Osborne Ink ::

Soldiers have no time for former soldiers who stop defending America and start to kill random Americans. Something like that scene is probably going on across the Army today with the news that John Allen Mohammad, the “DC sniper,” was put down by lethal injection last night.

We can talk all day about “lone wolf” attacks and where they come from, or how their minds are warped by dangerous ideology; but ultimately, Nidal Hasan is responsible for what he did. He chose to pull the trigger. He chose to believe in death more than others believed in life, and for that he will burn.

According to a study released by the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year as a result of not having health insurance. Researchers emphasize that “that figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.”

Mind you, any vet with an honorable discharge can get free treatment for an illness — at a VA clinic. Too often, veterans live far away from the nearest facility, and can’t get insured on the private market. For one thing, we all have those preexisting conditions from the rigors of service: anyone with ten years of airborne “jump status” has an automatic disability rating whether they need it or not, because they almost certainly will. There is a reason why almost every military retiree looks a decade older than his actual age.

The AP also has a story this morning on the rising number of wounded coming back from Afghanistan, so this is as good a time as any to talk about the price of freedom. Quite literally the price of freedom, because it isn’t free. Soldiers cost money, and when they get injured they cost even more.

Which is why the eleventh of November is always such a fun day for me: I’ll go out today wearing some leftover brass — my unit crest from the language school, a 1st Cavalry Division pin — and inevitably, strangers will thank me for my service, at which point I always thank them for paying their taxes.

“Think of me when you write the check,” I say.

Normally, this ends in careful laughter. Sometimes, it ends in bewildered awkwardness. But it is a conversation I have at least once a year, usually several times on this day, with people who have not made the mental connection between Republican orthodoxy and the perennial funding shortfalls of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They are the same people who think health care reform is the end of freedom.

Tancredo was born in Denver, Colorado to Adeline Lombardi and Gerald Tancredo. Both sets of his grandparents emigrated from Italy.^[5] He attended St. Catherine’s Elementary School and Holy Family High School there. He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in political science. Tancredo was active with the College Republicans and a conservative, nonpartisan organization, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). As a Republican student activist Tancredo spoke in support of the Vietnam War. After graduating from the University of Northern Colorado he became eligible to serve in Vietnam in June 1969. Tancredo has said he went for his physical, telling doctors he had been treated for depression, and eventually got a “1-Y” deferment^[6]. In 1976, while teaching history at Drake Junior High School in Denver, he ran for and won a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives. He served two terms (1977–1981) and was one of the leaders of a vocal group of conservative legislators opposing the policies of Colorado Governor Dick Lamm^[7]. During the 1970s, Tancredo pioneered opposition to bilingual education, an issue that would remain a feature of his political orientation.

Tancredo was appointed by President Reagan to be the regional representative in Denver for the Department of Education in 1981. He stayed on through the first Bush administration in 1992, and pared the office’s staff from 225 to 60 employees. He became president of the Independence Institute in 1993, a conservative think tank based in Golden, Colorado, serving there until his election to Congress. He was a leader in the Colorado term limits movement.

“Poltroon” and “movement conservative” are two terms that come to mind while reading that bio. His career has been all about the deconstruction of the Department of Education and the system of American public education; now, thanks to my fellow Army vet, his smaller-government agenda for the Department of Veterans Affairs has been laid bare.

Tancredo’s idea of replacing veterans health services with vouchers does not appeal to a majority of veterans. Indeed, the other night I sat in on a telephone town hall with Representative Parker Griffith (D-AL), bluest of Blue Dogs. Here are the problems identified by random veterans in a very red state: we can’t find jobs, have trouble starting small businesses, and can’t afford insurance for our families. Several callers were having trouble getting their claims through the VA system — which is no surprise.

Dr. Griffith is a military veteran as well as a physician who has treated countless veterans. During the call, he said “the VA has always been underfunded.” That’s certainly true, but this decade has been a disaster for veterans. Aside from the Walter Reed debacle (the wages of privatization), Bush cut personnel in the claims processing department when there was already a massive backlog of claims and a huge, new wave of combat injuries coming down the pipeline. The GOP Congress didn’t even address this until 2005.

