"SAVE OUR TROOPS: Honor the Veterans, Not the War"
by Terrance Andrew Robinson; Intern Minister
Sermon for Veteran's Day, Nov 11, 2007
"You have been upright in all that has happened to us, for you acted faithfully while we did wrong." Nehemiah 9:33 NJB
Today, Veterans make up 1 in 4 homeless people in the USA, though they are only 11% of the general adult population. These include more and more younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr Gaines had some suggestions that he used for the beginning of his Veteran's Day Sermon that I though I'd also try.
1. Would all the vets in the congregation please stand up.
2. Would all family of any veterans please stand up.
3. Would all policemen/women and firemen/women please stand up.
4. Now, please hug a vet at social hour!
In 1865 President Lincoln endorsed Universalist Clara Barton in setting up the Bureau of Records in Washington to trace missing soldiers. Through her efforts, 20,000 names of soldiers were traced. Presently, over 1100 WW II veterans are dying daily. So many, in fact, that taps being played by a live bugler at their funerals has become a rarity. The personnel necessary for those honors are either on duty -or going to duty- in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are STILL sacrificing our sons and daughters to the Edomite war god, Morloch. Even the Hebrews did this.
Unitarian minister Rev. Nick Cardell has attested: "as a Prisoner of War in Germany, I often witnessed the suffering warfare inadvertently caused on innocent people. On one occasion after a long days march I stumbled on the body of a tiny girl no more than 3 years old. She had been killed by a misdirected bomb from our bombers I had earlier cheered on their way as they flew overhead. I don't regret my military service. I'm PROUD of it, and my Division's part in a war that I still believe was as necessary as it was horrible. However, it was a war that might not have been so incredibly cruel and barbaric had it not been for a nation of people so dedicated to obedience that most could not bring themselves to say "NO" to even the most murderous of laws."
Rev. Dr. Paul Carnes was an early President of the UUA (he died in office soon after election). He was a bombardier in the US Army Air Corps during WW 11 shot down over Europe thus also became a prisoner of war. He felt that he personally learned of the "Grace" given by God during that entire sad and life changing experience.
When our Korean son, Trevor (much against our wills) enlisted in the US Army at 19 (he had squandered the entire college trust we had put away for him as I had foolishly made it available as of his eighteenth birthday) I typed and laminated the below poem to read and then give to him on his farewell departure from us:
Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owens (How sweet and noble it is to die for your country) Bent Double, like old beggars under a sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-- Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under the green sea, I saw him drowning. He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the death wagon flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,- My friend, you should not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
I assume the message got through to him as after 11 years on active duty, he quit the Army. He had been "stop lossed" twice, a form of a back door draft. The Meat grinder that has become Iraq was his next stop. What amazed us is that it took him so long!
The coffins rest on coffins in the worldwide fields of war. For all wars end in funerals, and only funerals end a war. Marching off to war also begins the funeral march. As every ear lifts to hear the rumors of war the coffin-makers hear the call. Every battalion steps off under the two-sided banner: "marching to death, marching to life?" The young ones, compelled from within to march into life, wanting to feel fully alive, don't see the death side of the banner. The young, filled with dreams of immortality, can't feel that the death side could claim them. The old know better, whether they say it of not. They've seen the other side of the banner; they've heard the other voice of the previous war.
