Andrew J. Bacevich / The Daily Beast & VoteVets.org – 2011-06-08 00:10:24
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-28/memorial-day-how-america-screws-its-soldiers/
How America Screws Its Soldiers
Andrew J. Bacevich / The Daily Beast
WASHINGTON (May 28, 2011) — Riders on Boston subways and trolleys are accustomed to seeing placards that advertise research being conducted at the city’s many teaching hospitals. One that recently caught my eye, announcing an experimental “behavioral treatment,” posed this question to potential subjects: “Are you in the US military or a veteran disturbed by terrible things you have experienced?”
Just below the question, someone had scrawled this riposte in blue ink: “Thank God for these Men and Women. USA all the way.”
Here on a 30 x 36 inch piece of cardboard was the distilled essence of the present-day relationship between the American people and their military. In the eyes of citizens, the American soldier has a dual identity: as hero but also as victim. As victims — Wounded Warriors — soldiers deserve the best care money can buy; hence, the emphasis being paid to issues like PTSD. As heroes, those who serve and sacrifice embody the virtues that underwrite American greatness. They therefore merit unstinting admiration.
Whatever practical meaning the slogan “support the troops” may possess, it lays here: in praise expressed for those choosing to wear the uniform, and in assistance made available to those who suffer as a consequence of that choice.
From the perspective of the American people, the principal attribute of this relationship is that it entails no real obligations or responsibilities. Face it: It costs us nothing yet enables us to feel good about ourselves. In an unmerited act of self-forgiveness, we thereby expunge the sin of the Vietnam era when opposition to an unpopular war found at least some Americans venting their unhappiness on the soldiers sent to fight it. The homeward-bound G.I. spat upon by spoiled and impudent student activists may be an urban legend, but the fiction persists and has long since trumped reality.
Today such egregious misbehavior has become unimaginable. Even if the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not especially popular or successful, no one blames the troops. Instead we cheer them, pray for them, and let them go to the front of the line when passing through airport security. And we take considerable satisfaction in doing so.
From the perspective of those who engineer America’s wars, the principal attribute of this relationship is that it obviates any need for accountability. For nearly a decade now, popular willingness to “support the troops” has provided unlimited drawing rights on the United States Treasury.
Since 9/11, in waging its various campaigns, overt and covert, the United States military has expended hundreds of billions of (mostly borrowed) dollars. By the time the last invoice gets paid, the total will be in the trillions. Is the money being well spent? Are we getting good value? Is it possible that some of the largesse showered on US forces trying to pacify Kandahar could be better put to use in helping to rebuild Cleveland?
Given the existing terms of the civil-military relationship, even to pose such questions is unseemly. For politicians sending soldiers into battle, generals presiding over long, drawn-out, inconclusive campaigns, and contractors reaping large profits as a consequence, this war-comes-first mentality is exceedingly agreeable.
One wonders how many of those serving in the ranks are taken in by this fraud. The relationship between American people and their military — we love you; do whatever you want — seems to work for everyone. Everyone, that is, except soldiers themselves. They face the prospect of war without foreseeable end.
Americans once believed war to be a great evil. Whenever possible, war was to be avoided. When circumstances made war unavoidable, Americans wanted peace swiftly restored.
Present-day Americans, few of them directly affected by events in Iraq or Afghanistan, find war tolerable. They accept it. Since 9/11, war has become normalcy. Peace has become an entirely theoretical construct. A report of G.I.s getting shot at, maimed, or killed is no longer something the average American gets exercised about. Rest assured that no such reports will interfere with plans for the long weekend that Memorial Day makes possible.
Members of the civil-military-corporate elite find war more than tolerable. Within its ranks, as Chris Hedges has noted, war imparts meaning and excitement to life. It serves as a medium through which ambitions are fulfilled and power is accrued and exercised. In Washington, the benefits offered by war’s continuation easily outweigh any benefits to be gained by ending war. So why bother to try?
As the 10th anniversary of what Americans once called their Global War on Terror approaches, a plausible, realistic blueprint for bringing that enterprise to a conclusion does not exist. Those who might once have felt some responsibility for articulating such a plan — the president, his chief lieutenants, senior military leaders — no longer feel any obligation to do so. As a practical matter, they devote themselves to war’s perpetuation, closing one front while opening another. More strikingly still, we the people allow our leaders to evade this basic responsibility to articulate a plan for peace. By implication, we endorse the unspoken assumption that peace has become implausible.
Here at last we come to the dirty little secret that underlines all the chatter about “supporting the troops.” The people in charge don’t really believe that the burdens borne by our soldiers will ever end and they are not really looking for ways to do so. As for the rest of us, well, we’re OK with that.
Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University.
Major Report on Social Security and Veterans:
Social Security Must Not Be Cut
VoteVets.org
WASHINGTON, DC (May 26, 2011) — A coalition of veterans organizations, including VoteVets.org, and Social Security groups today released a major new report on Social Security and veterans. The report showed that veterans and their families depend on Social Security not just for retirement, but also for disability benefits and death benefits. These findings show that any cutbacks to Social Security will severely impact veterans and their families in need.
Interim Chairman of VoteVets.org, and Iraq War Veteran Ashwin Madia said, “What is abundantly clear is that veterans and their families depend on Social Security more than maybe anyone else. There’s no doubt that we as a nation need to ensure that Social Security is viable for the long-term, but the way to do it is not to cut the system back to bare bones.”
Some highlights of the report, which can be found here, really put things in perspective. Just a few of the points from the report:
• Social Security currently pays benefits to over 9 million veterans — about 4 in 10 veterans.
• Over one-third of America’s 54 million Social Security beneficiaries are either veterans or family members living with them, such as their spouses.
• Of the 13 to 14 million veterans — or 6 in 10 — who are not Social Security beneficiaries, the vast majority will become beneficiaries in the future.
• The vast majority of the Active Duty community’s 1.4 million members, 700,000 spouses and 1.2 million children, and the Total Selected Reserve community’s 1.1 million members, 400,000 spouses and 650,000 children, are eligible for Social Security’s disability and life insurance benefits if a service member becomes severely disabled or dies.
• Indeed, approximately 771,000 veterans receive Social Security disabled worker benefits, averaging $1,100-$1,200 per month.
• Social Security’s young survivors’ benefits are particularly important to the 4 in 10 active duty members who are married with children and the 1 in 20 who are single parents.
• As of January 16, 2011, the number of American servicemen and women killed on active duty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was 5,860, leaving behind an estimated more than 4,000 children.
What is abundantly clear is that veterans and their families depend on Social Security more than maybe anyone else. When we talk about cutting benefits, we’re talking about punishing veterans and their families who rely on Social Security’s benefits, particularly disabled veterans and families of the fallen. There’s no doubt that we as a nation need to ensure that Social Security is viable for the long-term, but the way to do it is not to cut the system back to bare bones.

But, these facts don’t matter unless people know about it. So CLICK HERE to spread the word.
Thanks for your support.

Ashwin Madia
 is an Iraq War Veteran
 and Interim Chairman of VoteVets.org

