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Last Updated: Sep 7, 2008 - 7:54:53 AM |
When retired Army First Sergeant Wes Davey arrived, in uniform, at the
Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul to deliver a letter to fellow veteran
John McCain, it didn't take long for him to be turned away. "They
wouldn't even meet me," he said later, standing on the steps of the
Minnesota State Capitol, on what was to be day one of the Republican
National Convention. Instead, the 28-year veteran of the Army Reserve
and former St. Paul police officer was escorted off the premises.
Davey had come to the site of the RNC along with 60 fellow members of
Iraq Veterans Against the War, who marched in formation, chanting
cadences and leading hundreds of peaceful fellow protesters, including
members of Veterans for Peace, Gold Star Families for Peace, and others
who came to stand in solidarity with the veterans. Unlike IVAW's action
in Denver a few days earlier, in which they scored a conversation with
Obama's national veterans liaison, Phil Carter, who said he would try
to set up a meeting with the campaign to discuss their goals of
immediate withdrawal, benefits for veterans, and reparations for the
Iraqi people, IVAW's objectives when it came to McCain were slightly
more modest. "We actually chose not to pressure him on the issue of
withdrawal," T.J. Buonomo, one of IVAW's Philadelphia-based organizers
said. "There's nothing that's very controversial about the things we
were asking. There's nothing that's very controversial in asking that
people get the discharge they deserve, that people with PTSD not have
it held against them."
Indeed, the letter from IVAW, addressed to The Honorable John McCain,
focused on the medical needs of soldiers returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan, two wars that McCain has never flinched from supporting.
"It is often said that a nation's character can be judged by how it
honors its veterans," the letter read. "… We honor veterans by offering
them full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental healthcare),
and other long-term supports."
"Enclosed with this letter is a list of recommendations which we
believe will support those veterans still serving and those veterans
who have taken off their uniforms and re-entered civilian life. It is
our belief that most Americans would endorse these recommendations as
we hope you will after careful thought and consideration.
Prior to the RNC, IVAW had mailed, faxed, and personally delivered
invitations to the McCain campaign to meet to discuss the
recommendations. Yet the campaign ignored them, refusing to send anyone
to meet with Davey, let alone address IVAW as a group. For the man who
has built his presidential candidacy almost entirely on war hero
mythology, McCain's snub was only the latest in a series of refusals to
acknowledge the needs of a new generation of veterans. His record has
become an ugly symbol of the hypocrisy of the Republican party.
IVAW members seemed unfazed at McCain's snub that morning. "I was
really delighted to hear that the police went and escorted (Davey)
out," former Marine Sgt. Liam Madden smiled wryly, "He was either going
to get arrested or he was going to be escorted."
"I'm not surprised that McCain is not responding," said Rebecca Hansen,
an IVAW member from Madison, Wisconsin. " … I don't think (Republicans)
want the American people to know that vets and active duty soldiers are
not in support of the war anymore."
As for Davey, a 28-year veteran with a child who has served two tours
of duty in Iraq, he shrugged. "It looks bad on them, not on us."
"If McCain says the VA's not working, it's in part because he hasn't
funded it properly."
With the presidential election kicking into high gear and McCain's love
affair with the press (reportedly) waning, the media has yet to take
McCain to task for his dismal record on veterans' issues. McCain's
opposition to Virginia Senator Jim Webb's GI Bill earlier this year --
which sought to provide veterans with college educations and which
finally passed in May -- was just one of many displays of indifference
the senator has shown towards soldiers returning from the wars he so
unyieldingly supports.
In the spring of 2006, McCain voted against two components of an
emergency Iraq supplemental that would have provided more funds for
veterans' healthcare. One was an amendment to increase funding for
medical services by $1.5 billion, "to be paid for by closing corporate
tax loopholes." (That amendment, very similar to a 2004 amendment
McCain also voted against, failed, 54-46.) The next month, McCain
joined a handful of senators who voted against providing $430 million
to the VA for "outpatient care and treatment for veterans."
But it was the Webb GI Bill that met with the most outrage, not only
offending veterans, but galvanizing them. In April, Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America delivered a petition signed by 30,000
veterans to McCain's office, urging him to get behind the GI Bill.
McCain refused, and on the day of the vote, rather than vote "nay," he
skipped it altogether. (Incredibly, McCain later went on to applaud and
take credit for the new law, saying that the educational opportunities
it represented were valuable in "incentivizing people to stay in the
military" -- a complete reversal from his earlier stance.)
Not surprisingly, McCain has reacted aggressively when confronted on
his record. Responding to criticism from Obama on the GI Bill this
summer, McCain sneered and pulled his POW trump card: "Unlike Senator
Obama, my admiration, respect and deep gratitude for America's veterans
is something more than a convenient campaign pledge. I think I have
earned the right to make that claim." Faced with veterans who question
his record, McCain has responded with similar pique. At a town hall
meeting this summer, McCain made a show of selecting a self-identified
veteran from the audience, who ended up questioning the senator's lack
of support for the Webb GI bill, along with other legislation. " … We
haven't heard an explanation of why you voted against your colleagues'
proposals to increase healthcare funding in 2004, '05, '06, and '07,
when we had troops coming back from two wars," he said. McCain's
response was defensive and convoluted:
"Uh, my friend, I … all I can say is I don't know what you're pointing
to but I received every award from every major veterans' organization
in America. I've received every organization in America, their awards …
Now, sir, I don't…I don't know what you're referring to …"
When the questioner elaborated -- "…The votes were proposals … by your
colleagues in the Senate to increase healthcare funding of the VA in
2003, '04, '05 and '06, for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan,
and you voted against those proposals. I can give the specific Senate
votes, the numbers of those Senate votes, right now ... " -- McCain's
reply was sarcastic: "Well, I thank you and I'll be glad to examine
what your version of my record is."
