President Obama: Honor veterans this Memorial Day

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

President Barack Obama urged Americans to pay tribute to veterans on Memorial Day, saying the nation all too often has "failed to live up to that responsibility."

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said people can honor veterans by sending a letter or care package to troops overseas, volunteering at health clinics or taking supplies to a homeless veterans center. He said it could also mean something as simple as saying "thank you" to a veteran walking by on the street.

"We have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us," Obama said. "And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve.

"That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear and all who have worn the proud uniform of our country," he said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090523/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_memorial_day_3

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Weekly Radio Address
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Weekly-Address-Sacrifice/

[old mark]

1. Wonder how the Publicans can twist this message - I know they

want people to believe there are no Democratic Vets, which is nonsense.

Welcome Home, all of you.

Mark
(Formerly Sp4, 1stBn, 504 PIR, 82d Abn Div-Long, long ago....)

[Psephos]

25. Easy

They will point out that Obama urged citizens to respect veterans on Memorial Day.

However, Memorial Day is the day we honor those who died during service to the country.

Veterans Day is when we honor living veterans.

[kirby]

2. Bringing them home would be an honor! n/t

[Mari333]

3. bingo nt

[Bigmack]

4. This vet would be best honored...

by our country not making so many veterans. We can't afford an Empire anymore. Not financially, and not morally.

[bdab1973]

5. Just a technicality, but Memorial Day isn't about veterans...

...that's what Veteran's Day is for. Memorial Day is to honor those who have DIED while serving the country.

[No Elephants]

16. Good point. Also, sending packages overseas honors active troops, not veterans.

[Deja Q]

27. Yup. Even the blatantly pro-McCain church got the meaning right.

I'm shocked President Obama mistook one day as the other.

I'm likely missing out on the context, however...

[defendandprotect]

6. This should be a day when we pledge to end war and not to create more vets--!!!

My message to any soldier is stop supporting these illegal wars --

And what of GOP government which has so broken our military and done so much

harm to our troops --

What of Bushco which created this cesspool of two wars for no reason??

The wrong notes are being hit here --

What "sacred trust" . . . has Obama never read what Kissinger said our soldiers . . .
Is that far from how our soldiers have been used the last 8 years??

(Soldiers are) dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy. <'b>

[bdab1973]

7. Dumb, stupid animals...interesting message you have there...

I can think of many in the military that are anything but dumb and stupid.

[defendandprotect]

10. That's Kissinger's message, not mine . . . AND . . .

much of Europe has long understood the role of men/soldiers as

"fodder for war."

[nyy1998]

8. I've had to work with soldiers in the past

"Dumb stupid animals" is the last thing I'd use to describe them.

[defendandprotect]

11. That is Kissinger's description . . .

not mine . . .

However, I think it would be hard to argue that's how Bush/Cheney has used

our military.

That's the point --

[Honeycombe8]

29. I'm waiting for the link of the Kissinger direct quote, please. Is it coming shortly? nt

[defendandprotect]

30. Check Wiki . . . so many here are familiar with that quote . ..

I didn't think to pick up the link.

[east texas lib]

9. The troops don't get to make the call on where they're sent or who to fight...

The civilians that run the government do that for them. They answer the call to arms, as any
soldier would. The fact that the civilian administrations misuse them sometimes does not in any
way detract from the honor of the profession. I thank them for being willing to give their lives
for the rest of us.

[defendandprotect]

12. We have 45,000 private contractors in Iraq . . .

Our military has been largely privatized . . .

Mercenaries now fight our wars along side soldiers -- and get paid a great deal
more than our troops who often have families living on foodstamps!

This is a VOLUNTEER army -- we need other options for men who can't find jobs and
who need educations without having the military be their last resort.

War is not an "honorable" profession . . .
If we were truly threatened we would ALL be at war.

"Administrations misuse them sometimes" . . . ???
Our troops have regularly been used as "guinea pigs" -
from vaccinations/Gulf War Syndrome to atomic bombs --
and now in SERE torture!

Evidently a lot of military personnel responded to Cheney's wish for torture of prisoners . .
and believed his lies about their role in torturing prisoners as "saving thousands of lives"!

