Memorial Day 2008

Don Mikulecky has a post up that begins thus:

Shame on you all!
by don mikulecky

Thu May 29, 2008 at 09:36:00 PM PDT

That's what the BBC is saying to Americans today. Memorial Day smells still linger on in our homes and we are greeted with these headlines:
US army suicides at record level
US veterans sue over 'poor care'
Veterans 'quarter of US homeless'
It is a bit overwhelming to see these listed on the BBC site. We talk about these things here, but we do little else. Our mercenary military seems to be a conversation piece but it does not really get us very excited. I'm one of those people over 70 (Sorry Hillary, not this veteran) who is looking forward to electing a president who will care about this. I am looking forward to electing a congress who will care about this. Yet I look at these headlines and feel a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. ...

Indeed. Shame on the United States for treating its military so poorly, for giving our veterans such shoddy care, for acting as though nothing were wrong when the suicide rate among veterans and soldiers is soaring.

Perhaps we would best honor those who lost their lives for this country by taking care of those offering their lives now and in the recent past.

Update:
For Memorial Day (today IS the day, you know), visit our friend johnieb.
--the BB

How do we treat those who serve us?

Aaron Glantz writes for Foreign Policy in Focus:

Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.

These are statistics that most Americans dont know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.

In fact, they never would have come to light were it not for a class action lawsuit brought by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth on behalf of the 1.7 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The two groups allege the Department of Veterans Affairs has systematically denied mental health care and disability benefits to veterans returning from the conflict zones.

Those are only the opening three paragraphs. You can read it all at Truthout, where I found it.

Why is this nation treating its veterans so poorly? [Rhetorical question intended as a call to do better.]

--the BB