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War is hell, even if you survive
We were not asked to sacrifice anything. Not our money. Not our time to pay attention and not even asked to sacrifice our prayers. The general public was told to go shopping and the rich, well, they were told to keep more of their money and do whatever they wanted with it. War was important enough to start but not enough to fund. What kind of a message do you think this sent to the troops?
The deficit is estimated at $1.27 trillion in 2011 — down from a record $1.56 trillion in the current year.
How much is the war in Iraq costing us? wrote By John W. Schoen Senior Producer for MSNBC answer desk in October 2006.
Pretending Iraq and Afghanistan wars had nothing to do with this, is about as irrational as the politicians can get but then saying the budget for the VA needs to be cut instead of increased is just insane.
Then there are future costs that don’t show up in current appropriations, like the money needed to replace equipment that’s wearing out faster that it would if wasn’t being used in combat. And, since the government is running deficits — and borrowing to make up the difference — at least some of the interest on the national debt has to be added to the Iraq war bill.
If you add these costs, and others, to the total tab, the cost of the war has jumped from $4.4 billion to $7.1 billion a month since the 2003 fiscal year, according to a paper co-authored in January by Columbia University professor and Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, an outspoken critic of the war. The paper estimates the total cost could top $1 trillion.
Now they can use the debt to excuse everything they want to do except admit they have no conscience at all. We’ve heard all their excuses for wanting to cut the debt rich people should be paying at the same time they want to cut everything every other American needs to survive but when they go after the wounded they created, they go too far.
None of them cared about the men and women sent to risk their lives. While Iraq and Afghanistan were important enough to send men and women to risk their lives, up until last year, they were not important enough to put them in the budget. Now politicians want to pretend they give a crap about the debt they contributed to. The President decides to send troops into combat but with the approval of congress and it is up to congress to find the money to pay for wars and wounded.
“Thank goodness at least Congress supports our troops, you say. Remember all those yellow ribbons? Well, some members do and some don’t, depending on their political affiliation. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s report card shows that 91 of the 94 lawmakers getting an “A” for helping vets were Democrats. Of the 154 receiving a “D” or “F,” 142 were Republicans. Public praise on camera doesn’t necessarily correlate with votes for financial support on the House or Senate floors.” Bill Collins
Eight years after troops were sent into Iraq for “six days, six weeks, I doubt six months” according to Donald Rumsfeld, they are still there. According to ICasualties.org there have been 4,440 US deaths in Iraq with 10 killed this year. Fast approaching ten years in Afghanistan, there have been 1,505 US troops killed with 59 this year.
03/18/11 WaPo:8 years after invasion , Iraq, US eyeing whether American forces will stay past year’s end
The American invasion of Iraq was supposed to take only a few months: a quick blitz to depose dictator Saddam Hussein, find and dismantle weapons of mass destruction and go home.
No one wanted to pay for Afghanistan or Iraq. We were told that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would pay for itself and that was fine with the American people but it didn’t. No one planned on taking care of any of the wounded these two wars would create. Now they act as if they are surprised people were wounded in war. Some politicians have gone so far as to say the VA budget needs to be cut because, after all, we have a deficit and “we shouldn’t pass on the debt to our kids” but they are so accomplished at spinning things around to get what they want, they forget we also have a debt to the kids we send to fight our battles in combat. They forget that for all their whining now about the debt, none of them wanted either war in the budget ahead of time. None of them wanted a true accounting on the price tag in terms of dollars, lives or wounded any more than they wanted a true accounting from the defense contractors spending the money in the first place. Anyone in the media asking any of these people about any of this?
This is not the final figure but some want to pretend the deficit has nothing to do with either military action. They just want to cut the budgets for regular people and cut the debt the rich need to pay.
The tour of duty comes with a known risk to their lives but coming home can be more deadly. The time they assume they will be risking their lives on each deployment is usually known ahead of time. For a tour of months or a tour of a year, they know what day they will be safely heading back home but few understand the danger to their lives has not ended just because no one is planting bombs to kill them or shooting at them. The enemy they have to really worry about hitched a ride inside of them.
