Iraq Vets Join the Homeless

[Ruffhowse]

The next generation of shattered U.S. soldiers is already returning home and landing out in the streets. The number of ailing, homeless Iraq veterans doesn't yet begin to approach the fallout from Vietnam, but according to this UPI report, homeless advocates and mental health professionals are seeing the first of what they worry will be a much larger, longer-term trend.

"U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era. 'When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God,' said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. 'I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that.'

<snip>

One Marine, now in a shelter run by U.S. VETS in Los Angeles, described some of the images burned into his memory from the fighting in Iraq -- including the inadvertent killing of civilians at roadblocks.

"'We had a few situations where, I guess, people were trying to get out of the country. They would come right at us and they would not stop,' Lance Cpl. James Claybon Brown Jr., 23, said. 'We had to open fire on them. It was really tough. A lot of soldiers, like me, had trouble with that.'

"'That was the hardest part,' Brown continued. 'Not only were there men, but there were women and children -- really little children. There would be babies with arms blown off. It was something hard to live with.'"

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html
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It's Deja Vu all over again.

[saigon68]

1. THIS WAR WILL GO ON FOR A LONG TIME

Get ready AMERIKA ------- for a new Army of Panhandlers and Squeegee men. Out to do what ever they need, to earn the money to self medicate themselves, to get rid of the demons, daancing in their heads.

Maybe its the old man they OFFED because he didn't move quick enough. Maybe it was the little girl who kept crying beside her mother's body. Or the young boy who kept peering around the corner whose face was exploded by a 5.56 greentip.

[KingChicken]

2. The military and gov't don't give a shit about the troops....

What's all this about supporting the troops? Shoulden't that start with the military, but like always they turn their back.

I really wish these guys in the field could get get it through their head that the military could care less about their own safety. They need to put their foot down, because right now they are being treated like prisioners.

[Moderator]

3. Duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1053668