"Support the Troops!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"
I recall the image from the movie "The Wrath of Kahn," (included at end of post here) where Cpt. Kirk of the old tv series Star Trek, is fighting off Kahn the conquerer, who is still insisting he is "superior" to Kirk. As Kahn is hanging on the edge of a precipice and is attempting to pull Kirk in with him, Cpt. Kirk finally kicks Kahn emphatically in the head, stating with each kick: " I. Have had. Enough. of YOU!" Kahn then falls to his death into the abyss of the Nexus.
And that is exactly how I feel about this administration and their endless hollow proclamations of " Support the Troops." I just want to kick them into the abyss and never hear from them again.
Suicide is an epidemic among veterans.
Over 4000 American lives dead because of war in Iraq.
Over 6000 American Veterans dead since the war in Iraq.
McJoan brought us details on Memorial Day.
We count the active soldiers by the hour.
But the veterans we leave to the abyss...
What kind of support is this??
4083 U.S. dead and 29,978 wounded at the time of this writing.
"Support the Troops" while they bleed and die on the field of combat, but when they return and die in fields of combat still in their own minds, we scarcely notice that they ever existed.
(What honor is this for these brave troops?
And how is this support?
Only now, after almost 6 years of an illegal war, do we know their numbers.
Only now, after the Bush lies begin to come unraveled do we hear their count.
As of 2005, 6250 veterans have taken their own lives.
That's 18 suicides per day. ...PER DAY!!??
Where's all the support?
From the CBS report of last year:
"I just felt like this silent scream inside of me," said Jessica Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life.
"I opened up the door and there he was," recalled Mike Bowman, the father of an Army reservist.
"I saw the hose double looped around his neck," said Kevin Lucey, another military father.
Are the families of these troops condemned to hang their heads in shame instead of honor?
Do we let the memory of these brave soldiers, who have had to face the clusterf@#k of this ill planned war be forgotten because they died not from a bullet in combat, but from losing the battle inside their own scarred and damaged minds?
What manner of monster is this "Support??"
Do we let the families of these lost veterans grieve and mourn their loss with added shame and stigma because our military and civilian leaders see only weakness in those who take their own lives? Never mind that they have been subject, or witness to actions and atrocities of war that pale in comparison to even the goriest of Clive Barker horror films. For these are no ordinary movies that must play over and over inside the minds of our troops... but the reliving of nightmares of actions so vile, so heartless, and so unbearable, as to cause them to take their own lives to end the pain.
And we let their numbers go uncounted, unnoticed, and unheard.
"There's a crisis going on and people are just turning the other way," Kevin Lucey said.
"His eyes when he came back were just dead. The light wasn't there anymore," Kim Bowman said.
Eight months later, on Thanksgiving Day, Tim shot himself. He was 23.
Diana Henderson’s son, Derek, served three tours of duty in Iraq. He died jumping off a bridge at 27.
"Going to that morgue and seeing my baby ... my life will never be the same," she said.
What honor for these brave troops?
And if this be support, then I will have none of it!
From indifferent medical care, to lacking armor and equipment, and now attempts to deny our military soldiers an education, what manner of support is this? For if this is the Bush and Republican and neocon, and right wing idea of support for the troops, then I must stand with the raven...
"Support the Troops!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"
"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total," Bowman said.
Why do the families think that is?
"Because they don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known," Lucey said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
"If you're just looking at the overall number of veterans themselves who've committed suicide, we have not been able to get the numbers," Murray
said.
(emphasis mine)
Aaahhhh now here is the screw to turn to get the truth to flow... how about those numbers Senator Murray?
Will you be our hero to keep our sons and daughters from being lost to indifference? Will you follow through and demand the answers and get those numbers and bring back the true meaning of support?
His website.
And particulars:
Washington, D.C. Office
173 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2621
Fax: (202) 224-0238
Seattle Office
2988 Jackson Federal Building
915 2nd Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98174
Phone: (206) 553-5545
Toll Free: (866) 481-9186
Fax: (206) 553-0891
I think it's way past time for us to have a full understanding of what those numbers are... and did something about it. It's way past time to give support it's original meaning.
Also Remember, every shortcoming of this administration revealed is another vote for a Democrat in office.
And when I hear questions of my patriotism, I will gaze into their eyes and grit my teeth and ram the "list" of support down their throats! I will shout the numbers of the dead and dying and those who are left behind in the open battlefields of their own minds...
And I will "kick them in the face" with their own hypocrisy as their feigned support crumbles before the facts that reveal the lies and deceit of their hollow patriotism. And I will say, : " I. Have had. Enough. of YOU!"
Quoth the Raven, "NEVERMORE!"