An Angry Veteran Speaks Out

An Angry Veteran Speaks Out

The news that our veterans are living in filth in run down buildings and hotels, while they are being treated outpatient at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., angers me as a disabled Viet Nam veteran. Many of these soldiers are amputees who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq and have been discharged from inpatient at Walter Reed. Our veterans live in these filthy buildings with black mold, poor plumbing, cold, drafty conditions, and the living quarters that are overrun with mice and cockroaches.

One soldier who had no clothes or uniforms was sent to the Red Cross where he got sweats and T-shirts. Our government that “really cares� about our veterans couldn’t find it in the budget to buy him some decent clothes. Many who were wounded are often unconscious or in a state of shock after being wounded and the Army bills them for lost equipment and uniforms.

I would love to be able to sit beside a recruiter and tell our young people the other side of the story. I would love to tell them that this war is all about profits and control of oil and gas. I would love to ask those thinking of joining up if they want to die for a lie. I would love to show them the pictures of these filthy buildings that these heroes live in while the recruiters spin stories of help with education and getting to travel. I would love to show them how great Bush’s boys treat you if you get your legs blown off.

This awful story of abuse of our loved ones is getting minimal play on Big Brother media. The air waves are full of Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, and O.J. Simpson. The “news� is the usual slime and slop for the drunken, drugged, stupefied masses.

We have to wake up America. We have to throw off the slumber and apathy and stop this war in Iraq. As a veteran who sees fellow veterans so mistreated, I ask you to demand an end to this war and to note the hypocrisy of this administration that “supports the troops�. The Bush administration supports the profit margins of Halliburton and the big oil companies; profits come before people, and there is plenty of money being made off this illegal war that you and I pay for. The veterans are just pawns in this profit making scheme called "The Iraq War".