We know that the Bush administrations rhetoric is usually bogus — see “promoting democracy,” for example. At the height of their hypocrisy, though, is “support the troops.” Not only do they still lack health care, but now there are hundreds of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, many of whom are sexual assault survivors.
It’s shameful.
Similar Posts:
- Shoes and Democracy by Lauren December 16, 2008
- Some Numbers. by Jill February 26, 2008
- The Afghan Women Tug of War by frau sally benz December 5, 2009
- There’s a shocker by zuzu January 23, 2008
- Everything that’s wrong with the world by Jill April 4, 2008
You should link to ginmar’s post over at Shakesville.
I work with homeless people in KCMO, and volunteer with homeless veterans in KCK. Nothing pisses me off more than the lack of services available to these guys. The system is set up like a merry-go-round. There is no real incentive to improve life, because once they lose Medicaid (because they make too much money) they can no longer get adequate health care in most cases. There is very little affordable housing outside of public housing, and many homeless veterans have felony convictions for drug possession (not sales, not violent crimes, but for addictions often in part caused/correlated by PTSD) so therefore these vets aren’t eligible for public housing.
The homeless vet programs around here work their tails off to help, but they have nothing to work with. The HCHV (health care for homeless veterans) has been whittled down in the last decade at the KCVA from five social workers and a supervisor to one social worker and a supervisor, while demand has gone up exponentially.
With any luck, public outcry will do something for these guys (including the female “guys” /waves at Ginmar) and there will finally be enough services to go around, especially increasing services for female veterans.
The worst part is that now is the best time for interventions, before these veterans develop the kind of long-term mental health and drug abuse issues that are the hardest to treat. And yet they won’t get that treatment, because once you come back from Iraq or Afghanistan, you’re garbage that needs to be thrown away so people don’t stop and think about the cost of war.
The man in the top picture brought tears to my eyes. Some people would see a man like that on the streets and think the worst thoughts, he’s a bum, a loser, get a job. This is a man who served his country and sacrificed and this is the thanks he gets. What a disgrace.
Waving American flags will not cut it anymore. If I see a flag waver, I will brand them as a racist.
Homeless troops? That is worse than shameful, Jill F. — that is disgraceful and un-American for one-quarter of our veterans to live on the streets. And Bush and the GOP is about as un-American as you can get.
Agreed. It is a disgrace.
Unfortunately, as an elementary school-aged kid, I used to think the worst thoughts about a couple of locally well-known homeless guys because they used to harass us kids and picked on me in particular because I was Chinese-American. It was only later after complaining about them to a couple of older neighbors who were Vietnam vets that I was told those homeless guys were acting that way because they were suffering from mental illness and drug addiction due to their wartime experiences.
The neighbors did attempt to remedy the situation by attempting to get them some help at the local VA hospital. Unfortunately, the budget problems at the local VA was such that those homeless vets were unable to get much help they needed for their psychological problems and drug addiction so they ended up back on the streets while their conditions deteriorated.
Unfortunately, it seems like history is repeating itself again in this case.
Out of curiosity, are you including all flag wavers or just the jingoistic rah rah rah faux patriots who cheer for wars so long as they do not have to risk their own hide?
[...] that truly valued and supported its veterans; but apart from some lip service paid to the troops, that isn’t the case. Christy at FDL nails it; head over there and check out her post. And since one out of every four [...]