This Is Important

Hey, today is Veteran's Day. The Real Veteran's Day. Forget the mall and the crapmeisters who want you to think you support the veterans by getting ten percent off a piece of crap you don't really need. Go read this. Read it all, including the links. Then go find a veteran, thank them, and promise them you'll stay on your elected representatives until the disgrace that passed for supporting the troops during the Bush administration is only a bad memory.

Then keep that promise.

Update: Most of the time we think our commentors are crazier than we are, (Hey, they read this blog don't they? Case closed) or maybe they just drink a cheaper vodka. Anyway, every once in a while a comment comes through that restores our faith. We're pulling one of those comments up now to share with you:

Twenty-five years ago, I remember a Vet from Vietnam who came to our door "selling magazines." He also walked with a very bad limp.
We had just moved there. We were waiting for our new checks and I had just spent all the cash I had on hand on gas and groceries. I said : "Please come back."
Well, the next morning, he came back, and once again, I was horrified I had zero to subscribe immediately.(I thought he'd come back later in the P.M. or week!)
I then asked him to come back when my husband would be there in 24 hours (Sat.) and the checks or cash, would be there and we would certainly subscribe to at least two magazines. (where were all the other neighbors?)
Sure enough, that man returned, limping up the driveway, with all his magazine subscriptions. My husband met him halfway down the drive and asked him in for a drink and talk.
He told us a few unbelievable tales and of course, he was emotionally damaged. We ended up subscribing to three and boy, did we feel impotent.
I told my Uncle who had lost his am in WW11 about this fellow and he shook his head. (he was a lawyer) His arm had been blown off by a grenade when he grabbed it off the ground to throw back at "the enemy". He then wrote my son, age 10 at the time, (now also a lawyer) that war was something to avoid at all costs, particularly if you can work out your problems with thought and economics and heart.
So, when I saw Obama ,who obviously feels that intelligence can sometimes over-ride "the bomb", I had to think of this Vet and my Uncle. Too many harmed and at what cost and by the way, does it make a difference?
There can be no more "Ugly Americans" or "Americans" , period, who cannot look into the eyes of those who suffered for them, let alone, who refuse or ignore their pleads for help.
Should wars be absolutely the final case, let us make certain we not only provide the best protective weapons and uniforms and intelligence, but we also take very good care of the returning Vets, be it a brain injury, amputation or PTS.

What If We Gave Them A Nice Car Magnet For Their Wheelchair?

OK, we think the pentagon's finally got it figured out. Everybody knows the Army has been having trouble finding people who think losing bodies parts is a good career move, so they've been offering to pay for just about anything you can think of if you'll just join the futility brigade. After all, how much is an arm, or a leg, or two legs worth anyway? We're talking bottom line market value here.

So, that's fine as far as it goes, but the problem is what do you do with those people once you give them the money and they go out and spend it on stuff like, oh we don't know, pants with two legs and shirts with two arms, then they go and get something blown off. Well, ponder no more fellow intact individuals, and members of the yellow elephants corps because your ever vigilant, fiscally responsible, cost effective pentagon has come up with the answer: You make them give the money back.

The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments. "We believes that since these people went over to Iraq and got hurt in the first place, they should be responsible for some of their care," said a spokesperson for the pentagon Office of How Stupid Can We Be. Division of Pretty Dang Stupid.

Men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay money back to the military. "It makes sense if you think about it," said an aide to secretary of defense Robert M. Gates. " I mean, if we get that money back from a vet that gets wounded and give it to an enlistee until he or she gets wounded, then get it back from him or her, factor out the people who get killed outright and pretty soon the bonus program is paying for itself. It's high powered financial planning. You wouldn't understand."

Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye. He's being asked to return part of his $10,000 signing bonus.

"Hey, he's still got one good eye. He could be a crossing guard or something," said a pentagon representative who asked not to be named.

