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It's not nice to hear, but the reality is, we treat most veterans even worse than this. The VA is an abysmal failure, and its failure, especially in the arena

It's not nice to hear, but the reality is, we treat most veterans even worse than this. The VA is an abysmal failure, and its failure, especially in the arena of mental healthcare, is a primary driving factor why many homeless men in the US are veterans. Going to war takes a serious and long-lasting toll on a person, and an even deeper toll when you are someone who allows yourself to consider and struggle with the ethics and morals of war. This country needs to wrestle with and resolve its treatment of veterans. More than any other nation, the United States has been encaptured by the military-industrial complex, and we treat the millions of people who are driven through this complex as less than dirt, discarding them as husks of their former selves without any recourse or support once they no longer serve that complex. No less a luminary than Eisenhower[1] and Smedley Butler[2] warned us clearly that the military-industrial complex would lead to this, that war is a racket, and that our society was trending in a direction where it was acceptable to utterly destroy the lives of men so that a few may profit. It is very sad that this is the end, at such a young age, of this man. [1]: https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-mil... [2]: https://archive.org/details/War_Is_A_Racket https://archive.org/details/War_Is_A_Racket

GartzenDeHaes 5y ago
The truth is often the opposite of often repeated propaganda. People in the military and veterans are treated as disposable and easily replaceable human resources. Source: I'm a veteran.
ZanyProgrammer 5y ago
I’m not really sure this is a VA specific failure. Lots of people fall through the cracks with mental health care, cliched century old Smedley Butler quotes or not. I’m not seeing anything specific about the VA failing him.
FpUser 5y ago
>"our society was trending in a direction where it was acceptable to utterly destroy the lives of men so that a few may profit" Not trending. It's always been this way. And not limited to military. Plenty of examples when human live was ruined without any recourse.
spamizbad 5y ago
I would argue that you cannot paper over the horrors of war with government programs or culture or patriotism or whatever. If you want to go to war you need to be willing to accept you're going to permanently damage a segment of your population. This doesn't mean don't fund the VA or try to improve/reform it, but if your benchmark for a successful veterans organization is a majority of people just simply cope with their trauma with limited impact on their lives.... that just doesn't seem realistic. Something to think about before you tell your local politicians you support armed conflict. Abstinence works well in this situation.
- rectang 5y ago
  I was out to dinner with an uncle of mine sometime in the aughts, and there were 2 US Marines eating at another table; because of the national situation at the time, we knew they were about to ship out. My uncle bought their dinner, and they came over and seemed very grateful at the appreciation shown them. But what really struck me was what my uncle said after they went back to their table. "We're asking them to go over there and kill people." Not "... and risk their lives", but "... and kill people".
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
mistrial9 5y ago
an ex-army Vietnam veteran here in Calif. became a lawyer and took a lot of art classes.. he eventually learned to game the VA system and get endless cases of common medicines, plus the hard stuff, which he used vigorously. I found him dead, in filthy conditions, but he seemed OK with it since he made his own choices, and was medicated beyond belief as he died of regular bad health.
MisterTea 5y ago
They have heads filled with more horrors than you can imagine. I feel so bad for them as I have a few vet friends, most of whom have combat experience from Iraq and Afghanistan. Ive heard all the horror stories and watched the toughest guy I know break down in tears over what he did to people. One friend accidentally shot a child dead and has to live with that until he dies. They all came back different. They all moved away to the country side far from cities. They all know one or more fellow veterans who took their life because they could not live with these horrors. They use these men and women to do their vile dirty work then throw them away when they're done.

GartzenDeHaes 5y ago

The truth is often the opposite of often repeated propaganda. People in the military and veterans are treated as disposable and easily replaceable human resources. Source: I'm a veteran.

ZanyProgrammer 5y ago

I’m not really sure this is a VA specific failure. Lots of people fall through the cracks with mental health care, cliched century old Smedley Butler quotes or not. I’m not seeing anything specific about the VA failing him.

FpUser 5y ago

>"our society was trending in a direction where it was acceptable to utterly destroy the lives of men so that a few may profit" Not trending. It's always been this way. And not limited to military. Plenty of examples when human live was ruined without any recourse.

spamizbad 5y ago

I would argue that you cannot paper over the horrors of war with government programs or culture or patriotism or whatever. If you want to go to war you need to be willing to accept you're going to permanently damage a segment of your population. This doesn't mean don't fund the VA or try to improve/reform it, but if your benchmark for a successful veterans organization is a majority of people just simply cope with their trauma with limited impact on their lives.... that just doesn't seem realistic. Something to think about before you tell your local politicians you support armed conflict. Abstinence works well in this situation.

rectang 5y ago
I was out to dinner with an uncle of mine sometime in the aughts, and there were 2 US Marines eating at another table; because of the national situation at the time, we knew they were about to ship out. My uncle bought their dinner, and they came over and seemed very grateful at the appreciation shown them. But what really struck me was what my uncle said after they went back to their table. "We're asking them to go over there and kill people." Not "... and risk their lives", but "... and kill people".
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

mistrial9 5y ago

an ex-army Vietnam veteran here in Calif. became a lawyer and took a lot of art classes.. he eventually learned to game the VA system and get endless cases of common medicines, plus the hard stuff, which he used vigorously. I found him dead, in filthy conditions, but he seemed OK with it since he made his own choices, and was medicated beyond belief as he died of regular bad health.

MisterTea 5y ago

They have heads filled with more horrors than you can imagine. I feel so bad for them as I have a few vet friends, most of whom have combat experience from Iraq and Afghanistan. Ive heard all the horror stories and watched the toughest guy I know break down in tears over what he did to people. One friend accidentally shot a child dead and has to live with that until he dies. They all came back different. They all moved away to the country side far from cities. They all know one or more fellow veterans who took their life because they could not live with these horrors. They use these men and women to do their vile dirty work then throw them away when they're done.