Make Military and Veterans' Issues a Priority
On Friday, I watched as the two presidential candidates squared off for their first debate. As an Iraq veteran and as the Executive Director of the nation's first and largest group for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have a vested interest in the future direction of our foreign policy.
But in a debate that bounced from fiscal responsibility to off-shoring drilling and nuclear energy, one thing was notably absent: any real discussion of the overall readiness of our military or veterans' issues. And this was supposed to be the debate on national security? Over and over again, we heard about Wall Street and Main Street. Well what about Range Road? Even Senator Biden and Governor Palin, who will both have sons deployed by Election Day, failed to address these issues in last night's debate.
Seven years of war have pushed our military to a breaking point. But on Friday, critical issues such as recruiting woes, equipment shortfalls, the overextension of our reserve forces, and the spiraling rate of mental health injuries went ignored. Our troops are serving multiple, extended combat tours, and suicide numbers for the Army are tragically at a historic high. Alarmingly, most experts now warn that our military might not be able to respond effectively if another conflict were to break out.
While last week's near meltdown of the financial sector made it difficult to ignore the current economic crisis, I wasn't expecting the concerns of our military or veterans' issues to fall by the wayside entirely. It took a full 40 minutes before Senators Obama and McCain even began discussing the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. How much of the remaining time was devoted to veterans' issues? Five minutes. And the only time the issues of our troops took center-stage was when both candidates pointed to the bracelets given to them by mothers of service members who were killed in action in Iraq. That looked like two candidates using our troops as political props yet again.
Foreign policy and national security cannot and should not sit on the backburner. Next week, when Senators McCain and Obama share the same stage again, it's time to hold them accountable for these issues. Our nation's service members and veterans will be watching.
There's a lot of false equivalence in these posts as if "both sides" are ignoring military and veteran's issues. Obama and Biden have done and said quite a lot on these issues. So has John McCain by voting against the new GI Bill that expanded veteran's benefits.
But, the fact is this election, unlike recent elections is not a national security election, it's an economy election.
October 3, 2008 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, gosh, maybe "quite a lot" isn't enough.
From The Nation:
Sgt. Juan Jimenez had one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq, ushering top Administration officials through the war-torn streets of Baghdad. He returned home with two Purple Hearts and shrapnel lodged in his right arm. Today he is gravely ill.
What Jimenez didn't realize is that before he could receive benefits for his wounds, he'd have to prove that those wounds came from war. Three and a half years later, the sergeant is still making his case. The Department of Veterans Affairs isn't convinced. And it won't give him his benefits until it is.
The VA requires all veterans to prove their wounds are "service-connected" before it writes them a check. Jimenez thought that hurdle was merely a formality. The Army sergeant had been struck by two roadside bombs. The first sliced into his arms; six months later, a second bomb sprayed scrap metal into his face, knocking him unconscious and leaving him brain damaged. He began having seizures and suffering from memory loss. The blast left a persistent ringing in his right ear. The stress sparked nightmares, flashbacks and acid-reflux disease.
October 3, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don, I agree with you. But I think Rieckhoff is presumptuous to come here arguing a false equivalence between the candidates while demanding that his pet issue be placed front and center.
October 4, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
According to the VA, 1,000 veterans a month attempt suicide. Many of these poor souls are suffering from not only lack of attention by the VA but intentional government antogonism, as with Sergeant Jimenez, in an attempt to save money. In spite of obvious war wounds, physical and psychological, they are required to offer multiple proofs of their injuries, even when they have been cited for heroism and have received the purple heart medal. Often their PTSD is criminally claimed by VA psyciatrists to be the result of a disturbed childhood rather than their multiple assignments to hell-on-earth war zones. We're talking here not only about recent war veterans but veterans of the yellow ribbon war and others, including exposure to Agent Orange and other horrors of war.
Any US senator that gave a damn could change this criminal situation in an instant. They have that much power. The fact that none of them has done it makes them all sadly equivalent in that regard. The fact that neither Obama nor Biden has done it, in my view, makes them (as leading Democrats) particularly blameworthy.
God bless Paul Rieckhoff and his "pet issue".
October 4, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Again, yes, this should be fixed.
But every major issue has an equally compelling story behind it.
Do you really think that this is where the focus of the debate should be? Do you really agree with Paul's complaint that the candidates spent too much time discussing the financial crisis?
October 4, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe that there is nothing more important than the people who have been recruited by the government to fight their wars for profit and who have suffered therefrom. Nothing. NOTHING.
I hope that is clear.
October 4, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paul,
I think there needs to be an overhaul of our defense budget, we spend entirely too much on the Pentagon. I would like to see more money directed at the welfare of the troops and less for the military/industrial complex. How many boomer subs do we need?, how many carrier battle groups do we need? how many nukes do we need? How many Colonels and Generals do we need running around the Pentagon? Why do we support so many manned bases around the world? Star wars? How many branches of intelligence do we have?
The Republicans, and some Democrats, have a reputation as being strong on defense. I say they're strong on the military industrial complex, but when the troops need them, they can't be found.
October 3, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
. . . how many carrier battle groups do we need?
More!
Your friend,
"Maverick"
October 3, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love it when you talk carriers.
