Support Our Veterans, Our Troops and Their Families
By Jon Perr Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 12:00pm
This Veterans Day is an especially painful reminder of the immeasurable sacrifices American military men and women make every day to protect our nation. Even as tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain in Iraq and thousands more are poised to join their comrades in Afghanistan, Americans are still grieving over the tragedy at Fort Hood.
On this day, we remember that the liberty we enjoy was earned by generations past and present of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Now defended by an all-volunteer force which selflessly answered the call of service, Americans are immensely fortunate and forever indebted to our military men and women.
They honor us all every day. On Veterans Day and every other, we should honor their sacrifices, remember the fallen, help the wounded and comfort their families.
The Defense Department has a helpful directory of groups and charities which provide services and support to our veterans, troops and military families. For information on how you can help support the victims of the Fort Hood tragedy, visit the BBB listings for the Fort Hood Chaplain's Fund, the local Red Cross, USO Fort Hood, Fort Hood Fisher House and other charities serving Fort Hood and the Killeen, Texas community.
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who have made it possible for me to be sitting here typing on a computer in these times. As someone who has never served, I can't feel all that you go through/have been through. And forgive me if I have come across as having spoken inaccurately for what you may or may not have endured; I've meant no malice.
Peace.
Support the troops, bring them all home and give most of them civilian jobs.
End the 'wars', cut the 'defense' budget by 90% to be in line with the actual defense requirements, dismantle the Corporate Congressional Perpetual War Machine, dismantle the CIA, dismantle the National Security State, the NSA, the Department of Homeland Security, end the Empire and learn to live in peace with the Earth and the people on it.
War is a racket, it always has been.
"Give 'em, hell, Alice!"
is a place for soldiers to relax and get help just off Ft. Hood run by military wife and CodePink member Cindy Thomas. They could use some love too.
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/4...
Dogs welcoming soldiers home. (thru Glenn Greenwald)
I haven't seen my dog in two months, but I will finally on Sunday. Haven't been in the service, but I was in Orlando during Friday's shooting...
Watching those clips made me laugh and cry (tears of joy) at the same time.
Thank you so much!
Dogs are so genuine. Your welcome.
Vets deconstruct their uniforms, turn into art.
http://multimedia.boston.com/m/21596154/the-c...
thanks for sharing.
WTF is up with some cities, such as here in Orlando, running their Veterans Day parades on other days than today? Not running here until Saturday. Govt offices are shut down, many have the day off--why not today??
Any ideas?
Now hear this... Squawk, squawk, "This is the Captain... Who the Hell took down my Mission Accomplished sign"?
"This Veterans Day is an especially painful reminder of the immeasurable sacrifices American military men and women make every day to protect our nation."
Mr. Perr...I had hopes for you! This is a talking point and propaganda! They are not protecting our nation in any real sense.
"Now defended by an all-volunteer force which selflessly answered the call of service, Americans are immensely fortunate and forever indebted to our military men and women.
More bullshit Republican talking points! Most do it FOR COLLEGE MONEY!!! THE SILENT DRAFT!! The "call" is a bonus check for most. If not they are rubes for fighting for GE and Halliburton!
"They honor us all every day."
Going to ignore the technical issues with this sentence and only rail at it's utterly silly premise. They do not honor us. They do their job, not for us, but for the Military industrial complex.
HERE IS A MUCH BETTER SENTIMENT!
Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen...come home and we will care for you! Come home and we promise you won't have to go again. Come home and end the lie. COME HOME! WE LOVE YOU!
Perhaps overly broad.
This crazy class I have at the University fills my head with ideas about critical thinking. The professor keeps telling us to look at evidence and come to conclusions based on that evidence and not on opinion or feelings.
She also keeps telling me not to use
propagandameaningless generalities when describing important topics and issues! Crazy woman!Being a veteran makes me cringe all the more when words like honor (a word made by aristocrats to justify killing people who offend them like serfs, or indigenous peoples or other aristocrats!) and selfless and sacrifice when talking about premeditated murder and aggresive war and torture.
As for Tillman, well he should have known better. His education should have prepared him for a world outside the stadium where winning and losing and the rules aren't so easily defined. Had he done some research on the history of American intervention since the end of World war II, he would have noticed how "messy" those "interactions" can be!
A three letters word: OIL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P8CzRbLnC4
Please don't let them die for OIL!
Most of them Soldiers don't even know it!
... but your perspective isn't theirs. We were attacked on September 11 and many young men and women, including Pat Tillman, signed up for the best of reasons. That many young men and women were deluded in their trust does not denigrate that trust; it denigrates those they trusted.
Others we honor today were given no choice but to serve their country. Not just anyone can swing a deferment for a zit on their posterior. That the Vietnam occupation was unjust should not disparage those who did their duty with honor.
There's a reason the military wants 17-19 year olds, and it's not merely physical. They are vulnerable in ways that even twenty two year olds are not.
I agree with much of what you say as an adult with some decades of experience behind me. But I also thought much differently at 17.
"But I also thought much differently at 17."
So did I!
"signed up for the best of reasons"
The world's most powerful and richest country invaded the world's poorest and weakest country. I know they "thought" they could "avenge" our country. They were wrong.
Where, when did you serve?
Thank you.
83-89 Army, Southern Command, Panama, Honduras
89-93 Army Reserve 220 Armored Bn. S-1
1978-1982, Air Force, Edwards AFB, 1925 Communications Squadron, Mojave Desert California, Top Secret Clearance.
1982-1986 Inactive reserve
1982-1992 Had to report in everytime I moved so they could remain current on my address.
You too Mudshark and all you other Vets out there on the tubes..
73-76 US Army, Washington State, Bavaria Germany
76-79 None of their business.
.
1980-1982, 567th Engineer Company ADM, Hanau West Germany.
1982-1983, US Army Communications Command, Ft. Benning, GA.
1983-1986, Inactive Ready Reserve
is the ONLY economic option they have. Truly tragic.
Yes, and it continues.
at the same time it is a way up and out for many who would never get a chance otherwise.
In Basic Training ('73), there were kids from Caribbean Islands, and Central America that were tremendously grateful for their chance to serve in our military.
First time for many to have health care and have a real Dentist to look at their teeth. Three squares a day and money in your pocket and building up a down payment for a house or piece of land......it's all a matter of perspective.
They don't need deferments anymore. THEY NEED TO NOT BE LIED INTO WAR.
soldiers who enlist generally don't get to pick which conflicts they'll be dropped into. I also very much doubt that any enlist to support the military-industrial complex. Valor should be honored for itself and not for the cause to which it is put.
To the best of my knowledge, the Congress has not declared war since 1941. Since then, the US proper (not its "protectorates) has never been attacked by a foreign power. Those American soldiers who died in the Pacific and European battles were indeed heroes. Those who have died since (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) did so to protect the expansionist (i.e., economic) plans of the 500 families that control both the Congress and the Executive (primarily through lobbyists). They were dupes for the solidification of the Empire. It is a crime that they had to die. The failed elites are the true criminals.
as something of a shock to the veterans of those latter conflicts and the families of those who failed to return from them. I wonder if you have the courage to inform them personally of this "fact". There is also the historical perspective to consider. Did congress's stamp of approval render the Mexican-American war just? Or the war of 1812? Or the Spanish-American war? I think you'll find many historians disagree with that assessment.
War is a racket, it always has been.
The great untold story is how American corporations continued doing business with the Axis in WWII.
And made massive profits.
Had we not been propagandized into the first 'world' war, there would have been no second world war.
War is made for war profiteers.
As for the rest of the conflicts, they were all in the service of the interests of imperialists.
The Mexican war was to acquire lands to expand southern slave holdings.
The Spanish American war was for profiteering.
