A HUGE GRIPE

[PlanB]

A H U G E gripe, is this, "How come I see some of our soldiers' families, Brave
beyond my imagination, how come I've seen their wives so desparate for
money & basic needs?" I mean, shouldn't the USA give all its soldiers the
red carpet treatment? HELP THEIR WIVES & KIDS. What's all this non-caring
about anyway?

[PlanB]

Please How do you feel about middle class young moms & wives needing
money to live now that their WORLD is topsy because the USA took their
men away FOR EXTENDED DUTY, i might add. Why does this happen?

[Secretariat]

PlanB,

An excellent post. See this is why I get sickened by the political posturing of the right in this campaign and the campaign of 2004.

They like to attack an obvious gaffe by John Kerry, and begin questioning his patriotism, and demanding he apolgize to the troops.

But when you go back and look at what Kerry has actually done to help the troops it dwarfs the rhetoric from the WH, and goes right to what you are referring to.

Kerry Unveils Bill to Help Iraq War Veterans with Transition Home
February 16, 2005

By Leo Shane III,
Stars and Stripes, European Edition


WASHINGTON — Many guardsmen returning from overseas deployment are finding their families in debt and their small businesses on the verge of collapse, according to Sen. John Kerry, who unveiled a bill Tuesday to help ease that transition back home.

“A small veterinarian’s office or a small contractor, their business falls apart while their gone,” said Kerry, D-Mass., in a meeting with defense reporters. “In many cases they’re been sustained by the goodwill and patriotism of folks in their community so they can pick up when they come back, but it’s not without a lot of effort and a lot of work.”

Kerry’s legislation would provide tax incentives to employers who keep deployed guardsmen and reservists on their payrolls, and create new loans and grants for self-employed troops to help get their businesses running again.

“What we can do is try to provide economic incentives to cushion that impact and facilitate their efforts to survive,” he said.

Kerry proposed many of the same initiatives during his 2004 presidential bid, and several similar ideas also are being floated in Congress.

Kerry’s bill would also extend military health care benefits to all reservists and guardsmen, regardless of deployment, and expand posttraumatic stress disorder counseling services.

The National Military Family Association praised those ideas, saying that Guard and Reserve families in particular are facing challenges when their servicemember return home.

...OR THis

"Protecting Our Military Families in Times of War"

A Military Family Bill of Rights

March 17, 2004

If I am President, as part of a Military Families Bill of Rights, we will fully fund veterans health and veterans benefits - and our veterans will no longer be the neglected soldiers of America.

And we have to secure the rights not only of those who served in the past, but of patriots all across this country who serve today - in the active duty military, the Reserves, or the National Guard.

Twenty-percent of our Reservists and their families don't have health care coverage. But George Bush threatened to veto funding for Iraq if it included more money for health care for Reservists, and then tried to cut the pay of soldiers in the field and school aid for children of military families. If I am President, our men and women in uniform will get the benefits they deserve.

This Administration also attempted to cut family separation allowances, imminent danger pay, and impact aid -- the help local schools depend on to give military kids the best possible education. I will protect them all -- and as President, I will sign legislation to provide for those families who suffer a loss in war and to protect the livelihood of reservists who are called up and have to leave their jobs. This legislation will include $250,000 on top of their present life insurance policies for all service members who die in the line of duty.

I will honor the family members of those who fall in service not just with words, but with deeds. People like Cyndi Stever and her ten year old daughter Nichole. When Tony Stever was killed by enemy fire in Iraq last April, Cyndi said she felt she had lost her whole life. But more loss was to come - not just from an enemy, but from her own government. Not long after she buried her husband, Cyndi was told she and Nichole would have to leave their home. Military housing - they were told - is for military families. And since Tony made the ultimate sacrifice, they were no longer a military family.
How can this happen in the United States of America? It's not right to tell a family that has just received that knock on the door, "Oh, by the way - you have to pack up your home and move." Move where? Who among us thinks it's right to say such a thing? Who among us could move on short notice when you don't even know where your paycheck will come from? If this Administration says we can afford to throw massive tax cuts at the wealthiest Americans, then don't tell us to throw bereaved military families out of their homes without a chance to pull life back together.

So the Military Family Bill of Rights, will allow the spouses and children of those killed in action to remain in military housing for up to a year after the loss of a loved one. It will offer help to move on to a new life. It will provide one year of pay to military dependents of soldiers killed in action. It will make permanent increases in family separation allowances, and permanent guarantees of reservist access to military healthcare. For reservists who are called up, it will also permit penalty free withdrawals from their IRAS to cover the unexpected expenses of lengthy activations and deployments. This is the least we can do for those who give the most they can to our country.

To me, guaranteeing these rights and organizing our armed forces accordingly is personal; it is in my soul and it's been a large part of my life. This commitment goes back more than 35 years to the years of my own service. It was then that I learned, together with some of you here today, about our obligations to each other and our country's obligation to those in uniform. And since then, from the struggle for care in our VA hospitals, to post-traumatic stress disorder, to Agent Orange, to the battle for military strength and military pay, to the struggle for answers as we kept faith with our obligations to find the truth about POW/MIA, I have tried to be a voice and a champion for those in uniform who serve our country.

I make this simple pledge: If I am President, I will fight for a constant standard of decency and respect for those who serve their country in our armed forces - on active duty and as veterans. It should be no other way and if I am president, it will be no other way. "

[Tom]

Derek,
It is very sad and unexcusable, but unlike Sec's mindless ranting, it was the exact same thing under Clinton.
The treatment our vets get is sickening.

[kenwoodallpromos]

Military persons are seen as disposable as soon as they service is done to often; much like other areas of our society, in and out of racing. Too bad it takes laws to force the right thing.