Physicians and psychologists also betrayed their oaths to assist in torture.

Rethink what you are saying.

And, I'd especially like to see the Veterans associations stressing their support for peace
and ending war rather than rallying behind war so mindlessly.



The troops don't get to make the call on where they're sent or who to fight...
The civilians that run the government do that for them. They answer the call to arms, as any
soldier would. The fact that the civilian administrations misuse them sometimes does not in any
way detract from the honor of the profession. I thank them for being willing to give their lives
for the rest of us.

[east texas lib]

14. You are quite welcome to your opinions...

And I'll keep mine, thank you.

[defendandprotect]

15. Needless to say . .. but at least read Brig. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler on war . . .

:)

[defendandprotect]

13. I'd also advise reading Brig. Gen. Smedley Darling Butler on war . .

"War Is A Rackedt" -- and he certainly knew!

contains this key summary:

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

The book is also interesting historically as Butler points out in 1935 that the US is engaging in military war games in the Pacific that are bound to provoke the Japanese.

"The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the United States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles."
Butler explains that the excuse for the buildup of the US fleet and the war games is fear that "the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people."

In his 1987 biography of Butler, Maverick Marine,<3> Hans Schmidt gave a brief review:

"Butler's particular contribution was his recantation, denouncing war on moral grounds after having been a warrior hero and spending most of his life as a military insider. The theme remained vigorously patriotic and nationalistic, decrying imperialism as a disgrace rooted in the greed of a privileged few."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_is_a_Racket

[Thothmes]

18. This statement was coming from a guy

that made a 40 year career of making war.

[defendandprotect]

19. You know how many CIA guys turned around once they reached a certain level . . .

and in both the case of the military and intelligence, consider how many never wake up!

Today, people more readily understand the intrigues of the wealthy --

elites -- their control of hierarchies/military --

I think Butler did this book in '35? .... And I think the nation was

pretty awake then -- but unfortunately it seems to have gone back to sleep

just as the MIC took over . . . ??

[Thothmes]

23. Your point is?

this guy spent 30 some odd year killing brown folks in South America and Yellow folks in Asia. All in the name of the United states of America. Yet, on this forum, a 14 year old kid gets sucked up into the HJ and spends 4 months as a Luftwaffa AA gunner, he is for ever condemed as a Nazi. Walk in to a KKK recuriting off and sign up, spend several years in a white hood, get elected to Congress, filibuster the Civil Rights bill and become a democrat and you are welcomed with open arms.

[defendandprotect]

26. My point is, we are better off knowing his experiences and his warnings . . .

than not knowing.

Butler is also the man who stopped the conspiracy to kill FDR --
No, he wasn't a saint -- but I do think "War Is A Racket" has value for us all.

Many have not woken up -- if Butler's info helps -- or Kissinger's telling remarks
about how he sees soldiers wakes some up -- great!

I'm not much on "born again" claims, either --

[Thothmes]

17. Thats what we were saying

back in the mid-late 60s, to the Johnson Administration. End the illegal war not. Didnt work then, wont work now. The current President has decided to continue these wars.

[twitomy]

20. I heard about that quote from Kissinger...

That fat bastard would've been sent to the gas chambers if it wasnt for those "dumb, stupid animals "...

[defendandprotect]

22. Keep passing it on -- make sure everyone is aware of it -- but also ...

(Soldiers are) dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.


note . . . it is people like Nixon, Kissinger, LBJ, Bushies, Cheney . . .

who make the imperialistic decisions which bring death to soldiers and innocents --

for the profit of the few -- corporations, elites.

[twitomy]

24. Yep, I am not so naive that I dont know that

sometimes you have to fight (per my sig)..but far too often we have fought when we didnt have to and for the wrong reasons. May our service Men and Women who have paid the ultimate price rest in peace.

[twitomy]

21. I heard about that quote from Kissinger...

That fat bastard would've been sent to the gas chambers if it wasnt for those "dumb, stupid animals "...

[Deja Q]

28. Do US corporations serve us? They're as much American citizens too.