VetVoice - Recommended Diaries

Cheap Labor

arzray — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:24:31 GMT

The State of Arizona, like many others, is currently facing a huge budget deficit this year. Some of our current legislators are showing once again their lack of understanding of our military and respect for soldiers by suggesting that the Arizona National Guard should be deployed to the prisons and eliminate the overtime being put in by the Corrections Officers.
Below is an excerpt from the article that talks about their reasoning for using the National Guard as "cheap labor":

Lawmakers brace for state government shutdown (http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/freestory.cfm?id=8917)

By Jim Small
Senator, "...Harper also said the state should cut the amount it spends on overtime for corrections officers in the state prisons. In the current budget, the Department of Corrections was allotted more than $24 million for overtime pay due to a shortage of officers.
To achieve savings in the prisons without diminishing public safety, Harper proposed deploying the National Guard to state prisons and having soldiers replace corrections officers. The soldiers, he said, don't earn overtime pay. He said they could work 72 hours a week as prison guards - 12-hour shifts, seven days a week - and save the state millions of dollars.

I find it unbelievable that people like Senator Harper only see the military as their labor pool!!!

President McCain Will Cut Not Build Up DOD

Colonel "Joe" USAR — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:08:54 GMT

When Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, I was the typical Army Officer and had a tremendous case of heartburn over it. But I was quickly approaching the hump ten year career point and knew that I just had to make the best of the situation no matter how "terrible" he would be to "my Army."

There was the initial rocky start with this "new relationship" but I knew the good old days under President Reagan would never be repeated.

President George H.W. Bush would begin the long drawn out painful downsizing that like a runaway rail engine could not be stopped by the Clinton Administration, even if they wanted to.

On military affairs, I admired President Clinton, because he clearly understood his limitations with regards to the military. From 1994 to 2000, it was extremely clear that the uniformed military, not the pin stripe appointees ran the military. This early history of Secretary Rumsfeld is largely forgotten by many:

First, some in the new Bush administration believed that civilian control
had eroded under President Bill Clinton. They felt that the problems with the military were a result of "eight years" of no discipline during the Clinton-run Pentagon.

The Wall Street Journal recently did an interview with former Senator Phil Gramm, adviser to McCain, and likely Secretary of Treasury in a new Administration. His words, as someone in the McCain circle, immediately jumped out at me;

He wants to cut defense.

Just how is he going to do this?

"John's going to cut the defense budget by making major changes in procurement. As we win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we must use every penny of savings for deficit reduction."

So instead of paying the hidden costs of broken bodies and broken equipment, we are going to reduce the federal deficit.

What's worse is the way Phil Gramm refers that "John's going to," which is eerily similar to the historic record of President Lyndon Johnson's military micromanagement.

Amongst many things, I am a graduate of the "Transportation Officer Qualification Course" an area that is clearly outside of my basic branch. I know well enough that even though on paper I am qualified to now serve in Command of a Transportation unit or to serve in a Transportation Staff position, that I should never ever serve in such a position.

I may disagree with many of the domestic policies of Barack Obama, but his actions make it very clear to me, that "my Army" will once again be managed by those in uniform and that he will heed and listen to our professional recommendations.

Homeless vets and PTSD

sandrat — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:10:40 GMT

I took a break from blogging to work on my garden. I had no plans to blog tonight. The media, VA doing dog and pony shows with homeless veterans, and PTSD vets changed that. I am really sick and tired of this bullshit. All the VA, or DOD has to do is provide some of the start up funding for some of us who actually have a real plans to help Vets. I will not going detail about Warrior Ranch, but The idea is for it to fund itself after start up. A good example of this kind business model, and rehabilation model is right here in Nashville TN it is called thistle farms. Their website is thistlefarm.com i think. The ladies make lotion and soaps to pay for thier housing. Thistle farms is for women who have been raped or working girls who want get off the streets. The point i am making is if you want to fix the problem fund the solution. Homeless vets and PTSD vets are not some fluff story you do to make yourself feel better. where not here for the Va to use to improve thier image either. To the media shame on you for being playied like a two dollar fiddle.