Even today, the best answer Republicans can come up with is to automate claims processing — which sounds good until you realize that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration don’t talk to each other. As Congressman Griffith observed in the call, this problem won’t go away until the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs do something about it. The problem, then, is in the executive branch — not Congress.

“As veterans get further and further from the conflict in which they served, they get less and less attention,” Griffith said. Millions of American veterans have a forest’s worth of paper documentation from their years in the military and in the VA system. Indeed, disappearing paperwork is a perennial problem for vets, and the backlog of claims got so large that in 2008 desperate VA employees were caught shredding paperwork instead of processing it.

That is the Republican formula for government and the chickenhawk’s way of thanking veterans for their service. As the wingnutosphere erupts over Markos’ impolitic deconstruction of a party hack, bear in mind what smaller government actually means for America’s heroes.

No self-respecting veteran should vote for Chambliss. Anyone who has served in uniform should realize what a draft-dodging, lying sack of excrement he is. Any vet stupid enough to vote for Chambliss must have fecal matter on their upper lip all the time; how else to explain how they could miss the stench of his name on the ballot?

But soldier-hating is not the most excremental thing about this Georgia senator. Granted, voting against S-CHiP is quite coprophilic; taking big money from a sugar company, then attacking whistleblowers after an exlosion kills more than a dozen workers is also pretty craptastic behavior. His attempts to steal the runoff election and whip up racist fear-mongering are natural fertilizer, too. Yes, Chambliss is one giant, odiferous bag of manure, and everything he touches turns into cowpies; but the worst thing about him?

He gets all miffed when you ask him why he stinks.

When it comes to facing his own record, Chambliss is Junior Bush multiplied by a factor of ten. In the video above, a reporter gets shoved for asking Chambliss about the Imperial Sugar explosion. Chambliss has defied a court subpoena in the case, just as he refuses to answer questions about his sickening ads, chickenhawk record, and racist language.

Which brings me to remind my readers that you can donate to Jim Martin, the Democrat running against Chambliss, by clicking here:

Worse, at break time I had to endure the witless intonations of a supervisor who never bothered to serve in uniform, but had a lot to say about which political party “really” supports veterans. Jobs being few and far between these days, I bit my tongue rather than put him to silent shame with certain uncomfortable facts.

Do you see her legs?

Look.

I said:


DO YOU SEE HER LEGS?!

Of course you don’t see her fucking legs, because she hasn’t got any legs!

Which brings me back to Duckworth. She’s been Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. She has helped develop state programs to give tax credits to companies that hire vets. She has done her best to get adequate funding for vets homes. She is, in short, an ideal person to head an agency that still hasn’t fixed Walter Reed. She once observed that “there are veterans who, after having served this country, have to go without the basic care they were promised they would get” — and I couldn’t agree more.

Today, I have something else in mind: getting the bastard who ran that ad against Max Cleland.

Saxby Chabliss has voted against increased funding for vets health care SIXTEEN TIMES. he repeatedly filibusters bills to increase funding for PTSD and other mental health services. He’s voted against housing vouchers for veterans. In fact, he’s consistently voted against vets at every turn. His voting record reads like a wish-list for someone who hates American soldiers. Someone like…I don’t know…a certain guy hiding in a cave, somewhere.

Now Chambliss faces a runoff against a strong Democratic challenger in Jim Martin. Obama is sending staff to help him organize the state and get out the vote, but what Martin really needs is a cash infusion. I know times are tight (boy, do I ever know!), but if you have a few bucks to spare, please click on over to his ActBlue page right now and make a deposit.

I don’t want charity for Veteran’s Day. I want Duckworth for Senate or VA Secretary, and I want Saxby Chambliss out on his chickenhawk, chickenshit, Vietnam deferment-ass.

8:04 – Jim Lehrer brings up Eisenhower and asks the candidates to comment. Obama sets out right away to appeal to the middle class. McCain talks about bipartisanship and then immediately spurts our random crap about oil independence.

8:08 – Obama’s facing the camera, facing McCain, and generally making eye contact with everyone. McCain won’t even look at Obama.

