United Press International: Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters

If anyone had any doubt that Bush and Redrumsfeld and the rest were smug, soulless, sleazy, slimy sonsofbitches, here's some more proof:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."

I don't care how many excuses Rumsfeld gives us, this is the High Command without a conscience. It's time for that spineless piece of shit who wears a jacket identifying himself as Commander-in-Chief to come out of his dreamworld and stand up like a man -- it should be a new experience for him.

The Pentagon has acknowledged some early problems and delays in treating soldiers returning from Iraq but says the situation has been fixed...

"This is what happened with the Vietnam vets. I went to Vietnam," said John Keaveney, chief operating officer of New Directions, a shelter and drug-and-alcohol treatment program for veterans in Los Angeles. That city has an estimated 27,000 homeless veterans, the largest such population in the nation. "It is like watching history being repeated," Keaveney said.

It's not an accident.

Of all the people I have known who did some nasty stuff during the Vietnam Era, the man who was most ashamed of what he'd done was an Army doctor, stationed at Letterman, who was deeply ashamed that he'd followed orders. His orders? To try to convince seriously wounded soldiers to sign away their disability pensions. "Oh, well we COULD fix you up with a hip joint replacement, but we'd have to keep you here another year doing physical therapy to be sure you needed it. Because of the pension. But if you wanted to sign the pension away..."


It's deja vu all over again and Country Joe is singing:

So it's one, two three, what are we fighting for?
George Bush the oil whore,
So his friends can score some more

And it's five, six, seven, open up those VA gates
Ain't got no home to come back to
VA said "Hey, screw you."

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