JK on the blogs - 11 - Special Veterans edition
In researching what’s happening with veterans issues and the regular survey of the blogosphere, I’ve found some related items that I want to share. The first item is old but it’s good.
From Ilona Meagher at PTSD Combat blog:
Unutterable: For Reagan it Was AIDS. For Bush, PTSD?
How many times has the Bush Administration uttered the phrase ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ in speeches or remarks archived at Whitehouse.gov? I did a search this afternoon and found not even one document returned.
Why is a disorder that afflicts tens of thousands of our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans unutterable by this administration? And are Democrats also silent on this issue?
To head off any confusion, the question I’m proffering here is: Is PTSD as radioactive to the Bush administration as AIDS was to Reagan’s? I’m not comparing the two illnesses with one another.
She goes onto search Cheney’s record as well as the President’s record and finds no record of them uttering those words. Then she goes onto query the Dem leaders.
Let’s take a look at other leading political figures. Are they as silent as our Vice President
- this administration -is on this issue? Or do others speak out more on PTSD? Maybe we’ll find there’s an across-the-board silence on this issue—that should go a ways towards absolving Dick Cheney, won’t it?How about Senator John Kerry. Is he silent on this issue?
Nope. 67 articles found including:
• Kerry Pushes to Provide Full Benefits to Vets Exposed to Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, 04/18/2003 • John Kerry Says America Must Stand By Our Military, 02/14/2005 • Kerry Calls for Investigation into Department of Defense’s Treatment of U.S. Troops, 03/06/03 • John Kerry and Senate Vets Pressure White House To Support Disabled Veterans, 12/02/02
And there are 63 more to choose from. So, John Kerry doesn’t seem to have a problem talking about PTSD. Why does Dick Cheney?
Now, John Kerry’s just one man.
Are there other examples of Democratic officials unafraid of talking about PTSD, too? You bet there are. Feel free and take a look over at ePluribus Media where I’ve collected a number of choice quotes. One examination of them, and you’ll see that the Democratic party walks the walk vs. just talking the talk when it comes to supporting our troops. Because if we’re not willing as a nation to support those troops that are hurting the most, then who are we exactly protecting?
Our silence on the plight of our soldiers and marines returning with post-traumatic stress disorder only protects the very people most directly responsible for sending them to the battlefield. They deserve better than silence from our leaders.
More recently Ilona noted at PTSD Combat: BusinessWeek Covers Unique Struggles of the Reservist-Entrepreneur. She then went on to pull a few significant paragraphs from the coverage including this one:
Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chair of the Senate Committee for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, has been working for several years to introduce a Military Family Bill of Rights, a bill that includes comprehensive and direct assistance for military members and their families, including loans, grants, and tax credits for Guard and Reserve members who own their own small businesses or work for one.
Read her whole post here and then check out the complete Businessweek article here.
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There was a rousing and touching diary last week at dailykos titled “My son’s Humvee needs a FRAG Kit 5 NOW!!”
One of the commenters in the diary noted:
Actually, John Kerry spoke on the Senate Floor
Today about this very issue.
He said there was only one contractor being used to for these Armoring Kits…and there could be more!
He’s been bitchin’ about this for a long time… and no one listens!
I do remember seeing some hearing on c-span talking about this long ago… there were other contractor ready, willing & able to provide these kits, but they couldn’t get the contracts. The excuse was…the administration & Rummy thought we’d be outta there by the time they could make & ship ‘em.
Now, 4 years on…no excuse, and still only one contractor.
I also saw, I think it was just the news…of the soldiers combing the “BoneYard” for parts & armor from humvees that had been blown up.
Shows how our Billions are being spent!
And you know what? He was right and here’s the transcript of what JK had to say which included this gem:
One soldier who dies from a roadside bomb because he doesn’t have enough armor is one too many.
And when it comes to body armor and armored vehicles, our troops are not getting what they need. According to The Washington Post this week, our soldiers are short more than 4,000 of the latest Humvee Armor Kit, the FRAG Kit 5. Fewer than half of the Army’s 14,500 up-armored Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan have the latest equipment.