8:09 – OMFG! Obama’s got a flag pin…McCain doesn’t! WHY DOES HE HATE AMERICA SO MUCH??

8:11 – McCain has gone back to Monday’s talking points on the economy. Obama’s counterattacking on every subject. McCain still won’t look at him.

8:12 – Obama gets the first laugh. McCain gets the second right away.

8:14 – This is what happens when you dither in DC until the last minute and fly to Mississippi in the nick of time: you look tired and irritated. John McCain appears to be on the verge of a stroke as he waxes patriotic nonsense.

8:16 – When McCain attacks Obama on earmarks, Obama slams him right back with $300 billion in McCain tax cuts. Obama isn’t letting him score any free points.

8:19 – Seriously, where the f*** is McCain’s flag pin? WARDROBE!

8:23 – Obama isn’t wasting a single chance to put McCain and Bush together with GOP ideology. He just did it with tax policy. Obama has a way with complicated ideas: he actually makes effective corporate tax rates comprehensible.

8:27 – Obama, channeling Friedman, ties green power to jobs. It was only a matter of time.

8:29 – Wow, it only took McCain 29 minutes to invoke the “liberal” bogeyman. He tries the one-liner: “It’s hard to reach across the aisle when you’re that far left” – Obama is the only one in the whole room to laugh. John, the humor doesn’t work when you look smarmy.

8:32 – McCain wants a spending freeze? Obama has a better suggestion to cut spending: get the hell out of Iraq.

8:37 – I’ve never seen John McCain look so uncomfortable. Every time he smiles, it’s smarmy. He’s turning into the Republican Al Gore, minus the sighs.

8:38 – Am I the only one alarmed by McCain’s second reference to not being “Miss Congeniality” in the Senate? He’s invoking Palin subliminally, I suppose.

8:39 – OMFG. McCain says that “everybody celebrated” when Baghdad fell, continues with the “victory” meme on Iraq. How out of touch can he be?

8:41 – Obama Brings up Afghanistan and repeats his thesis about Bush “taking his eye off the ball.” Then he reminds us again of the $10 billion/mo. cost of the war when Iraq has a $78 billion surplus.

8:44 – Obama might have just nailed the first real sound bite of the evening when he said that McCain acts “like the war started in 2007″ with all his surge rhetoric.

8:47 – McCain supports the troops. So does Obama. (Note to Barack: bring up the GI Bill!)

8:49 – Okay, that’s the third time I’ve heard Obama mutter “that’s not true” when McCain misrepresents his position. This is gonna happen every debate; sooner or later Obama needs to channel the Gipper and say: “There you go again!”

8:52 – McCain is talking about all the countries he’s visited. Obama’s too polite to bring up the Baghdad marketplace fiasco. I have to wonder how well McCain understands the human geography of Waziristan; he keeps saying we need to “win the people over.” That’s not gonna happen without a ground presence, John — you can’t win over a tribe from half a world away.

8:56 – Obama’s trying to get McCain’s goat, bringing up the “bomb bomb Iran” song.

8:57 – McCain meme for the night: “Senator Obama doesn’t understand _____.” And it only took him 57 minutes to invoke Ronald Reagan. Spends the next three minutes invoking Vietnam and talking about his dead soldier bracelet.

9:01 – Obama has a dead soldier bracelet too. His dead soldier’s mom wants the troops to come home. And then he repeats the Afghanistan meme. Wow, he’s not giving McCain an inch tonight!

9:03 – On the question of Iran, McCain immediately invokes the Holocaust. A subtle pean to the Armageddon freaks among the base. Then he brings up that bullshit “league of democracies” crap.

9:06 – Obama resonds with firm support of Israel: “We cannot tolerate” a nuclear Iran.

9:08 – McCain, hitting the ‘naive’ meme again, says Obama would meet Ahmedinejad “without preconditions.” McCain appeals to Bush voters by mispronouncing Ahmedinejad.

9:09 – OMFG! Jump for joy! Obama responds with my personal favorite FACT about Iran: Ahemdinejad is not the most powerful man in that country. Then he points out that Henry Kissinger agrees with him that America should talk to Iran.