The problem is that a little president recently had a big dream which has lead to a nightmare for the rest of us. This president had spent his time (and not as much time as he had contracted to do) protecting Texas from the Mexican Air Force. But that was even more than the Vice President since he had exhausted all his deferments, finally getting married to guarantee his not serving at all. Pat Buchanan feigned bad knees (while later jogging for exercise). Rush Limbaugh had a carbuncle on his buttocks. Teacher and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert DNS; Bug exterminator congressman Tom Delay DNS. House Whip Roy Blunt DNS. Sen Bill Frist Majority Leader of the Senate DNS. Mayor Rudy Giuliani DNS, George Pataki DNS, Sen Mitch McConnell (present Senate Minority Leader) DNS, Sen Rick Santori DNS, Present Senate whip Trent Lott DNS, Attn General John Ashcroft DNS (7 deferments to teach business), Gov Jeb Bush DNS, Karl Rove, DNS, Sen Saxbe Chambliss DNS-bad knee-he attacked triple amputee Sen Max Clelands' patriotism, Paul Wolfowitz of Neo Con fame DNS, Rep Vin Weber DNS, Richard Pearl DNS, Eliot Abrams, DNS, Sen Richard Shelby, DNS, Sen Jon Kyle, DNS, Newt Gingrich DNS and used marriage to his teacher as a reason, Phil Grahmm DNS, Congressman JC Watts, DNS, Antoni Scalia DNS, Clarence Thomas, DNS, Sean Hannity, DNS, Bill O'Reilly DNS, George Will DNS, Chris Matthews, DNS, Paul Gigot DNS, Bill Bennett DNS, Bill Kristol DNS, and Kenneth Starr, DNS. Most of these were the cream of the crop that went head over heals getting us into an unwinable war-never having served in the military themselves-and without that personal experience which would have instilled some caution. The nation is saddled with the disastrous results. Add this to the absolute stupidity of lowering taxes drastically and mostly for those individuals in the top 2% of the tax bracket as well as corporations while starting and conducting a foreign war. Taxes are usually RAISED in such times.
The all volunteer force has led to a war in which less than one tenth of one percent of the population is directly involved in. So, the rest of us go on with our daily lives not being directly affected and almost oblivious to the realities and consequences of it. This is almost a war by proxy. Personally, I am for a draft-all inclusive, all genders, no exceptions except severe mental or physical disabilities. It could be for the 2 years right after high school, when the immaturity of a lot of those folk cause failure at college and other complications with their lives. We have raised 5 teenagers and so can personally attest to the situation at that time. They could serve in many capacities of national service such as in mental institutions, national parks, center city food banks, tutoring children with educational adversities, etc. It would provide the one time in our national life when we would all share and learn across socio-economic, racial, and other barriers to really get to know others from "the other side of the tracks". In later life, when we are called upon to make national decisions, we'd all have personal experience from which to make much more realistic and informed decisions AND we'd have a much more sound sense of national community (the blessed community of ML KING?)
This government, like the civilian society (including our own UUA), has switched over to the "magic of the market"-al la Reagan. This for-profit mentality has lead to a multitude of disastrous decisions affecting the welfare and well being of our armed forces.
One of these items is the using the National Guard (and Reserves) to the absolute breaking point-because it costs only 15% of the cost of an active duty soldier to provide roughly the same services. This has lead to destruction of the original intent of the National Guard with marked disability to respond to local and state emergencies (The Louisiana National Guard was on a further deployment to foreign wars when Katrina hit- AND their water specific equipment had been LEFT in Iraq and not been shipped back for local use-WATER equipment- left in the deserts of IRAQ!) The roadside bombs as well as ignoring of former prisoner of war Senator McCain's strenuous recommendation of a LARGE force for invasion-left not enough troops to control the resulting anarchy. Thus followed the urgent need for armored Humvees. The government had one manufacturer contracted to make these at a low cost-40 hours/wk. To increase production (which could have been done) would have increased costs-so was not considered. They tried-and did get away with for a while-to have the troops not paid combat pay-in a war zone! Somebody in procurement has ties (possibly a later job after retirement?) to purchasing the present inadequate body armor for the troops. There is a far superior body armor-dragon skin- which parents have been buying for their children in Iraq- at $2000 a pop. The Army will not pay death benefits for those injured using this armor! There is a newer vehicle (based on 20 year old South African technology) with a v shaped hull that almost eliminates the difficulties caused by the roadside bombs. Again, production is kept to a minimum because of the costs of going full steam to get these into the field. Common sense says this should be done ASAP on an absolute emergency basis. Meanwhile, war profiteering corporations like Haliburton are reeling in obscene profits-some even by fraud. Haliburton wasn't satisfied with this amount and so recently moved its headquarters off shore to avoid federal and Texas state taxes.
