The "Hire The Vets" PR Campaign A Joke And An Insult.

[TheMastersNemesis]

As a Vietnam vet I find the "Hire A Vet" campaign a disingenuous joke and insult. For one most new vets only skill is killing people the rest of the jobs were profitized to contractors. That was part of the "trigger puller" military that was pushed under 8 years of Bush. Most vets are not employable because the business community does not want them. They fear their PTSD and other problems. Why would the business community want a vet when they don't even want American citizens.

Disabled vets are even worse off. Many of the government jobs that vets used to be able to get have been cut or profitized by GOP lefteovers after Bush and the Republican party who pushed privatization. And most of those jobs pay barely more than the minimum wage now. Many federal jobs have been privatized and pay cut with the excess going to GOP cronies.

The American people and business community have largely abandoned our vets now. They even support gutting military retirement and vets disability pay. And the VA is a mess because Obama cannot fix something when the VA has been salted with GOPPERS and Congress only wants to cut.

I want to spit when I see my fellow Americans waving and flying the flag and thanking vets. They can take the damned flag and stick it up their ASSES as far as I am concerned. It is nothing more than hollow bullshit. I don't fly the flag and probably never will. The GOP has siezed it and abused it and made it their own.

I see Snowden and Manning as heroes and I would have done the same myself. All I know is that I view my forced service as a total waste of time. Somehow realizing that I served to protect Republican MAGGOTS who are a cancer on this nation leaves a bitter taste. The America I knew no longer exists.

The VA Ed program is a joke because even if the vets get some training there are not enough decent jobs. The GOP thinks even $7.25 an hour is too high. Support yourself on that crappy wage. And vets are continually exploited by these phony paper mills with overpriced tuition. And the graduates of these schools outnumber the jobs available.

[MineralMan]

1. Not all veterans are combat veterans. That was true

during the Vietnam War and it's true today. In fact, the majority of military veterans have never been in a combat zone.

[great white snark]

7. And not all see the criminals Snowden and Manning as heroes.

Or get upset when I'm thanked for my service for that matter. This statement is in no way an invitation to be thanked-if you want to thank a vet please donate to one of the many fine causes...like the one maligned in this OP.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes, exactly. nt

[russspeakeasy]

2. Yup...

[Downwinder]

3. They should hire Vets to do their PR campaign.

[Logical]

4. I say hire the best candidate. That should be the only criteria. n-t

[whathehell]

5. Bullshit. Those like the OP who were forced to put their lives on the line for so little gain and

often lasting emotional or physical pain merit special consideration.

I feel sick when I see how little this country does for its veterans.

"Thanks of a grateful nation" indeed.

[Logical]

8. So punish those who did not serve who are more qualified? n-t

[whathehell]

11. It's not "punishing" those who didn't serve to reward those who did

and why do you automatically assume veterans would be less qualified?

[Logical]

12. I never said that and you know it. Are you saying a Vet is always more qualified? n-t

[whathehell]

14. You did equate giving vets special consideration with "punishing" non-vets

For fuck's sake, it's right in your subject line!

And no, I never gave any opinion regarding a Vet's qualifications -- I simply asked YOU if you were assuming that a vet was NEVER as qualified as a non-vet.

Are we straight now?

[Logical]

16. I say always hire the best qualified candidate! End of story! n-t

[whathehell]

17. Yes, I'm sure you always say that -- So do selfish, anti-affirmative action repukes

Fortunately, true Democrats understand something called "gratitude"

[progressoid]

6. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I always thought that campaign was about their image.

They're exploiting Vets to show their "patriotism".

[Fla_Democrat]

10. But, by hiring them, they are getting

not only their experience, but their sunny dispositions. I'm thinking some people are perfect for customer relations, maybe head of human resources.

[Mc Mike]

13. You make some very good points, TMN.

It would be nice if the same feeling the repugs co-opted to push the wars -- when they screamed "Support the Troops!" at pro-war rallies --could be used to help the troops now, to have a home, a job, and a return to normal life as a US citizen.

The VA's huge problems dealing with helping our vets, the homeless vet crisis, lack of jobs in a recession economy for returning vets, vets suffering from all kinds of traumas PTSD, TBI, MST -- there are huge institutional barriers and lack of capability to deal with these huge problems. It's super easy to mobilize the political will to give draft-dodging chicken-hawk cheney's Halliburton billions of tax dollars every year, but impossible to help the Americans who suffered loss from their service and whose service made Halliburton profits possible.

There's a patch work quilt of groups and causes nation wide to help the vets, VA, DAV, IAVA, IVAW, Wounded Warriors, Mission Continues, AFL-CIO's Helmets to Hardhats, Habitat for Humanity's vets program, etc. But they are strong in some areas, non-existent in others, and the institutional barriers are lack of national coordiation and lack of sufficient funds. We need a program along the lines of a CCC or WPA, a Peace Corp or Americorp for vets, to coordinate and fund these efforts. Get vets into a program where they can earn and learn while rebuilding US housing and infrastructure, and they can have a home and build a good life for themselves. The price tag would be pennies on the dollar compared to what we spend blowing up foreign infrastructure, and we'd be building up our own instead, and taking care of our own people.

On the flag issue you raised -- FUCK the repugs. They don't own the flag, though they drag it through mire and blood in their attempts to cover up their constantly treasonous endeavors. It doesn't belong to them, it belongs to you and all real Americans. You don't have to fly it or do anything you don't want to do, but it isn't theirs.

[Avalux]

15. I'm so sorry....and you have every right to be angry.

So many of us feel betrayed but for veterans, it's so much more painful. Veterans have risked their lives - their lives - in the name of this country.

The hypocrites like to play all patriotic when it suits their purposes; but help a veteran in need - forget it.

[whathehell]

18. +10 nt

[B Calm]

19. When I came home from the service in 1973 a friend of mine and I applied

for a job at a Quaker Oats plant. My friend was a high school dropout and with no military service. I was just the opposite of my friend. A week later my friend was called in for an interview and hired. All these years later, I can still remember the sign they had on the wall that they hire veterans.