Even the revolutionary war was fought in mainly for the interests of the larger land owners. The poor farmers were not nearly so interested in the revolution. There were as many if not more neutrals than revolutionaries.
Today, we have a militarized society. It is part of the perpetual war machine begun with the National Security Act of 1947.
I love you!
Every war has it's profiteers. That should not detract even slightly from the fact that honor is due to those who risked their lives and those who lost them. Even to those on the "wrong" side of a war.
“At the time it was impolitic to pay the slightest tribute to the enemy, and Japanese determination. Their refusal to die, was commonly attributed to ‘fanaticism.’ In retrospect it is indistinguishable from heroism. To call it anything less cheapens the victory, for American valor was necessary to defeat it.” -William Manchester (US Marine and historian)
Alice-X-Chomsky-Nader:
It's worse than that.
The real untold story is the massive investment made by American Fascists (Henry Ford, the Bushes and Harringtons) in Hitler's rise to power.
The eventual outcome was the formation of the American Military Industrial Complex.
The Fascists didn't lose WW2.
but none of those names are engraved on any war memorials. Nor should they be. This is not their day of remembrance.
They deserved prison cells that they never saw the inside of, as they should. Prescott Bush being one of them.
Conflicts they most certainly were. Better descriptors might be invasions, incursions, illegal occupations and war crimes. All I was trying to point out is that none of these "conflicts" were sanctioned by Congress and legal. How is that lacking in courage??
that congressional sanction does not a "just" war make as Alice-X rather succinctly summarized. Those wars were all driven by expansionist policies.
"legal" and "just" are not synonyms. But logically one cannot have a "just" war if war not not been "legally" -- i.e., in accordance with the constitution -- declared. Any non-legal war is unjust -- and, hence, an international crime -- by definition.
victors get to decide what was just or legal. Logic seldom enters into it.
is important in a humanistic, citizen-based democracy. Moral relativism with its attendant linguistics vagueness and "street smarts/real world" weariness is a cop-out.
of responsibilities does it not? It should not, for example, be used to minimize the sacrifice of people who, in good faith, put themselves in harm's way by suggesting that they are merely uninformed tools of some military-industrial complex. To so minimize their sacrifice is a cop-out of a debt owed.
.
They get to decide what's just, not what's legal.
of this "fact" somehow makes it more or less of a "fact"? Don't be such an ass.
From MSNBC News, posted on YouTube by MoxDotNews, aka CSPANJunkie:
U.S. Media Tribute to Highway of Heroes
From BBC News, also posted on YouTube by MoxDotNews, aka CSPANJunkie:
6 Fallen UK Soldiers Return Home From Afghanistan
Should be required viewing in US political studies classes, if they even have those anymore.
Much appreciated.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
There are two possibilities with my slower than average heartbeat I have to check with the VA now
I'm getting more athletic
Or I'm getting Bradycardia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUyTZlJnRns
Wouldn't it be nice if it were unnecessary to have veterans?
To commemorate veteran's day, Barak is creating another 34,000 veterans.
We see next year if he has the same plans for memorial day.
We celebrate their accomplishments, their valor, their dedication.
We can honor those who represent us in conflict or in an emergency that bring forth their humanity in the face of abject horror.......can we be happy for those who kept themselves alive and came back to us at the same time we can feel sorrow for those who gave their lives?
My Lai was the face of abject horror. It's all a mixed bag.
party pooper
think about how all of the deaths that have happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, happened (for all of those people, and they're still people, and always will be) happened "at home". No disrespect intended to the servicemen and women, they may well have done honorable service, and I feel for them, I really do. But we've killed a hell of a lot of innocent people in service of what, exactly? Nothing worth having, I'd have to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6oWvAGmiCo
This essay was in the local newspaper today:
http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/sto...
A brief history and photos of Vimy Ridge:
http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/others/vimy....
Today is a day to be angry.
A day to be angry at the government that uses soldiers like pawns, mistreats them, and then sheds crocodile tears when they are killed or wounded.