If we stopped all wars today we would assume the casualty count would vanish. Just because their boots have left the place they were sent, it does not mean they have left it behind. The deaths in combat are only part of the true price of it. The American people want to forget all about it. The dollar figure used to pay for the war needs to be spent on other things. The dead have been buried. The wounded have been taken care of. The widows and orphans have all they need. At least that is what the general public thinks. All is well with the universe and they won’t be bothered anymore. The occasional news report on Iraq or Afghanistan will be taken up by something else. The local newspaper will stop reporting on another soldier’s body coming home. We don’t want to see any of it. We don’t want to see it during combat and we don’t want to see it after.
War is hell, even if you survive
Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2011
My View by Bill CollinsCombat’s dreadful
In Iraq;
Not much better
When you’re back.
Forget for a moment the death, devastation, deprivation, disease, displacement, and despair visited upon civilians in war zones. Let’s briefly contemplate the fate of soldiers. Ours, anyway. We really don’t know much about theirs except for the reported killings of “suspected militants.” And, “suspected militant” has come to mean anybody we happen to kill–man, woman, or child.
Our own casualty numbers are murky too. We eventually learn the total daily death count. But as U.S. soldiers meet their end each day, their numbers are mingled with NATO’s casualties, obscuring the number of Americans killed. Of course photos of the dead, dying, anguished, or their caskets are heavily restricted. So too are any frontline dispatches detailing gushing blood, dismembered limbs, hellish burns, or piercing screams. Censorship sanitizes all that.
Once vets return home, the charade continues. Military and VA hospitals, while far from glitzy, offer some of the best and most efficient medical care around–if your wounds are visible. But if the wound is to your mind, as most are these days, good luck. Many returned troops do receive permanent disability coverage and care, but just the lucky ones. Thousands more struggle to get appointments, struggle to get diagnoses, struggle to get treatments, and struggle to get disability awards.
read more here
War is hell, even if you survive
Do you know any people bothering to go to Walter Reed to visit the wounded? How about going to local VA hospitals to spend some time with them? Unless they have someone they know to visit, the sad truth is few take the time to go. Sure there are celebrities and politicians showing up with camera crews so they can “prove” how much they care, but everything else they do proves they just don’t really think about them at all.
No one wants to pay for any of this but what is worse is that no one wants to pay attention to it. When we fail to plan for the wounded when plans are made to send them, we lose, no matter what the outcome of the war is. The politicians should be ashamed every time they talk about a deficit because they didn’t care about the debt they owed the men and women they sent into combat.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=89033
Posted by Chaplain Kathie on Mar 20 2011, With 0 Reads, Filed under Iraq War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Who are you to judge “the politicians”?
And BTW, anyone who voluntarily signs up to participate in these Zionist crusades, i.e., slaughtering and subjugating Arabs/Moslems for ZOG, is completely morally defenseless and richly deserves whatever happens to them as a consequence.
Seriously Nelson_2008? Do you really think that somebody that voluntarily signs up actually knows what they’re getting into? I belive that most, not all, that sign up voluntarily are sold the heroic and patriotic and very FALSE side of war. Most of them are too young to even understand what it means and they have been made to believe that it’s just like the computer games… no consequences. In my opinion war is hell especially if you survive it. I pray that all veterans may find piece and wholeness after the inhumane and unnatural hell they have been through. They never has and never will be a winner in war.
So if some 18 to 20 year old punks invaded your home and senselessly slaughtered your family, for example, that’d be ok with you, since after all, they’re “too young to even understand what it means and they have been made to believe that it’s just like the computer games… no consequences”, right?
Or are you a hypocrite who might get angry if someone’s hapless “troops” did to you and your family and your town and your country what “our” “troops” routinely do to their victims?
