Disabled vets oppose Bush*

[trof]

“A disabled Vietnam-era vet visits a Minneapolis V.A. hospital and discovers that many fellow vets oppose the Bush administration's war in Iraq."
By Terry Dobbelaere
Solon, December 5, 2003


I received a letter from the V.A. Administration about a month ago to report on Nov. 24 at 2:20 p.m. for a doctor's appointment. The "waiting list" for DAVs has taken up to three years to secure a primary physician in the new V.A. Medical Center in Minneapolis, but as the result of private grants, some federal funding and some volunteers, they have imported a few dozen doctors and medical assistants to alleviate this problem.
<snip>
The new facility has much more room and better accommodations than the old facility at Fort Snelling. We had comfortable chairs, and TVs were stationed overhead for everyone to see and hear if they chose to. During my wait, our president, George W. Bush, appeared on the TV for a news conference. It became readily apparent that President Bush was speaking to a large group (apparently) of soldiers from Fort Carson, Colo., and astonishingly to me at least, he was once again wearing a military uniform!
<snip>
Then it started. First, a veteran around 50 years old in my area said, "I can't believe he has the guts to wear that uniform!" Others around the room started making remarks like, "Count the lies!" and "Didn't he learn anything on that aircraft carrier?" I'll clean up the language, but not long into Shrub's obvious photo op there were so many men and a few women veterans either yelling at each other or at the TV that staff members came in thinking someone had a serious health issue, or that perhaps an unstable patient had gone into a rage.

Uniformly and, as best as I could decipher, almost all the men in that room were either angry, disgusted, frustrated or simply insulted. I have held the belief that retired military are abundantly GOP supporters, so I simply couldn't contain myself anymore. http://www.vaiw.org/vet/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=298&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&POSTNUKESID=c8464161223b0e52b462242d812e3f13

[Medical Speaking]

1. Viet-Nam Vets oppose Bush

How can any veteran surport this chickenhawk. He did one hell of a job protecting Texas during the Viet-Nam war, when they could find him. He is a discrace to the country and to all veterans who fought and died for it. The one quote that turns me loose is from Dickless Chenney. {Quote I had other priorities}Another grate quote for going
to war with Irag. {Quote They tried to kill my Daddy} Sorry for my rant but I dont know how and servicemen present or past surport this
idot Chickenhawk.

A Viet-Nam Vet

Semper Fi

[Racenut20]

2. You sound right to me....

[DinahMoeHum]

3. If this is typical of what's happening at VA hospitals nationwide,

then Bushie-boy be in ver-r-r-r-y d-e-e-e-p ka-ka come next year. The military and veteran votes may well be up for grabs.

:kick:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. I go to the VA hospital in Dallas on a regular basis

(I was there this morning, in fact) and I can report an endless stream of conversations with veterans and medical personnel about the shrub-- all pissed off, annoyed, far-from-resigned heroes ready to tear him a new one if he walks into the room. The deserter will NOT be getting the veteran vote.

[soup]

5. Complete indifference and dismissal

is what I saw at the VA hospital here - amazingly enough, on the same day, regarding the same speech -

Unfortunately, we've had some recent dealings with the medical care provided for our vets in general, and my DAV husband in particular. (don't even get me started on the medical side of it, the waiting lists and lack of available and immediate care)
Whew! just barely avoided a major full-blown rant.

The televisions in the waiting areas are tuned to CNN and while I stood off to the side in the interminable line waiting for prescriptions for my husband, I was watching people's reactions to the speech.

There was one very elderly man sitting close to one of the tvs, watching intently. The rest of the people in the waiting areas were basically ignoring the television - instead, they were reading, talking among themselves, and clock or people watching.

As people walked, hobbled, hurried, wheeled, or were wheeled by the area, some would glance at the tv, then away - others would take a moment's notice, then make a small 'swat away a fly' dismissive motion or just shake their head, and go on about whatever they were doing. Not one stopped to sit and watch or show anything more than a fleeting sign of disinterest in what was being said.

It surprised me a little considering how much support we hear this commander in thief has. It saddened me immensely to be there and see the pain of reality, and hear the snippets of conversations - like the quiet desperation one man was trying to convey while talking to a cashier about his billing and the eventuality of the money he didn't have being drawn directly from his pension. A small, insane flash had me yelling something like, 'liar!' at the tv, or 'can someone please change this to the cartoon channel so we can have a little truth?' or some such.

It was definitely a very weird place to find myself with *jr spouting to the military on the tv in the background.

Thanks for sharing this letter, trof. Though our experience that day - in a similar surrounding - was different, it did leave me with a sense of nobody there really caring what came out of *his mouth.

[leetrisck]

6. Agree with all of you

So difficult to deal with the VA system especially the health care - long waiting times to get in and watching the older veterans especially really have to struggle to get thru this system. New money going to veterans soon (Republicans taking credit but Democrats had to embarrass them into it and it's still not what it should be) in form of Concurrent Receipt and Special Compensation. Special Compensation is a total disaster. Oh geez - could write a book so better shut up.