When I was in my CPE this summer we were given a lecture by a local civilian psychologist. She had studied the effects of the roadside bombs on our soldiers. Apparently, these are massive explosions with resulting sound wave and air mass dispersions. These cause actual movement -intra and inter- cellularly-- of the human bodies exposed to them, including breaking away of the moorings of the brain in the skull cavity. While no apparent gross physical or mental displacements may be obvious at the time, these cause subtle and long term changes to the personality and social characteristics of the person involved. I asked what the results of repeated similar explosions would be on the individual involved. I had just seen a newscast with one soldier after being exposed to seven of these, was cleared to go back on duty with each occurrence. She said the effects were cumulative-in an exponential way, causing progressively more destruction with each encounter. This would eventually lead to a completely different personality who had not much insight to their seriously decreased skills for living and engaging successfully with society. This is essentially, producing zombies that will be completely dependent on others in our society for their safety and survival. I asked her point blank if she had communicated these findings to those in command of our military. She had. I then asked if the soldiers were being given a "Pass" to other duties after 1 or at maximum 2 of theses exposures. They were and are not, the reason given is the needed success of "the surge" and as many troops on the ground as possible. Our military is-consciously- creating this enormous burden both for the individuals involved and society in general-KNOWINGLY! I Was and AM absolutely LIVID!! As well I hope you are! UNCONSCIONABLE!!
A reservist can be called back to active duty involuntarily until actual retirement begins at age 60. Four years ago I got a direct notice of how desperate the personpower shortage was in our Army (at least for physicians). They had called me to "volunteer' to go to Iraq. After I got up off the floor I noted things must be getting to the bottom of the barrel to call me at age 59 ˝. They didn't know about my VA disabilities or replacement of my rt knee. I offered to back fill in for the dermatologist at Ft. Lewis, freeing him up to go. They lost interest quickly, because at that time any such physical imperfections with all the obligations the government would have to me under those conditions precluded me from going back on active duty.
I have no doubts that things have become so desperate that if I made such an offer now, it probably would be taken up. They have had a 71 year old physician on active duty in Afghanistan.
This is Veteran's Day, so lets get to some specifics about the care-or lack their of-of our present veterans- and the ones we are producing daily with this supposed "coalition of the willing" war. Two courageous reporters of the Washington Post spent 6 months (at the expense of their papers -a real rarity in the communications industry today-being plagued by the ever insistent demands for more profits versus true investigative journalism) investigating the situational realities of care for returning wounded vets from Iraq at Walter Reed. Others were doing the same with the Veteran's Administration medical department. What they found out has shocked those of us who assumed that a government that constantly roared "Support Our Troops"-would do what they professed! NOT SO! Apparently the market mentality and having a war on the cheap, has taken over all sense of fairness, decency and obligation to "our valiant heroes". In our throw away society-including people- this government has extended that category to our wounded veterans. Since they are no longer able to hold and fire a gun they are simply discarded, giving them the barest of what is truly owed them by their country.
More than 900 of them have lost an arm, a leg, fingers or toes. More than 100 are blind. Dozens need tubes and machines to keep them alive. Hundreds are disfigures by burns, and thousands have brain injuries and mangled minds. These are America's present war wounded, a toll that has received less attention than the 3900 troops killed in Iraq. Depending on how they are counted, they number between 35,000 and 55,000.
More of them are coming home, with injuries of a scope and magnitude the government did not predict and is now struggling to treat. For every American soldier or marine killed in Iraq, 15 others have survived illness or injury there. Unlike previous wars, few of them have been shot. The signature weapon of this war-the Improvised explosive devise, or IED-has left a signature wound: traumatic brain injury. Soldiers hit in the head or knocked out by a pressurized air wave through delicate tissues like the brain sometimes send it smacking against the inside of the skull and shearing fragile nerve connections that control speech, vision, reasoning, memory and other functions. Lungs, eardrums, spinal cords-virtually anything-can be damaged by the pressure wave. A pilot study at Walter Reed found 62% of patients returning from Iraq had traumatic brain injury. This "disease" has no screening test, agreed-upon set of symptoms for diagnosis, or even a billing code. These soldiers sometimes have no visible wounds but a fog of war in their minds. They can be addled, irritable, depressed and unaware they are impaired. Some of those still on active duty may have subtle brain damage that was missed when they were treated for more visible wounds. Half of those wounded in action are returned to duty in within 72 hours-before some brain injuries may have been apparent.