9:12 – Obama brings up Spain, and McCain responds with smarmy dismissiveness.

9:14 – There goes McCain again: Obama “does not understand,” “without preconditions.” I’ve never seen him so snide.

9:18 – Obama says he would approach Russia in a different way than Bush, that he wouldn’t “look into Putin’s eyes and take the measure of his soul.” McCain says he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw “K, G, and B.” Not a chuckle from the room. That’s because they’ve heard it already. Jeez, doesn’t this guy have writers?

9:21 – McCain is now pronouncing as many foreign leaders’ names as he can recall. I love the way he talks about Saakashvili as if the guy was a saint; he’s not. But it’s always good vs. evil with the GOP.

9:22 – Obama pronounces the name of the president of Georgia. even better than McCain. Definitely not winning over the inbred crowd with that one. He speaks of foresight in the conflict, and how the Bush administration was taken by surprise.

9:24 – Obama says that McCain voted 23 times against renewable energy. McCain responds to this true statement by sniping that it isn’t true. Well, John, I’m afraid it is.

9:25 – McCain is now talking over Obama with that angry smile. He’s coming off as a boor and a smarty-pants. Al Gore again in a crypt-keeper mask.

9:26 – McCain responds to the question about another 9/11 by saying we are safer, but not safe yet. Oh yeah, play that fear card.

9:28 – Obama says we are safer in some ways, then lists the things that need to be done. He’s specific. Knowledgeable. That won’t play well in Texas.

9:29 – Obama favors missile defense? Say it ain’t so! Then he CREDITS McCain for opposing torture of suspected terrorists…is that a backhanded slap for the way McCain actually caved in on the waterboarding issue?…and says America needs to restore its standing in the world. “We are less respected” now than we were eight years ago. Wow, a presidential candidate who understands soft power.

9:30 – Wait, wait… I forgot that Obama “doesn’t understand” things… McCain just had to repeat it for the eighth time. Isn’t that how many times a commercial must repeat the product name? I should dig out my textbook from that commercial copywriting course…

9:32 – Obama presents the global view: we are losing out to China, which is buying up all our debt. We have lost out around the world because of a singular obsession with Iraq. I’ve been screaming this line for five years; it’s nice to hear it come out of his mouth.

9:34 – McCain flat out says “I don’t believe he (Obama) has the knowledge and expereince” to be president.

9:36 – For the first time tonight, Obama ignores the attack and brings up his father, who came to America because it “inspires the entire world.” Not sure it plays well in this debate, though I can’t put my finger on the reason just yet.

9:37 – McCain brings up veterans again, and AGAIN Obama gives him a free pass…Barack, just shout: “GI Bill! GI Bill!”

9:38 – It’s over. Let the post-parlor pablum and punditry proceed!

To get this not-physically-demanding job, I had to answer some basic questions about my fitness, namely:

DOES YOUR DISABILITY MAKE IT DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THE FOLLOWING TASKS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO…

I have ZERO sympathy for John McCain’s “privacy.” He’s applying for the most important job in the world and he doesn’t want to answer the same basic questions any disabled vet has to endure?

WHO is the “elitist” again??

American soldiers can get in trouble for not massacring Iraqi civilians.

It’s true. I’m not making this up. Yes, I hear what you’re thinking: Where, pray tell, did I find this peacenik idea — some liberal bastion of the tree-hugging left? Actually, it’s a four-parter in the Army Times, and it should be read aloud into the Congressional Record. The president should have to read it in a Florida classroom. Every candidate should be forced to hear it read before debating the war.

Of course, none of that will ever happen; few politicians seem to belong to the “reading class” anymore. And since Faux News viewers tend to read very little to begin with, here’s an outline.

2nd Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment patrolled the city of Adhamiya for 15 months, their patience wearing thin as the tour was extended:

Anger motivated them as much as the mission. Anger made them fearless — and sometimes reckless. It made them not themselves…“You never really get over the anger,” said Staff Sgt. Robin Johnson, a member of Charlie’s scout platoon who had been especially close to Agami. “It just kind of becomes everything you are. You become pissed off at everything. We wanted to destroy everything in our paths, but they wanted us to keep building sewer systems and handing out teddy bears.”