More recently, McCain has been promoting his plan to privatize
veterans' healthcare, one that has been widely criticized by the same
veterans' groups whose support he lays claim to. "We need to relieve
the burden on the VA from routine health care," he said in a speech the
National Forum on Disability Issues in July, arguing that veterans'
needs would be more effectively met by private hospitals. Paul
Rieckhoff, Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans of America, recently told Think Progress that McCain's plan
was no substitute for the funding the VA desperately needs. "Sen.
McCain has consistently voted against expansion of VA funding,"
Reickhoff said. "So if he says the VA's not working, it's in part
because he hasn't funded it properly."
There's no question the Department of Veterans Affairs has serious
problems. Its hopelessly inadequate care and, worse, shocking
maneuvering to block veterans' benefits has generated a lot of bad
press, most recently in a devastating exposé in The Nation, which
chronicles the attempts of some veterans to sue the VA for the benefits
they deserve. Among the materials in the packet prepared by IVAW for
McCain were a book excerpt and a news article that described the lethal
role of the VA in the deaths of two Iraq war vets, both of whom hanged
themselves after months of struggling with alcoholism, depression, and
PTSD. Both soldiers had repeatedly turned to the VA, only to be turned
away, at the very moment they were in the most dire need of help. With
veteran suicides set to break record numbers this year, the need to
provide veterans with adequate, reliable healthcare could not be more
pressing.
"People are so afraid to speak the truth"
Sitting on the Capitol steps after the march, Rebecca Hansen, who
served as a specialist from 1995 to 2004 but never deployed, explained
the primary reason she was in St. Paul. "Basically because I've seen a
lot of my friends come home that aren't getting their needs met … It's
just gotten to the point where some people are so frustrated, it's
impairing their life. They can't lead a normal life." For many, the
frustration compounds a sense of betrayal from realizing that the war
in Iraq was waged on false pretenses. ""It's not the war that they told
us we'd be fighting," says Hansen. "We're not fighting for freedom.
We're taking other people's freedom."
Her feelings echoed what many members of an older group of veterans had
said the day before, at a heavily policed march through downtown St.
Paul and organized by Veterans for Peace. Leah Bolger, a 20-year Navy
veteran, came to St. Paul from Corvallis, Oregon. She served from 1980
until 2000 in four different countries and is now among the leadership
of Vets for Peace. Dressed in a T-shirt and baseball cap, Bolger was
wearing two stickers featuring two numbers: 4,150 and 1,255,026. The
former, she explained to me, is the number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq.
The latter is the best estimate of how many Iraqis have died. "Not one
of these people is a baby," she said, pointing to the 4,150 number. "I
think if we had our senators showing big pictured of dead babies, the
world would immediately demand an end to the war." Of course, in an
election season, showing concern for dead Iraqis is likely to result in
accusations of being unpatriotric. "That's the problem; people are so
afraid to speak the truth," says Bolger. "This world does not revolve
around the United States of America. Until we start valuing all of
humanity like our own, I don't think you can appeal to people's best
selves."
Perhaps the most arresting image among the marchers at the RNC -- both
at the Vets for Peace march and the IVAW march, among numerous other
demonstrations -- was that of Carlos Arredondo and his wife, Melinda,
who walked behind a flag-draped casket with military fatigues dog tags,
and a pair of boots resting on top. Arredondo's son, Marine Lance
Corporal Alexander Arredondo was killed in Najaf in 2004; his parents
had driven from Massachusetts to Minnesota with the casket sticking out
from the back of the car. "We purposely rode for 24 hours," Melinda
told me, "so that people who want to forget and instead go shopping
can't." Particularly, she said, "our audience is people who justify the
war … and the Republican party itself." Carlos and Melinda are members
of Gold Star Families for Peace; they told me that Alex had been
targeted by military recruiters since he was a young teenager. He
signed up at 17 and, according to Melinda, "September 11th happened two
weeks later." Alex fell into three categories that are targets of
military recruiters, Latinos, kids with divorced parents, and poor
people. "Alexander fell into the trap of all three."
Another father, Juan Torres, whose son, Juan Torres Jr., was killed at
Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, told me that his son had not died in
combat. He died in the shower from a gunshot to the head. The U.S.
military deemed it a suicide, but Torres believes his son was murdered.
Carrying a sign with his son's picture, along with one that read
"Bush-McCain The Same," Torres said that he supports Obama, "but not
100 percent." "We're here to stop the war in Afghanistan, too."
As the march winded down and the protesters were blocked off by police
at Washington and 6th, I asked Melinda what she thought of Vice
Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who often invokes her son's
military service in her pro-war speeches. "I say God bless her son,"
she said. "And I hope that she does not become a Gold Star parent."
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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