Today the presumptive nominee for the Republican party addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention and expounded on his deceptive assertions against Senator Obama, then he took it a step further he lied about his committment to this nations veterans, especially the disabled in service while in uniform.
Short of giving their life, these men and women have paid as much of a price as a citizen can be asked to give to their nation. I wrote Senator McCain for help with my problems with the Veterans Administration about 3 years ago, he told me there was nothing he could do, as I was not from Arizona, excuse me I am an American veteran, I served the US Army not the Arizona National Guard, he is a US Senator, and now he wants to be the American President. He should be accountable to all of this nations citizens.
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Today the presumptive nominee for the Republican party addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention and expounded on his deceptive assertions against Senator Obama, then he took it a step further he lied about his committment to this nations veterans, especially the disabled in service while in uniform.
Short of giving their life, these men and women have paid as much of a price as a citizen can be asked to give to their nation. I wrote Senator McCain for help with my problems with the Veterans Administration about 3 years ago, he told me there was nothing he could do, as I was not from Arizona, excuse me I am an American veteran, I served the US Army not the Arizona National Guard, he is a US Senator, and now he wants to be the American President. He should be accountable to all of this nations citizens.
In todays address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Senator McCain made several statements I took umbrage with.
here are the transcripts of his remarks
Through decades of struggle, free nations prevailed over tyranny in large measure because of the sacrifices of the men and women of the United States armed forces. And it will fall to the next commander in chief to make good on the obligation our government accepts every time any man or woman enters the military, and again when they receive their DD 214. Those we depend on as troops should know, when they become veterans, that they can depend on us. Honoring this obligation will require leadership. And I pledge to you that as president I will lead -- from the front -- to reform our VA system and make sure that veterans receive the respect and care they have earned.
The Walter Reed scandal was a disgrace unworthy of this nation -- and I intend to make sure that nothing like it is ever repeated. There are other problems as well that have not received as much media attention. And my administration will do the hard and necessary work of fixing them, even when the press and the public are not watching.
Reform begins with appointing a Secretary of Veterans Affairs who is a leader of the highest caliber, and who listens to veterans and veterans' service organizations. My VA secretary must be a forceful advocate for veterans and forthright advisor to me, so we can make the right choices about budgeting, health care, and other veterans' benefit issues. He or she will also need to be a high-energy leader, too, because we'll have a lot of work to do in improving service to veterans.
Veterans must be treated fairly and expeditiously as they seek compensation for disability or illness. We owe them compassion and hands-on care in their transition to civilian life. We owe them training, rehabilitation, and education. We owe their families, parents and caregivers our concern and support. Veterans should never be deprived of quality medical care and mental health care coverage for illness or injury incurred as a result of their service to our country.
As president, I will do all that is in my power to ensure that those who serve today, and those who have served in the past, have access to the highest quality health, mental health and rehabilitative care in the world. And I will not accept a situation in which veterans are denied access to care on account of travel distances, backlogs of appointments, and years of pending disability evaluation and claims. We should no longer tolerate requiring veterans to make an appointment to stand in one line for a ticket to stand in another.
I'm not here to tell you that there is a cost that is too high to be paid in the care of our nation's veterans. I will make sure that Congress funds the VA health care budget in a sufficient, timely, and predictable manner. But I will say that every increase in funding must be matched by increases in accountability, both at the VA and in Congress. And this requires an end to certain practices and abuses that serve neither our veterans, our country, nor the reputation of Congress itself.
Senator McCain was given the data that of the 7120 men used at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland in the Cold War human experiments using chemical weapons, biological weapons and drugs have a 40% death rate and a disability rate of 54% of the 4022 survivors which combine for a 75% death and disability rate, and was given copies of the medical studies that show that there are links to the exposures of the weapons and the veterans illnesses, the Jan 1994 NIH Report Toxicity of the Organophosphate Chemical Warfare Agents GA, GB, and VX: Implications for Public Protection and the thirty year study of Wermacht soldiers used in WW2 Germanys, chemical weapons program and the health problems they incurred Delayed Toxic Effects of
known medical problems which the VA and DOD refuse to recognize for the 7120 American soldiers used in the Cold War experiments at Edgewood Arsenal from 1955 thru 1975.