The newest Ford Class aircraft carrier costs from $8-$11 billion each, plus hundreds of millions for annual upkeep not to mention many billions more for planes and escort ships. The Navy currently operates 11 large-deck carriers.
Carriers are particularly vulnerable to submarines. In the Falkland Islands war the nuclear powered attack submarine HMS Conqueror sank one of Argentina's prime battle force ships, the cruiser General Belgrano. The 2 escorting destroyers fled the scene, leaving the stricken ship's crew to fend for themselves.
November 14, 2006: Navy officials confirmed yesterday that an aircraft carrier battle group failed to detect a Chinese [diesel] submarine that surfaced within weapons range of the USS Kitty Hawk. Anti-submarine defenses for the carrier battle group will be reviewed as a result, they said. "It was not detected," said one Navy official of the encounter with a Chinese diesel-powered attack submarine. "And we're concerned about that, obviously." The Chinese Song-class attack submarine surfaced near the carrier in deep waters off Okinawa on Oct. 26. It was armed with wake-homing torpedoes and anti-ship cruise missiles.
Carriers are also vulnerable to cruise missiles and mines, as well as "swarm tactics" of hundreds of small boats armed with torpedoes, missiles and mines which would be particularly effective in confined waters such as the Persian Gulf. Iranian forces have this capability, using missiles of Chinese design.
October 4, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm in a rush, but want to heartily agree with you Paul that our Veterans should be at the top of the agenda. What I'd really prefer to see is less talk and more action to ensure they have whatever they need and more. (I realize the talk must come first though--so yes to more specific talk that includes specific commitments and the strategy to meet those commitments).
October 3, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paul.
Perhaps you could address those questions to the moderators of the next two debates as it's their call to focus on the issues or not.
Since you appear to have an "in" of sorts w/MSNBC, Tom Brokaw would be your best bet. I would think that his recent books could also provide a hook.....
October 3, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would like to see Obama/Biden simply declare that the US shouldn't be the only nation responsible for being the world police. It's time to give our troops a break, as well as our military budget, and let someone else assume the role of world police. Other countries need to pay their dues now into the world peace hat and take their turn. We can leave enough of a presence to support training not only Iraqis, but other militaries, right? Particularly with our second 700 billion cost we are faced with at this time. If no one else is willing to step in to continue the job, then oh well.
I'd like to see a job training program for veterans of the latest Iraq and Afghanistan wars paid by the Federal government that provides an offramp out of the military for those who want out by training the veterans on how to start, run and manage clean energy businesses. How to install solar panels, and either work with an electrician or get training also in electrical trade. How to markup the solar panels with a profit margin for reselling them as well as installing and servicing them. How to market their businesses. Accounting. You name it. Now that would be an investment.
I'd also like to see Obama and Biden meet with the 10th Mountain Division first hand and find out whether they think the mountains of Afghanistan are too cold for them (which is what the Bush Administration decided at the time we were homing in on Bin Laden.) Let's hear it from the guys who would be on the front lines going after Bin Laden.
October 3, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to see a job training program for veterans of the latest Iraq and Afghanistan wars paid by the Federal government . . . .
And here it is! And the "federal government" doesn't have to pay for it -- until later.
October 3, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Veterans' issues? Nothing new. Smedley Butler described the same situation over seventy years ago, when the troops were referred to as "cannon fodder". Nothing has changed, unfortunately. From General Butler's "War is a Racket":
Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.
Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face"! This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone.
In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone.
There are thousands and thousands of these cases, and more and more are coming in all the time. The tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden cutting off of that excitement – the young boys couldn't stand it. . .
October 3, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quite a bit off your topic but I've a question for you, Don Bacon, because you seem to be following these soldierly matters closely and just might know.
Back in 2003(?) I read a very thoughtful and eloquent essay written by a Vietnam War veteran officer in which he warned the troops that in Iraq there would be circumstances which would make retaining their humanity difficult. His examples of those circumstances was pretty realistic, and he ended challenging the troops to struggle against giving in to them.
I don't recall the author's name and have never been successful Googling the piece.
Have you ever run into that essay? Anyone?
October 4, 2008 4:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know about "retaining humanity". I suppose you could say the a vet on a freeway off-ramp with a cup in his hand asking for alms has retained his humanity but he, and the 1,000 vets attempting suicide every month, aren't mentally (nor often physically) healthy.
from the IVAW website:
What Is Post traumatic Stress Disorder?
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, has been long associated with war veterans. It was called “Shell Shock” in WWI, “Combat Neurosis” during WW II, and eventually recognized as an anxiety disorder by the American Psychiatric Association and termed PTSD. PTSD usually sets in up to several months after the most recent trauma, and can last years or even a lifetime.
What Causes PTSD?
As the name implies, PTSD is caused by trauma. During war, taking part in and/or witnessing the brutal and violent acts of battle. However, PTSD can also be brought on by non-combat acts of brutality or violence toward combatants or civilians. There are many PTSD vets who have never been aggressive towards others, but who may suffer feelings of profound guilt by mere association with such acts of violence. In any case, PTSD is clearly triggered by violence in warfare.
October 4, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink