Ann Jones has a low-key, first-hand account of how we treat our soldiers, from battlefield through hospital to home and -- sometimes -- death at their own hand. Sometimes they just slip away from lack of medical care.
I defy you to read what she has to say without weeping. Here's an excerpt:
The first veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq returned to the United States 10 years ago in 2003, yet I've never spoken to a damaged soldier or a soldier's family members who thought the care he or she received from the Veterans Administration was anything like appropriate or enough. By the VA's own admission, the time it takes to reach a decision on a veteran's benefits, or simply to offer an appointment, is so long that some vets die while waiting.
So it is that, since their return, untold numbers of soldiers have been looked after by their parents. I visited a home on the Great Plains where a veteran has lain in his childhood bed, in his mother's care, for most of the last decade, and another home in New England where a veteran spent the last evening before he took his own life sitting on his father's lap.
As I followed the sad trail of damaged veterans to write my new book, They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return From America's Wars—the Untold Story, I came to see how much they and their families have suffered, like Afghans, from the delusions of this nation's leaders—many running counter to international law—and of other influential Americans, in and out of the military, more powerful and less accountable than themselves.
Like the soldiers, the country has changed. Muted now is the braggadocio of the bring-'em-on decider who started the preemptive process that ate the children of the poor and patriotic. Now, in Afghanistan as in Iraq, Washington scrambles to make the exit look less like a defeat—or worse, pointless waste. Most Americans no longer ask what the wars were for.
"Follow the money," a furious Army officer, near the end of his career, instructed me. I had spent my time with poor kids in search of an honorable future who do the grunt work of America's military. They are part of the nation's lowliest 1%. But as that angry career officer told me, "They only follow orders." It's the other 1% at the top who are served by war, the great American engine that powers the transfer of wealth from the public treasury upward and into their pockets. Following that money trail reveals the real point of the chosen conflicts. As that disillusioned officer put it to me, the wars have made those profiteers "monu-fuckin'-mentally rich." It's the soldiers and their families who lost out. ...AnnJones,MoJo
A reminder: Veterans Day is a great day for Christmas shopping.
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A few page-turns away is a piece about George W. Bush's latest venture: converting Jews to Christianity.
Next week, former President George W. Bush is scheduled to keynote a fundraiser in Irving, Texas, for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, a group that trains people in the United States, Israel, and around the world to convince Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The organization's goal: to "restore" Israel and the Jews and bring about about the second coming of Christ. ...
Bush is in good company. Last year the speaker was Glenn Beck.
... Based in Dallas, the MJBI claims that it acts like the Apostle Paul in helping to "educate Christians in their role to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy and thus save some of them (Romans 11:11-14)." It has Bible schools in 12 countries, an online school of "Messianic theology," and programs to train Messianic rabbis and pastors. Its logos feature a star of David and a menorah, and its website promotes the weekly Torah portion, a "Yiddish Mama's Kitchen," and links to purchase Judaica and books, such as Christ in the Old Testament. The nonprofit organization brought in approximately $1.2 million in revenue in 2011, the last year for which records are available.
At the November 14 event, which will be held at the Irving Convention Center, Bush will discuss his White House experiences, according to promotional materials. Bush, the group says, will "share his passion for setting people free." Last year, Glenn Beck was the star of the group's fundraiser, which was held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. ...SarahPosner/MoJo