I’m guessing Nelson has no experience, first or second-hand, with war. If he did, he wouldn’t be able to make such hateful comments about those far braver than he. I am anti-war. I get that Nelson is as well. My position comes from a place of personal experience as the daughter of a Vietnam Vet; as someone whose family has suffered immeasureably as a result of my father’s service; because of the betrayal and abandonment, not only from our gov, but from the people of that government. Did my dad know what he was getting into in 1968? No. He knew his classmates were being sent there and not returning and why should he be exempt from that danger. Oh, by the way, Nelson – he refused a weapon on moral grounds and went as a combat medic. No slaughtering or invading on his part. He takes responsibility for his part in what he now understands was an immoral action, and is suffering physically/emotionally for it.
Do you have that kind of courage? Character? Not many do.
It is the politicians who start and feed wars. But it is mainly the citizens. The soldiers are the final players in the situation. Your anger is misdirected and ignorant, and that’s unfortunate. Mostly for you. If we insisted that our people, our government, appropriately supported our veterans, all our vets, the way they promised to, we would have no money left to carry on acts of war. We would have no citizens left who didn’t understand the true costs of war. I don’t want people to die in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Libya, or Vietnam or America. Period. If we start actually having to pay the bill for war, maybe it won’t happen as much.
I want to thank you for this comment. People like Nelson want to take the simple way out and think that if no one served, there would be no wars. The truth is, all through history, there have been wars and will always be wars. No one is really “pro-war” unless they happen to be a defense contractor looking to make a lot of money.
Ask most veterans if they like war and you’ll hear how much they hated it but if you ask them if they would do it again, they would. Not because they like war, but they were proud to serve with the other people sent to also risk their lives. When they go, the reason behind why they are there is secondary to who they are there with.
My husband is a Vietnam vet. We belong to a lot of organizations and groups with veterans and I have to tell you, I can’t think of better groups of people to be with.
You and your Dad are in my prayers. He is rare in this country. Veterans are less than 10% of the population and even fewer are combat veterans.
You seem to have a pretty limited understanding of what war actually is. I am anti war, but your hatred toward soldiers is simply misguided as you either refuse or are not capable of seeing the bigger picture.
What about the politicans and their responsibility of sending those kids to war, but never their own? What about their betrayal and therefore the betrayal of the entire country (which they represent) toward the troops during the war and decades after that?
What about the families of these kids that suffer unspeakable and unthinkable pain that the soldiers pick up, carry with them and bring home for the rest of their lives? We as human beings are not meant to be put in situations that are so incomprehensible that they simply cannot be processed and end up breaking our souls… and to top it all of we as a country actually condemn these broken souls when they come home and push them to the curb, pretend they don’t exist and hope they kill themselves before they get too expensive. Why is it that we as a nation don’t want to look at what war really is and rather cover it up? Of course it’s ugly, but without facing it we’ll never see the truth and continue to live in the fairy tale were actions don’t have consequences and continue to ultimately destroy ourselves.
Great article chaplain as an Iraq veteran 06-07 i can tell that what you write here is spot on your info is good the war never leaves your soul just because you survived many didnt and that burden is lifelong and gets very heavy some days.For you people who are blaming us for the debt because we served dont you see the damage you have done to us look in the mirror and know we did it for YOU dont matter if you were for the war or not IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA we served for you and to come back here and hear this crap makes it just more bad for our health the price of war for soldiers is much higher than any amount you can pull from your wallet.People back here years back quit supporting soldiers and this war the minute it wasnt over soon its the microwave mentality but we know real war never goes like they planned it back on the base its how you deal with the unknown determines missions completion .Please stop arguing about why we shouldnt have gone to war or not the point is we went its done now we are coming home to a nation who wants to act like it didnt happen but we will be looking in your eyes at the store we are the face of war and we are here living with you now so stop your crying about why we went it doesnt help one soldier who seen the hell from war or just GET OUT OF AMERICA ! if you dont like it here theres a nice little town in north Iraq called Mosul looking for citizens you can go there cry about your country,OH and watch those IEDs on you way to the market bet you sorry asses would run back to America get on your pc everyday and thank god you live in USA !!! Thank You Chaplain Ron
Ron, thank you very much, especially as an Iraq veteran because you were there. What you wrote is powerful.