...People are actually holding bake sales to raise money to send body armor and helmets to the troops. Over a year ago, the Pentagon issued a report that many of the deaths in Iraq caused by upper body injuries could be prevented if all body armor issued to our troops included side armor plates. Some of my colleagues raised this issue with Secretary Rumsfeld, and he assured them that the Pentagon would begin procurement and delivery of an additional 230,000 sets of side armor plates.
But just last month, another Pentagon report found continued shortages in force-protection equipment for our soldiers—a shortage of body armor, a shortage of up-armored vehicles, a shortage of communications equipment, and a shortage of electronic countermeasure devices. We’ve also heard firsthand from troops that many are still being issued body armor without the side-armor plates.
...
By themselves, these shortages are troubling, but the President’s plan to send over 20,000 more troops makes them even more calamitous. And now we hear that the troops pouring into Iraq won’t have enough up-armored Humvees and other armored vehicles until July. How can we send over 20,000 soldiers in now when the armor their lives depend on won’t arrive until July? How can we justify this policy to the mother of a soldier killed in a Humvee without proper armor? How can we explain it to a wounded soldier at Walter Reed whose injury could have been prevented with the right equipment?
There’s more where that came from. Complete transcript here with H/T to The Democratic Daily
Next, there’s today’s entry from KarenDC at dailykos in which she describes the meeting of a group at her house. One of the attendees had the opportunity to speak to JK.
Garrett Reppenhagen is a member of Iraq Vets Against the War and Veterans for America (formerly Vietnam Veterans Against the War). He is working on several fronts, but one of the most important is the work he is doing to find a retreat and treatment center for homeless vets. He is seeking federal and state funds to build the center.
Sitting around the table and talking with Lori, Tina Richards, Liam, and Richard and me, Garrett pointed out, “The soldier is only the bullet. It’s the American people who pull the trigger.”
Garrett met with Sen. John Kerry, who told him “Look, I’ve had 500 people here in my office this week. The other 499 were here for other reasons than the war.”
Why is this? Why are there not 500 people in each office, demanding an end to this nightmare?
The stories of the other people present, Liam Madden, Tina Richards and Lori Perdue (told in an earlier diary) are equally interesting and they offer a challenge to the readers.
Finding out more about Garrett’s story led me to this final item.
Trish Wood, an investigative reporter, recently wrote a book, “What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It”, which details the history of the Iraq war through the eyes of those who actually fought in it.
She did a radio interview with C-SPAN radio in which she talked about how her book came about and what it was like to interview the soldiers. Her interview is followed by excerpts of the interviews she did with some of the soldiers whose stories are included in the book.
Very powerful stuff … it does help add depth and perspective to what’s happening. You can listen to it here ... you’ll need realplayer. If that link doesn’t work for you, go to this page and look for the link that says “Listen to Trish Wood from American Political Archive, Nov. 11, 2006”.
And last but not least, here’s one more thing you can do…
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In karendc’s diary entry, she describes her friend Garrett’s experience meeting with Senator Kerry in his office, and asks a very valid question:
“Garrett met with Sen. John Kerry, who told him ‘Look, I’ve had 500 people here in my office this week. The other 499 were here for other reasons than the war.’
“Why is this? Why are there not 500 people in each office, demanding an end to this nightmare?”
On the face of it, that quote and question almost makes it sound as though Senator Kerry is minimizing the importance of anti-war activities compared to whatever it is that the other 499 out of 500 people in his office that week wanted him to address instead.
Needless to say, that interpretation couldn’t be farther from the truth. Senator Kerry has made it more than abundantly clear that deconstructing the current administration’s attempts at empire-building in the Middle East ranks among his very highest priorities. His speeches, his legislative initiatives, and his actions in cyberspace make that very clear. That’s why there are links to his http://www.setadeadline.com initiative on this site and being spread all across the blogosphere, in fact.
Point one: people tend to deluge their elected representatives with demands that s/he pay more attention to their particular priorities.
I know that if I were to somehow bump into Dick Cheney in a hallway somewhere, the first thing on my mind would be to insist that he wake up and smell the coffee and listen to me as a citizen of this country, because I believe his actions and remarks to be totally wrong compared to everything I believe is correct. I’m not going to bother standing in line at his office just to tell him I agree with everything he says or does (which, um, I do not.)
