AGAINST THE GRAIN

Kudos to Florida for aid to vets

By Roosevelt Wilson

Thank goodness Florida lawmakers have the integrity to use action instead of rhetoric when it comes to supporting our troops.

On June 13 Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a bill that supports business owners with military service-connected disabilities and veterans residing in Florida’s State Veterans’ houses.

Since the beginning of the voices of opposition to his personal war with Iraq, President George W. Bush has tried to muffle those voices of dissent by implying that to support the war is to support the troops - and vice versa.

That tactic might have worked had the hypocrisy not been so transparent.

As he was admonishing Americans to support the troops, Bush was sending the planet's best trained military into Iraq without the equipment to provide for maximum safety. Then when they returned with combat-related injuries or illnesses, they were placed in decrepit medical facilities that are a national disgrace.

After more than four years in Iraq, our troops still were without adequate body armor, yet Bush ordered 20,000 more into the line of fire with his controversial surge, and they didn’t have proper body armor, either.

That infuriated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., with a bipartisan group of her colleagues led by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., condemned the inadequate supply of body armor and force-protection equipment for the men and women who have been sent into war.

In a Feb. 15, 2007 letter to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Mikulski wrote:
“This is not the first time we have heard about the Bush Administration failing to protect the troops being sent into the line of fire. I was horrified by the first reports that body armor vulnerabilities have cost the lives of hundreds of Soldiers and Marines in Iraq - and I am disgusted to hear that it has still not been remedied,” she said. “It is completely unacceptable that, after nearly four years in Iraq, we still have not provided our troops with the equipment they need to protect themselves on the battlefield.”

How on Earth could Bush try to run that “Support-the-troops” guilt trip on us while he was sending those same troops into battle without adequate personal safety equipment?

To make a horrid situation even worse, inadequately protected U.S. military vehicles also resulted in more unnecessary deaths and injuries to American troops

In late 2004, Illinois Sen. Richard “Dick” Durbin called on the Department of Defense to increase its production of armor kits desperately needed by American forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a letter to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld he demanded the secretary to “provide the Congress, the soldiers in the field and the American people a full and complete explanation as to why military personnel deployed to the Middle East are forced to scrounge through garbage heaps to find armor for their vehicles, and to explain why available production facilities have not been utilized to produce these armored kits.”

If that's what Bush calls supporting the troops, I don't want to see what he calls NOT supporting them.

And the way some of the troops are treated when they return to the United States with serious physical or emotional - sometimes both - wounds is almost criminal.

Following a four-month undercover investigation, Dana Priest and Ann Hull of the Washington Post concluded: “Forced to battle the system at Walter Reed wounded soldiers face neglect, frustration at the Army's top medical facility.”

And here is their account of what one soldier faced:

“Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

“This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. “

Walter Reed is just five miles up the road from the White House.

As for treatment of mental wounds, the military has an obligation to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with emotional problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But a National Public Radio investigation at one base in Colorado found in February that soldiers aren't getting the services they need.

At what cost? According to a February 13 report issued by the Veterans for America’s Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, which is dedicated to strengthening the military mental health system, it is not just their bodies that have been maimed and, in some cases, destroyed. Many of these soldiers are suffering from severe mental health problems that have led to suicide attempts as well as spousal abuse and alcoholism.

And as if those problems weren’t enough, tens of thousands of members of the National Guard and reserves who are called up to serve in Iraq return home to find their civilian jobs gone and face unsympathetic employers and financial hardships.

That is where Florida comes in and earns a big pat on the back.

The state can’t replace the jobs, but it does provide help for the vets.

The intent of the bill, HB 687, is to create a preference in state contracting for Florida veterans, according to Torey Alston, executive director of the Office of Supplier Diversity.

Also, it will provide guidelines for certification for the Department of Management Services working with the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The bill will take effect on Nov. 11, appropriately, Veterans Day .

“The brave men and women who serve in our nation’s Armed Forces deserve our deepest gratitude and utmost support,” Crist said. “While we can never truly repay them for their sacrifices, we can demonstrate our appreciation through these important legislative initiatives along with our prayers for their safety and for their families.”

Amen. That’s supporting the troops. Now if we could just get that message to Washington.

Roosevelt Wilson is editor and publisher of the Capital Outlook.

You can email him at rwilson@capitaloutlook.com .

You can also talk to him live on his weekly radio show "Against The Grain" on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on WTAL 1450AM or live on the internet at www.wtal1450.com .