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    Veterans' Issues : Are the Citizens at Fault for the Veterans Lack of Treatment?

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    Is this the best way to seek Veterans assistance?

    Brow beat the living be-jabbers out of the citizenry of the country when the majority of them are also in need?

    This fella's spiel is being published so often that it's not hard to notice that it's falling on deaf ears...

    Wake up, America! War off the Radar, Congress Fail

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    After nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 2 million Americans have served, a trillion dollars have been spent and yet only 3 percent of Americans have war on their radar this election.

    And where's Congress? Spinning on the campaign trail, scrambling for last-minute endorsements and as Tom Brokaw rightly noted in The New York Times this week, still doing nothing to wake up the country about the surge of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

    continues in the Cafe dumping ground . . .


    Tom Brokaw? When's Brokaw's next book due out? Yesterday?

    And this Mr. Rieckhoff fella who seems to be a pretty good fella, should have made himself more aware of our past history and of this man in this documentary.

    More specifically, Mr. Rieckhoff should clearly get the point about this clear statement in that documentary:

    “If the American people knew the truth about how they had been lied to, about the myths that had led them to endorse this butchery for twenty-five years that they would choose against it. And the risk you take when you do that is that you’ll learn something ultimately about your fellow citizens that you won’t like to hear. And that is, that they hear it, they learn from it, they understand it and they proceed to ignore it.”


    Learn about our fellow citizens? They hear it, they learn from it, they understand it and they proceed to ignore it?

    Yup... And that's why there's going to be hell to pay over the next three to four decades

    Just exactly like the hell that's been paid by individual Veteran's and society as a whole over the past three decades.

    I've worked with fellow Veterans for years. One individual at a time.

    One man helping one individual at a time can do just so much.

    Welcome to the team Mr. Rieckhoff.

    ~OGD~

    Comments

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    Also . . .

     

    At my TPM Castaways site you will find Rieckhoff's A-Team and D-Lists of the representatives from the 111th Congress that met or did not meet the criteria of helping with Veteran affair issues.

    Here is the link.

    ~OGD~


    Thanks for this info, OGD.


    First, I appreciate this guy. Even if it his message is falling on deaf ears somewhat, he keeps putting an issue out there that needs to be advanced. I'm not a veteran or anything, but have been impacted more than I expected by several friends who have served multiple deployments. I appreciate that someone is out there having their backs - because, frankly, they didn't get anything out of the experience that they were promised in terms of truly bankable employment skills or a "future" or whatever. And while they earned a decent salary in the service, it almost felt like when they got out they'd just lost 4-5 years compared to the rest of us.

    I think you are right though. Everyone is hurting right now. And as Rieckhoff notes.

    In 2009, Congress came out swinging for vets. They pushed several major legislative victories to the President's desk. They passed Advanced Appropriations, mandatory mental health screenings for every returning servicemember, and landmark legislation for caregivers and female veterans.

     

    I don't know how many vet-specific bills usually pass congress in any given year. But my impression is generally not many and that 2009 was a significant year. And I was under the impression that they had passed a "New GI bill" also ... but now I'm not so sure. Did that not pass after all? (and yeah ... I tried to do some quick research on it and just got a bit more confused dammit). I think a lot of folks feel like we really have gone to bat for vets quite a bit recently.

    But my point is, it seems people in general are very apt to support legislation that helps vets ... if that legislation is on the table. Without an active context, it's just kind of like "Well, sounds good - but what can we REALLY do?" I don't know if the new found support for shrinking the military budget would impact support somewhat negatively or not - but thus far *where* they have chosen to cut and where they keep spending like money is water has just sucked.

    Since he really is, as you note, browbeating the citizenry I do sort of wish that every so often he would speak to the ability to get personally involved to make a impact "One individual at a time". I don't know that the ears would be any less deaf, but just some practical ways to volunteer a bit of time and help just one person. He has access to a wide audience ... even if only a few respond it could make a real difference in real lives. In all the stuff I've seen he seems to only be focused on what the government is doing.

    In my mind, the best thing we can do for veterans is to get the hell out of these absurd ground wars that are grinding them slowly to pieces. Until we stop creating walking casualties, throwing legislation at the problem is a half measure at best. I think that's sort of a point you are making here also, and if so I agree completely.

    Anyhow ... good post. Sorry to ramble.


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