as long as we have that unspeakable moron for President, don't expect much to change. All his appointees are political and so they do his bidding, which is usually revolting. So it is no use to fire the guy in charge at Walter Reed or the Army Surgeon General, we need to fire Bush. I can't understand how we have allowed this man to continue in office thus far. It gets worse and worse and there he is. Untouchable. It's nobody's fault but ours. A horrid collective lack of balls. Worse, just plain indifference and complacency. Revolting.
But I was thinking, these poor soldiers, underpaid, underprotected, overtaxed, expl0ited, ignored. The ones that are being wounded are being blown up to pieces in horrible, traumatic fashion, by bombs and shrapnel. And the conditions and the bureaucracy at some military hospitals leave much to be desired, as we now know.
So here's my idea: if a veteran comes home and he doesn't get adequate care from the VA, in my view, they should be able to go to the very best hospital in their area and get treated for free. And if not for free, maybe the bill should be sent to the Pentagon. I don't think it is that much to ask from private hospitals, is it? They are used to taking care of people with no means. They cannot refuse treatment, in theory, to those who need it. So why not do a civic duty, chip in, and treat the soldiers who are not getting enough treatment from the Army?
Newsweek says that only 1% of Americans is at war right now: the smallest number ever. As I'm already tired of suggesting we bring back the draft, I guess the least we could do for the soldiers is to give them excellent medical care. Since the Pentagon won't do it.

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