Sometimes I wanna shut out this world*
The United States has lost 4,102 of its soldiers to the war in Iraq. Tens of thousands more have been injured, but the DoD doesn't like to publish that. A RAND study suggested that as many as 300,000 US troops are suffering from PTSD. And to these numbers, of course, we can add those deaths and injuries that have occurred in Afghanistan, and the millions of Iraqis displaced from their homes, the quite literally uncounted myriad of innocent Iraqi citizens that have been killed and injured by this war - this war sold to us with lies.
Wanna rip up this page
And today I read that the VA has been basically using veterans as guinea pigs, putting people with PTSD on dangerous drugs that are known to cause mood swings and even suicidal impulses. Barack Obama went on the warpath, the White House predictably - and tellingly - blamed the reporters for making it public.
Then I see that the man who managed a huge account the Pentagon had with KBR was fired by the US government because he refused to pay KBR $1 billion until they could make an accounting of the billions they had already been paid. This is the company that serves our soldiers rotten food, that gives them contaminated water to drink, the same company that builds and refuses to repair showers that subsequently electrocute our soldiers, that fosters a rape culture among its male employees. Kellog, Brown and Root, former subsidiary of Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, given no-bid contracts and treated wit kid gloves.
Wanna pour out this heart
Wanna get up on this stage
When our troops are done filling their bellies with expired and rotted food, they have the privilege of fighting a war while criminally under-equipped. US soldiers have been buying their own body armor just to have some. They have been sent without the right equipment, without enough of it, without regard for what should be, with this nation's wealth and technology, simply standard-issue.
And my lips become percussion
And my fists become the rage
And I pound on this table
Til it gives me something to say
There's more. US troops are caught torturing detainees, and top officials at the Pentagon and the White House blame those "bad apples" at the bottom. That is a lie. The Bush Administration has intentionally slandered US soldiers to save their own hides. They've done it over and over.
"Support the troops" is, in the language of the old hymn, our "watchword and song." And like every other Republican in the country, John McCain wants to make this race about how he, being a veteran and, more importantly, a Republican, he supports the troops in ways that Obama can't and won't.
Then I think about things that Ive seen
Right in front of me
That I don't wanna believe
But John McCain wants to support the troops by making it harder for them to go to college. He supports the troops by at least tacitly agreeing with President Bush when he cut veterans' benefits, when he said that 3.5% was too much of a raise in pay, when his DoD issued orders to under-diagnose mental disorders like PTSD, when he decided to send our troops back to Iraq right after getting home, over and over and over again, back to that hell of Bush's own making, making sure, it seems, that anyone not already sent over the edge physically and mentally until now would certainly be by the time he finally leaves office.
What people need to realize is that this is what happens when you vote for Republicans. The abuse heaped upon our soldiers by George Bush, members of his administration and Republicans in Congress is no anomaly. This mistreatment is not a bug, but a feature of their philosophy of government and their worldview. Indeed, their worldview and governing philosophy demand such behavior from them.
If a military family has trouble making ends meet, the GOP answer is for them to be more frugal, or for the soldier to work harder for a promotion. If a soldier develops PTSD or another mental disorder, the Republican philosophy states that he or she is merely weak.
The Republican way is to send our soldiers into battle constantly, yet when they come back to us broken and battered - or in body bags, their children half-orphans, their families shattered - they are told that providing adequate health care, education benefits and help adjusting to their new lives just aren't the proper roles of a government.
But don't worry, the Republicans assure them, we will build some monuments to what you did, as long as they don't cost too much. Then you can hobble or wheel up to them as often as you like and see the names of those who died in your arms and at your side. We'll set up countless altars like that and pay rhetorical tribute to you whenever we can. If by "support" you mean pretty words in public, a few mumbled prayers a year and a magnet on our cars, then sure, we "support" you.
Gimme one of these mikes
Let me let em know
The way that it is is not how its gonna be
Not if we don't let em get ahead of us
The present tensions no threat
Its just a fence across the path
That were already ready to walk
Rock solid footsteps
Let em put up obstacles
And prove that it isn't possible
Fuck that
We don't give in anyway
True liberty and freedoms at stake
Being a liberal means that we can oppose the mission while supporting the soldiers - truly supporting them, with decent healthcare, better pay and living conditions, accountability for the contractors that receive billions upon billions to provide them with food and water. I hope that we Democrats can start doing a better job at getting this message across, at breaking the rhetorical stranglehold the hypocritical Republicans have on "supporting the troops." But being a liberal means that I want these changes to be made, and others, for our soldiers not because it's good politics, but because it's past time for the men and women who are sent in harm's way in our name and for our sake - legitimately or not - to be treated accordingly. I will never again let a Republican claim the high ground on "supporting the troops" without challenge.
A journey of a thousand miles, they say, begins with but a single footstep. Here's mine.
*lyrics to Maday!!! by the Flobots.
