Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters

[kskiska]

By Mark Benjamin
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Washington, DC, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."

"I drove off in my truck. I packed my stuff. I lived out of my truck for a while," Seabees Petty Officer Luis Arellano, 34, said in a telephone interview from a homeless shelter near March Air Force Base in California run by U.S.VETS, the largest organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless veterans.

Arellano said he lived out of his truck on and off for three months after returning from Iraq in September 2003. "One day you have a home and the next day you are on the streets," he said.

more…
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041207-121848-6449r.htm

[rkc3]

1. Maybe it's a new approach to keeping these guys in the military.

Take their homes away and bring them back into service.

[BlueJazz]

2. It's amazing that the Republicans are..oh-so-quick...

..to send Americans to war but after they return home...Fuck-Um.
But have no fear, at the same time the Repugs can sing "God bless the USA", get teary-eyed over the Star Spangled Banner and sport flags and decals all over their vehicles ...what a pack of phonies...

[KansDem]

4. All part of the Bush/GOP "Draft and Shaft" plan...

Draft Americans to bring home the oil in places like Iraq,

then...

Shaft American Vets after they return from duty, especially if they should decide to run for public office (ie, McCain, Clelland, and Kerry).

[luaneryder]

7. That's exactly how they feel

and how that idiot in the WH feels. Vets and troops, if they get out of the service in the first place, are getting shit on worse than ever by the same government who sent them into an unnecessary war. Look at what Rummy has just said, basically "too bad, so sad" you got no armor. One Repuke I know has those fucking phoney ass yellow magnets on his BMW, but contends that anyone with a Purple Heart or Disabled Vet plate is just out for sympathy. Course he never served, nor did his wife, nor does his child.

[jedicord]

3. My husband served in Desert Storm.

When he came back he was honorably discharged from the Marines and thrown out to the wolves. No job, no income, no real job training.

It was like Pops Bush said "Thanks for risking your life for your country. Now go to hell."

Thankfully, he pulled himself out of trouble and is now doing well. Then again, he had family who helped, can't say that for most. And while he experienced war horrors, they weren't as bad as this war and for not as long of a time.

Support our Troops my ass.

[genieroze]

6. It's the Repugnantkin way. eom

[one_true_leroy]

5. I don't usually curse on my posts...

but FFFUUUCCCKKK!!!

Where the hell are all the 'Support the Troop' hypocrites? Huh!? Their SUVs are humming along just nicely now! Buncha damned arm-chair patriots, draped in Old Glory without a care for the true cost of this stupid, stupid war.

"I Support the Troops"
"God Bless America and God Bless W"

RIIIGHT! What'd you do, throw a nickel in their cup? Buy a magnet for your SUV _AND_ your fridge? How 'bout a flag for your antenna?

So good to see they appreciate the blood shed for them.

I really wish the shit would hurry and hit the fan, and more blue collared Americans working the sweathops of this country (Wal-Mart and their ilk), or dying in another country, finally get up and realize this ship is sinking and the captain is drunk.



I'm angry, but more I'm ashamed.

[saving daylight]

8. My father .......

My father carried a Browning Automatic Rifle in WW2 fighting the Japanese. As a young child, I would always ask him to tell me about the war and he would only say "you cannot believe how cruel men can be in a war" and then just tell me he carried a B.A.R. and fought on this island and that island, but NEVER any details other than to say he saw the devastation that the bomb in Nagasaki did a few weeks after we dropped it. But he always added that if it had not been for the bomb, he and 250,000 troops would more than likely be dead taking Japan from the beaches because even the children were being taught to attack the Americans at the beaches with anything they had.

It took me years after his death to finally understand that this war had traumatized a young musician (him) for life but he did what he had to do for his country and he never complained.

HOWEVER, he did compalin about the quality of the treatment he and other veterans were receiving after WW2 from the Veterans Hospitals. So you see, nothing really changes, we all like to complain.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. It might not be all due to the govmint not caring about the vets.

Frankly, if I was a vet and saw the possibility of my discharge being revoked and getting called back for another tour, I'd be tempted to vanish onto the streets and into the homeless shelters myself.

NOTE: this is only about 50% sarcastic. It is not, definitely not blame the victim.

Abandoned by the govmint or hiding from the govmint, it still points back to the govmint.

[Megahurtz]

10. This just pisses me off even more

That's the thanks they get for "serving their country"

FUCK BUSH and his oil-whoring cronies.

[Solly Mack]

11. I saw this once before in my lifetime and I now I'm seeing it again

America is a nation of vast disconnect and hypocrisy.

[Moderator]

12. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1053668