If people who agree with Senator Kerry’s clearly-expressed points of view on the war issues aren’t standing ten deep in line to tell him so, then that’s because they already know he’s with them heart and soul on this one. We know why they’re not in his office talking to him about the war. They have no doubt that he’s already on their side and working on their behalf.
Point two: The real question, of course, is why they’re not lining up ten deep in Cornyn’s, and McCain’s, and Lieberman’s, and the other war-supporting senators’ offices demanding that their voices be heard and their feelings against the war be heeded by those people. I suspect that was the point of the exchange in Senator Kerry’s office.
And besides, who says they’re not doing exactly that? Some are, we know. But maybe not enough—no, strike that, certainly not enough, or else the war-supporters would be having to admit that the current administration’s illegal and immoral war for empire in the Middle East is a hopelessly-botched quagmire.
Some of them are already admitting that in public. Many more of them already admit that in private. And if what we need to tip the scales enough that we-the-people can finally force the neocons to abandon their hopeless, heinous plans for empire is that 499 more of us, or 1499 more of us, or 4999 more of us show up in their offices demanding an end to this nightmare they’ve got us bogged down in… well, then, let’s all step away from our computer desks and head on over to Capitol Hill right this very minute.
This is one of the best and most important JK on the Blogs ever. Thanks for pulling all of this information together.
Excellent post Otter.
This is an excerpt from a February 2006 op-ed, “A Real Way to Honor America’s Troops,”
by Senator Kerry and former Congressman Lane Evans:
I’ll second that, ProSense. I have to say between these stories of a lack of armour and then the Walter Reed story from the WP, I’m just numb from the injustice. I mean—how can they do this to our troops??!!?? I just hope that at least building 18 can be fixed ASAP, and that the wounded don’t have to put up with bloody mice and cockroaches scurrying around their floors. That has just got me upset beyond words.
The Outreach Director for Brave New Foundation is looking for a Los Angeles area person as well as nationwide participants for the Iraq Veterans Memorial project. We are producing a web project that will launch March 19, 2007, the anniversary of the Iraq War. We are reaching out to friends/family/colleagues/teachers/children and fellow soldiers to send us 1 minute videos sharing memories of military personnel who lost their lives in the Iraq War. We will be putting these videos up on our website building an interactive quilt to commemorate the lives of our brave military and have their memory live on. Please see http://www.iraqmemorial.org for more details.
We feel the most authentic pieces will come from those directly affected by this conflict.
If you do not have a camera and still wish to participate, please call the outreach director, Jamiah Adams at 310-280-6117 and she can arrange a time for our volunteer field producers to film your story no matter where you are in the United States.
Thank you.
Iraq Veterans Memorial
I read somewhere that back in ‘04 John Kerry said at a rally “wake up America” and his advisers said oh he must never say that again. Well I’m glad he said it then and too bad the establishment and sorry to say many on the lefty blogosphere need to wake up now.
I arrived too late at KarenDC’s diary and could not even recommend or post to it. But a diary bashing Senator Kerry even though the diary itself had nothing to do with him but had everything to do about “I can bash your Dem better then you can bash my Dem”. How quickly the left plays the media game and how disappointing that such energy is wasted on political games and not on real citizenry when it is most needed.
Otter:
You’re exactly right. I was going to diary this at DKos, asking “And what, exactly, would I *say* to Senator Kerry? Thank you for being sane? Too bad your colleagues in the House can’t remove these SOBs from office?” He’s already doing all he can. I’ve already protested and gone to setadeadline.com, etc.
Therefore, there’s a lot more valuable uses of my time as an activist than going to his office--though something I and lots of other activists forget to do, sadly, is thank the people who are doing their job and doing it well.
I also agree that the quote, taken out of context, gives the wrong impression of the Senator’s priorities.
As far as talking to Lieberman--that’s one of the cases in which I truly believe it would do no good. He’s hitched his wagon to Bush’s star, regardless of the fact that it’s actually a black hole. We won’t get anything out of him. I’d sooner bug the Republicans; honestly, I think we’d have a better chance with some of them.
Has anyone seen the film WHEN I CAME HOME? It is seriously eye-opening - all about homeless Iraq war veterans. You should check out the trailer at:
http://www.whenicamehome.com
Support the Vets!