National Summit on Women Veterans' Issues

Combat Infantry Bunny — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:42:20 GMT

I attended some of the events from the National Summit on Women Veterans' Issues hosted by the Department of the Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans last weekend. Initially I was very excited about attending, as I was hoping to gain valuable insights into the current needs of female vets. Unfortunately what I found was more of a celebration of female vets instead of a group trying to address the issues that face female vets.
Because I was doing my two week annual training with the the Army National Guard, I could only attend two events. The first event I attended was the reception on the first night held at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial (WIMSA)at Arlington Cementery. (Aside: the WIMSA Memorial is fantastic and I highly encourage all female vets to register with the memorial. WIMSA just wants a record of all female vets, you do not need to pay to participate.) Anyway, moving on, what I found was older women, few younger vets representing the current wars. I have nothing against older female vets, they have certainly fought battles that have made my life easier, but I fear too many of them were too distant from the current conflicts and the actual issues today's female vets face, i.e. seeing actual combat/being on the front lines. This was evidenced by the clap-happy crowd at the reception. It was clearly a celebration of female vets. Again, nothing against celebrating female vets, but I was bothered by the joy I found when two wars are still going on. Maybe that was just my PTSD kicking in. . . anyway, moving on to day two. On Saturday the only workshop I could attend was the "Challenges During and After Deployment for Guard/Reserve Women Veterans." I thought this would be a slam-dunk event for me, as I am a female, a vet, and a Guard member. However, what I found had very little to do with me and my experiences and it became extremely clear that this event was hosted by the VA, as NOTHING negative was said against the VA . . . really, does that sound like an event dealing with reality to you? I failed to identify with all but one of the panel of speakers. Most of the speakers were high-ranking officers, VA associated and/or of the Coast Guard. Indeed, all these women have experiences in OIF/OEF but they don't have anything to do with me, a lowly female enlisted grunt. Most of the issues they discussed were not female specific, nor Guard specific. The only commonality was that it was a group of females speaking. These women told me about their "wonderful experiences" and how "proud" they were to have served. Clearly I was listening to a bunch of fluff. Finally, a female officer of a Combat Stress Team started to state things about PTSD that I identified with, BUT then she had to go and ruin it all by stating that these are "adjustment disorders" and not to be confused with PTSD. Really, can someone please tell me what the statute of limitations is for an "adjustment disorder?" Because I certainly still have an awful lot of anger and nightmares considering I've been home for 21 months already. Finally, she had to throw in a slide that feeling "angry" that people question why we are in Iraq is okay. She basically completed her presentation by saying that those who question our involvement in Iraq are wrong and that veterans should be angry at those who are against the war.

SOOOO . . . I left disenchanted that an entire conference dedicated to female vets was really nothing more than a blow fest for the VA and the war. Nothing worth talking about seemed to have been talked about. But, I must admit that I was unable to attend the entire conference so maybe I missed the brilliant and enlighted discussion about reality, but I have little faith that I just happened upon the only two pointless sessions of the conference.

So, I'd like to conclude that female vets of the current conflicts need to start banding together, like our older predecessors do and start addressing the issues that actually effect us. Because if this conference is telling older female vets anything, is that the VA has it all under control . . . and we all know that's a bunch of bullshit.

Bin Laden's Goal? Victory Defined In His Words, "Bankrupt" the U.S.

Colonel "Joe" USAR — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:50:17 GMT

In November 2004, UBL outlined what victory would look like and how it would be achieved.

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah,"

He also discussed the prior successful history;

"We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat,"

And then what became very prophetic;

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations,"

AQ and UBL had a desired end state for the USA and we are now at that end state. While politicians talk about staying the course to achieve "Victory" something even they can not define, AQ and UBL have achieved a stunning victory.

While we engaged in the "Global War on Terror" (checkers), they were engaged in economic warfare of the highest order (chess).

Check mate, game over.

Now that the game is over it is time to ask the politicians what they think of UBL's prophetic message in November 2004.

There is not a single State where I can not see the damage because this warning was ignored.

We lost the War that UBL was fighting because we flagrantly ignored the warning and decided to fight "something else."