Back home, concerns grow about care. The Walter Reed hospital scandal and problems with some VA nursing homes have lead both parties to call for better care for this new crop of veterans. No one knows what the ultimate bill will be. Harvard University economist Linda Bilmes estimates the lifetime health-care tab for these troops will be between $250 billion and $650 billion.
Last April, a dear friend of mine who I have known for 56 years (and who is politically to the right of Attila the Hun) asked me for advise as to how to access the VA system for hearing aids. Since I held a medical disability and used it for my health care for 15 years, he asked me for advice. I copied my answer to another high school friend whose husband just retired from the VA hospital system as a counselor. He said all my observations as a patient were correct from his perspective as a provider. The card we all get says it's a National VA Card, BUT each separate VA must be individually applied to for admission to it for care. My response:
"I am a category 2 and have 30% disability with the VA and also assumed it was a NATIONAL Card. When I got to Hawaii, I had to jump through all the hoops you listed in order to register in their system to get care at that facility. The waiting list for an apt with the primary care Dr (step #1) was SIX months. The fellow registering me took pity on me and gave me an apt in 1 month. Boy, was I lucky! It was 1 month after that that I had my swimming accident with 2 hospitalizations-I can't even IMAGINE the bill had I not been in their system! Then we moved to Bremerton, WA and I sent in a form to register and be given a primary care physician there- step #1 again. I sent it in in October and didn't hear a peep from them by the time we left the next July! That's why I keep my care in Phoenix. To get into another VA now with the Iraq veterans wounded being summarily dumped by the active duty military system ASAP-is almost impossible. My Doctor told me the Phoenix VA is almost broken. 97% increase in patient load last year and 6% increase in budget! You can do the math. George asked for JUST enough money from his congress to wage war- on the cheap- but not anything really for the results. With the medical lifesaving so great-saving everything they can to keep the death toll low, a lot of people coming back are really catastrophic-both in terms of injuries and money needed to support them- especially when discharged to "the outside". Most will finally be tax takers and with the Federal government spending much more than it takes in-well-you can see the priorities of this administration are NOT care of those who can no longer be part of the active fighting force. Until the Walter Reed Scandal broke, most Americans were under the impression that the constant barrage of propaganda from the administration to "Support Our Troops" essentially also had their priorities with the financial resources to do just that. Also, you don't get anything not covered by your board. Clinton added glasses- but the bottle neck here is the need to have a referral by your primary care physician, then trying to get an optometry apt may take 8 months or more. Bush has actually decreased coverages. Very few have dental of hearing coverage. The most I can get is a hearing test-and that takes forever to get an appointment. We are essentially seeing rationing of care-without the oral admittance of same-the ministry of DIS information at your service-again.
SO, what can we as religious liberals do to fix this great injustice being thrust on our fellow citizens? First of all there is a toll free phone # called the Army's Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline which is staffed 24/7. They aim to get an answer for every caller within 3 business days, not solving the problem themselves, but over to the person or agency that can, cutting through the mountains of red tape. Please copy this down and dissipate it to any veteran or their family who needs any help. It is: 1-800-984-8523.
Obviously, we must all absolutely hound the congressmen and Senators to vote the resources needed to help alleviate this terrible wrong being done to our troops. Of course, it goes without saying that ending this insane war is the ultimate goal, but without a parliamentary process in place and given the President's stubborn determination not to do so, unfortunately, I don't realistically see that taking place until we get a new head of state.
We shall end with a reading from the Message Bible Isaiah 2: 2-4
There's a day coming
when the mountain of God's House
Will be The Mountain-
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They'll say, "Come,
lets climb God's Mountain,
go to the House of God of Jacob.
He'll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we're made."
Zion's the source of the revelation.
God's Message comes from Jerusalem.
He'll settle things fairly between nations.
He'll make things right between many peoples.
They'll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won't play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let's live in the light of God.