Mind you, these soldiers weren’t loose cannons. They were the best America has to offer. One soldier had already

watched as his platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Jorge Diaz, shot and killed a zip-tied Iraqi civilian. Wood turned Diaz in; the platoon sergeant was sentenced to eight years in jail and a dishonorable discharge, ending his 17-year Army career.

But as Iraq continued to get worse, the soldiers became pessimistic.

The Iraqi army would trash Sunni houses, take people into custody who hadn’t done anything wrong and forcefully demand bribes. While the number of attacks against civilian Iraqis declined, the number of attacks against (American soldiers) increased. (The platoon) no longer believed they were fighting for Iraq. They had, once, a long time ago. Before they had seen the Iraqi bodies with their heads dipped in acid, before the children tossed grenades at them. Now the locals refused even to acknowledge dead neighbors sprawled on their sidewalks…“This deployment, every patrol you’re finding dead people,” Newland said. “It’s like one to 12 a patrol. Their eyes are gouged out. Their arms are broken. We saw a kid who had been shot 10 to 15 times.”

The platoon responded by drawing even closer, forming the kind of tight bonds that only men under fire can know. They had started out idealistic about their mission, but as they took casualties, softer goals — like “hearts and minds,” or Iraqi freedom — became meaningless:

They busied themselves with a wounded Iraqi girl. The blast had killed three children and an Iraqi woman in homes nearby. “I don’t even care,” Spc. Armando Cardenas said. “I know that’s wrong, but they knew it was there. There’s no way they didn’t know it was there.” …DeNardi doesn’t believe Adhamiya was worth their loss. The Iraqis need to fight for themselves, he said, and he didn’t see that.

A horrifying suicide caused them to snap. The next day, these soldiers simply refused to fight.

The whole platoon…had taken sleeping medications prescribed by mental health that day…2nd Platoon had gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally in Adhamiya…several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.

And what was their reward for not murdering innocent Iraqis?

After the members of 2nd Platoon had spent a year fighting for each other and watching their buddies die, battalion leaders began breaking up the platoon. …Then, they were all flagged: No promotions. No awards. No favorable actions.

Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps not, that the platoon was supposed to have returned by this time — but they had been extended an extra three months. They finally returned home to face horrifying problems. Male veterans have twice the suicide rate of nonveterans; some returned to find their marriages broken, while others fell into bottles.

None of the men of Charlie 1-26 will ever get away from Adhamiya completely. The memories of what they saw, did and endured will stay with them forever, as with any combat veteran.

Yes. Forever.

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Way better than any private hospital I’ve ever seen.

The X-ray tech had me in and out in under three minutes, and I never felt rushed. The doctor was with me immediately and spent 45 minutes in the room, not a single moment wasted. The paperwork was shockingly minimal.

I was wondering what the hell was wrong with this place, when I remembered: “Oh, yeah… Those five years I spent in the US Army were good for something.”

Indeed, I’m often amused by how often we hear complaints about “creeping socialism” and the like from conservatives who style themselves as “troop-supporting.” The awful truth is that most of these blowhards have never served, or they would know the military is as close to a socialist state as you’ll ever find in America.

Serve, and you get:

1. Increased pay and allowances for having a family.
2. Annual cost-of-living adjustments to your pay.
3. Three meals a day at low or no-cost.
4. An annual clothing allowance.
5. Special discounts on home mortgages.
6. Special consideration in hiring after you serve.
7. Education benefits.
8. Free health care for yourself.
9. Incredibly inexpensive health care for dependents.
10. Pension benefits after only 20 years on the job.
11. Pension and medical benefits if you become disabled.
12. Medical coverage after you serve.

Yes, military service can be lethal, and hard even if it’s not lethal. That is how we justify this island of socialism in American society.

Yes, the Veterans Administration medical system has had problems. But it was the best hospital system in America until Bush tried privatizing it — witness the debacle at Walter Reed. The G.O.P. talks a great game about supporting troops — until it is actually time to support troops. Just as they talk a great game about taking care of children until it’s actually time to take care of them.

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