THE HOME AFFRONT: The abuse of our troops, the neglect of our veterans

[Jade Fox]

This is a mind-boggleing article about the reality of how our Government
treats the common soldier. It is quite lengthy, so its difficult to pick just
four paragraphs. I'm having trouble with the link directly to the article, so
I will also post the link to the paper (The Seattle Weekly)

<http://www.seattleweekly.com/>
<http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0428/040714_news_homefront.php>


They fight for us, obediently. Yet in conflict after conflict, American soldiers are
injected, gassed, medicated, eperimented on, exposed to chemicals, and given
faulty weapons and equipment by their own government. Then they come home
to vanishing veterans benefits and Pentagon stonewalling.

-snip-

In the decade since the first Gulf War, more than 320,000 veterans of the
696,000 deployed have sought medical treatment from the VA--the country's
largest hospital system, run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second
biggest government agency next to the Pentagon.

-snip-

About 214,000 of those veterans have filed disability claims for war-related
injuries, diseases, and conditions, and so far 161,000 are receiving war-related
disability payments.

-snip-

That's right, 214,000. And counting. The public perception is we suffered
minimal losses in a war that flittered across TV screens for hardly a week.
Yet almost a third of America's soldiers came home as casualties.
Here's another figure to think about--especially if you're serving or have served
in Iraq and Afghanistan: Since the first Gulf War ended in 1991, at least 11,000
veterans, whose average age during the war was 36, have died.

[Mari333]

1. Corporate news is making far too much money on sick soldiers

to care about what happens to them or report this. The CEOs in the media are profitting from the deaths, woundings, and severe trauma of the military men and women. The CEOs dont care, they love the $$$$ they get from the deaths of our children and loved ones, no matter what...those war profits are all that counts to Bush and his wealthy friends.
Fodder, thats all these kids are to them. Pawns. Meaningless.