It's a slap for Fox's mother, Susan Wardezak, who met with President Bush in Pittsburgh last May. He thanked her for starting Operation Pittsburgh Pride which has sent approximately 4,000 care packages. "I should have known something was up when the president told me he thought Santa Claus was the one sending the packages," she said. "I just thought he was drunk."

Congressman Jason Altmire has proposed a bill that would guarantee soldiers receive full benefit of bonuses. "Look, the war is costing us trillions of dollars which we're borrowing, so it's not like real money or anything. What's a few more thousand lousy bucks, huh? Chump change."

Oh, When You Said Vet, We Thought You Meant Veterinarian

Oh sure, you think president Bush doesn't care about the veterans returning from the war because of what happened at Walter Reed , but hey, he called for a "probe." What's the guy supposed to do? He's just the president. Or maybe the loss of 26.5 million veteran's records upset you, but come on. They'd only known about those problems for five years, what do you expect? Miracles? Well, the VA has been trying to do that. On paper at least.

Look, the bottom line is no one takes care of veterans like their own. Take the Army for instance. What do they do to reward the longest serving unit in Iraq when it finally returns? Why, everything in their power to make sure the members of that unit receive the full benefits for their service, right guys?

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

Well, look, no system is perfect. We're sure yours is an isolated case.

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school. "Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.

"I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home," said Anderson's fellow platoon leader, John Hobot.

Yeah. Say, listen, we're going to have to get back to you on that. We got a lapel pin crisis going over here.

Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730. Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive benefits to pay for school.

"We don't count leap year," said an Army spokesperson. "Besides, what do they care about school? They're going back in six months anyway."

Well, If You Wouldn't Have Gone And Got Yourself All Shot Up You Wouldn't Need A Hospital

OK, let's say you decide to actually serve your country because you can't find anything better to do. And let's say your decision, unfortunately, occurs in conjunction with the appointment of the worst president in the history of this country. Soon, you find yourself in a war in a far off land, relying on the same crowd of incompetents that got you into the war in the first place to support and supply you. And then, to no one's surprise given the situation you're in, you get wounded and are sent back home. Well, you think, it could be worse. You're alive, no one is shooting at you any more, and you'll soon be a veteran. You've heard the president's speeches; you've listened to the politicians; you've seen the car magnets. You know how much people respect veterans, especially now. Yep, things are definitely looking up.

Then you remember, George Bush is your commander in chief.

Bush said a bipartisan panel he named to investigate problems at the nation's military and veterans hospitals would work to restore confidence in the system of caring for wounded troops. "I'm confident that this commission will bring forth the truth," he said.

When asked how much more "truth" needed to be brought out considering the administration had known about substandard conditions at Walter Reed for years, Bush responded that what he really meant by "truth" was "a way to blame this on Clinton."

The president announced he had ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at military and veterans hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by injured troops from his wars. "Look, I'm not saying people are getting hurt on purpose," Bush said. "It's just awful coincidental that all these guys show up at once, don't you think?"

"Obviously somebody dropped the ball," said panel member Robert Dole, who as a young Army officer during World War II was grievously wounded in action in the Italian Apennine Mountains. "We prefer to think of it as never having picked up the ball in the first place," said White House Press Secretary Tony Snowjob. "You can't really blame us for screwing up if we don't do anything."

Already grappling with low approval ratings and eager to avoid charges that he failed to act promptly, for about the 947th time in his administration, Bush said an interagency task force of seven Cabinet secretaries, led by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, would be convened to determine what can be done to blame the situation on the democrats. "They're the party in power," the president said. "You elected them, not me."

"When you're seeing over 1 million patients a week, you have to be very good, and if there is any one patient who doesn't get the care that they deserve, that's unacceptable," Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said. "Although I have to say this whole thing wouldn't have happened if the soldiers didn't get wounded so much. You know some guys have been here more than once?"

"The American people can feel very good about the health care system that their VA is providing to veterans," Nicholson said. "As long as they don't need its services that is."