Most people in this country, no matter where they stand on today’s wars, have separated the warriors from the wars, but you are right. The interest in Iraq ended just as the interest in Afghanistan ended. You guys still risked your lives for what was “important” enough to congress and President Bush to start.
For a while, I thought that it was because of the lack of media reports. I read news reports from around the country and I knew people cared. There were stories of the fallen being transported back home through streets lined with people holding flags. More stories of how people were donating money and time to build homes, help Fisher Houses and show up at airports to welcome home the troops. I knew they cared but they didn’t really care enough.
At the same time I was reading about what was happening to PTSD veterans coming home and falling apart, losing jobs, homes, and yes, attempting suicide, few seemed to really care.
Now I am wondering if they are just unable to understand what it is like to be so unselfish all of you are willing to lay down your lives for other people. What you have to go through away from home, family and friends, enduring hardships while deployed, is something they will never be able to understand because they can’t even be bothered to read the few reports that do manage to be printed.
Please remember that even as Vietnam veterans came home to more anger, there were still a lot more people who did care but they were not “newsworthy” enough to report on. The ignored joined forces with the Vietnam veterans to make sure the men and women we sent into combat were not blamed for where we sent them.
Forgot to say this i can actually understand now why some vietnam vets actually never came home stayed in vietnam and laos with women they found there i never understood this for many years why they never wanted to come home to USA? But now sadly i must say i truely see what they seen maybe they were the smart ones? Ron
Most veterans want to go back to where they risked their lives because that became familiar to them, home became strange. They changed with all that happened but they were too busy to notice how much. They felt they didn’t fit in back home with people expecting them to just go back to the way they were before. They even wanted to “get over it” and pick up where they left off but no one is ever the same after combat.
In combat, you knew what to expect. You knew that any day could be your last but you also knew who would lead you, where your ammunition would come from, your food, water and other supplies. You got used to the people, saw how they lived, how hard their lives were at the same time you saw many happy you were there.
War reporting is always on the “big scale” but fighting in war is always done where you are, with small groups of people trying to survive surrounded by “locals” you are sent to save. You see all of that then go home to people not able to “get over” something as simple as the fact you forgot to take out the trash. They complain that they can’t buy a new car when you just left people willing to share what little they had with you. They complain that they have a cold or the flu and can’t go to work, when you just did a year in hell and didn’t get to call in sick no matter what happened. They complain their babies kept them up at night or their spouse did with snoring but you can’t stop having nightmares or flashbacks.
TV shows mean nothing and you wonder when you’ll hear anything about where you were. Movies are something to avoid because sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers is not your idea of a fun evening. The difference list goes on and on but some veterans cannot adapt back without help. So like Vietnam veterans staying there, they did because they felt more at home than back here.
i would love going to all veterans hospital and talking if the goverment covered food/lodgeing/transportation i am a vet an willing to travel anywhere the va send me. and not asking for a salary.
Henry, wonderful. I have a couple of suggestions.
My husband and I belong to a local DAV. We do things with the local VA. Simple things like going to the nursing home putting on a bingo game handing out snacks once a month. Holidays we do events with them or with other groups in Orlando. Christmas we get together to take care of the homeless veterans at the VA. There are a lot of groups of people going just to spend time with them. Every VA hospital has a volunteer coordinator. You can do it as often as you like.
Last year I took a tour of Walter Reed Hospital during a trip for Memorial Day. The wounded said my visit meant more than when politicians showed up or celebrities with the their cameras putting themselves first instead of the wounded they felt used. They love it when regular people show up to spend some time with them. Then they felt appreciated.
You can also volunteer at a Veterans shelter. They need people to do everything from serving food to cleaning up to just sitting and talking to the veterans. You’d be amazed how much just spending a few hours a week does for all of them. Volunteering your time means more to them because they know you do it because you care about them. It’s why I do what I do and there is nothing that can “pay” me more than the feeling they give me back.