To conclude this section, the closing observations from Spiegelberg’s monograph
will be cited (these remarks do not refer exclusively to organophosphorus
CW agents) [2]:
A psychiatric delayed-effect syndrome was found as a result of systematic investigations
on former members of CW production and testing stations for the Wehrmacht. In
terms of frequency, two groups of symptoms can be distinguished–each consisting of
four separate symptoms or signs.
(1) The great majority of persons examined showed:
(a) persistently lowered vitality accompanied by marked diminution in drive;
(b) defective autonomic regulation leading to cephalalgia, gastrointestinal and
cardiovascular symptoms, and premature decline in libido and potency;
(c) intolerance symptoms (alcohol, nicotine, medicines);
(d) impression of premature aging.
(2) Further, one or more symptoms of the second group were found:
(a) depressive or subdepressive disorders of vital functions;
(b) cerebral vegetative (syncopal) attacks;
(c) slight or moderate amnestic and demential defects;
(d) slight organoneurological defects (predominantly microsymptoms and singular
signs of extrapyramidal character).
Our results are a contribution to the general question of psychopathological delayed
and permanent lesions caused by industrial poisoning. On the basis of our studies of
the etiologically different manifestations of toxication, the possibility of a relatively
uniform–though equally unspecific–cerebro-organic delayed effect syndrome is conceivable.
So for Senator McCain to proclaim he supports veterans for medical problems caused by their military service is Bullshit. He has seperated himself from this problem and ignores like it doesn't exist, how does this show support for his fellow veterans?
More of Senator McCains quotes from todays speech:
I suppose from my opponent's vantage point, veterans concerns are just one more issue to be spun or worked to advantage. This would explain why he has also taken liberties with my position on the GI Bill. In its initial version, that bill failed to address the number one education request that I've heard from career service members and their families -- the freedom to transfer their benefits to a spouse or a child. The bill also did nothing to retain the young officer and enlisted leaders who form the backbone of our all-volunteer force.
As a political proposition, it would have much easier for me to have just signed on to what I considered flawed legislation. But the people of Arizona, and of all America, expect more from their representatives than that, and instead I sought a better bill. I'm proud to say that the result is a law that better serves our military, better serves military families, and better serves the interests of our country.
No one who has worn the uniform of his or her country can ever take these matters lightly. We all learned an ethic in the service of looking after one another, of leaving no one behind, and this commitment did not end when we left the service. As a matter of duty and of honor, whatever our commitments to veterans cost, if I am president those commitments will be kept.
Unlike Senator McCain, Senator Obama is not spinning veterans issues to adavance his campaign, I have spent the last few years watching Senator Obama do his work and his homework in the Veterans Affairs Committee and push for the veterans beenfits to be increased and to make the then majority party Republicans do the right thing and stop the immoral review of the PTSD claims awards that were causing disabled veteransd to committ suicide from the stress.
Senator Obama, like Senator Patty Murray and Senator Bernie Sanders actually has the veterans best interests at heart, not a political position, he has shown thru his deeds that he is for the veterans and their families, and has the voting record to match it on veterans issues, he ranks above 80% on all votes for veterans issues, where Senator McCain has a career average of less than 30% voting for veterans issues.
Yet Senator McCain dares to claim that the veterans service organizations support him for President, BS, by law they can not endorse anyone due to their Congressional charters as non-partisian veterans service organizations, and if they did take a vote among their members based on the Senators voting records for veterans and their families, I don't see how Senator McCain could win that election versus Senator Barack Obama.
By the way I saw today where military member overseas support Obama over McCain by 6-1. So much for the solid republican vote.Sphere: Related Content
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