I watched something on CNN the other night about Veterans’ Rights. Apparently, disability compensation for injuries obtained in Iraq and Afghanistan are based on the same compensation rates and policies set in WWII. Our soldiers are suffering unthinkable, life-altering injuries from weaponry not even imagined in WWII and the government is using a policy that hasn’t changed in 60 years to decide how to support them after retiring them from service. Many of them won’t even get enough to pay their medical bills, not to mention living expenses and many have suffered injuries that will keep them from finding employment to support themselves and/or their families.
The news and non-mainstream media are always ready to point out how many soldiers have died in Iraq (hardly anyone mentions Afghanistan anymore) and how many journalists have lost their lives since the war began, but no one seems to mention the number of injured soldiers since the wars began. According to CNN, for every 1 soldier who dies, there are 7 injured who cannot return to service.
That’s a lot of American lives that’ll never be the same again.
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See also: http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whiskey_fire/2007/11/tell-my-folks-i.html