"Even as tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain in Iraq and thousands more are poised to join their comrades in Afghanistan, Americans are still grieving over the tragedy at Fort Hood."
This is a testament to the ineffectiveness of the attempt to remove Bush from office in any meaningful way. His legacy continues in full force.
but it isn't a day to be angry. Shed some non-reptilian tears for those whose lives were lost and their forever altered families and be angry the rest of the year. One day a year isn't too much to spare is it? Sadness at the monstrous waste war generates is, on the other hand, perfectly justified.
I have lost someone in my family.
We will never recover.
I feel sadness all year.
Today, I feel angry.
any argument I could make. My condolences to you and your family. The sadness may never entirely pass but I hope the anger will.
but if we just stay sad and never get angry, nothing will change.
Guy next to me asked if it was true that they served veterans for free on Veterans Day. They said, "Yeah", so he pulled out a large, yellowed Manila envelope that held his discharge papers from Vietnam so he could get a free meal.
I shook his hand and thanked him for what he'd done. I felt good, but only for a minute. How hard must that have been for him (and probably many across the country like him) to have to pull out painful memories, embossed on a piece of paper, so they could get a free, pathetic fucking sandwich!
Anyway, I've got no good answer.
Thanks again to those who have done more than I for this country. You all deserve better than you get.
"Support the troops" does not mean "support the war" . They need all the help they can get during these times, especially the wounded (physically and mentally) and the repeat tour soldiers and their families.
To throw more bodies into this mess is not only criminal, it's one more nail in the President's coffin of broken promises. It's time for a progressive third party that isn't bought and paid for by the corporate military empire.
The winners of wars like World War II look back with pride on the soldiers who died. How do the Germans look back on it? With regret for the waste?
The waste of lives in pointless wars should be acknowledged, not brushed under the carpet of false patriotism and flag waving. Unfortunately, it rarely is, and discussing it is considered treason in some circles.
Let's not confuse supporting our troops and supporting their service. Our troops enter their service with the best intentions. They want to support our nation and they want to get what is deserved of their service.
My dad entered the Army in 1934 to support his family. It was the height of the Great Depression. His only option to support his family was the $21 he got per month as his salary. He got out after 7 years service in September of 1941. The Depression was largely over. He was sent from Scoffield Barracks in Hawaii to San Francisco. He hopped a train and made it home to PA by late October of 1941. He got a good manufactuaring job by late November 1941. On December 8, 1941, he was called back up to service because he had been a Drill Sergeant. And he nobly served until 1945. He served in the South Pacific Campaign. At first he drilled new soldiers on how to become US Army Soldiers, then, he went into the jungles of New Guinea. He lived and fought in conditions that would kill most of us. He climbed mountains, he fought hand to hand, he lost his spleen, he contracted malaria. I honor his service.
My biological father enetered the Army-Air Corps in 1943. He enetered as a PFC, was promoted to Sgt. 2 months later. He served as a tail-gunner on a B-23. He participated in the liberation of New Guinea, China and Luzon, and saw ground combat in the Celebes. He served until 1946. I honor his service.
My grandpa fought in WWI. He served in the trenches in France. He lost a lung due to mustard gas attacks. I honor his service.
Let's honor our troops for their service. Don't call them out on the politics involved. They didn't enter the service because of the politics, they entered because they loved their country. For that, they deserve our honor and respect, and also full benefits from the gov't.
Some don't. Sarah Palin's kid went in because it was do that, or face jail time and a record.
Somewhere we have to keep track of the fact that in most confilcts that the U.S. has fought in, have been immoral.
And happy Keep Working Veterans So That Government And Bank Employees Can Have A Day Off Day.
Rangers Hymn (or so it was described to me by a Ranger qualified LT)
We're a bunch of assholes
Scum of the Earth
Filth of creation
Gone from bad to
Son of a bitching masturbation!
Found in every whore house
Smoke, drink and screw
We love to screw!
We're the boys from 7th platoon
And we cordially say
Fuck you!
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