A Salute on Veteran's Day.

My cousin, Mark, serving in Iraq. I salute you! Thank you for your service to our country. Come home soon.

Love,

Jeff

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"Welcome to Iraq! My cousin, 1st Lt. Mark Weigel.

My first cousin (mom's sister's oldest) - 1st Lt. Mark Weigel - is stationed over in Iraq, half-way through his one-year tour of duty. He's a cavalry officer for a scout platoon in Troop A, 1-105 Cavalry, which is a reserve outfit located in Fort Atkinson, WI.

Mark lives in Irbil, which is the capital of Kurdistan. One of his regular driving routes is through Kirkuk - a city rich in oil reserves, RKG-3 grenades and car bombs. I won't divulge the task assigned to Mark and his platoon - let's just say they're doing their duty to God and their country. God's speed to you, Mark. You've got two boys at home who love you dearly and can't wait to see their daddy.

"Animo et fide" (Courageous And Faithful)," Lt. Mark! I salute you. Click on READ MORE! for more photos from Iraq.

Mark's platoon and the Wisconsin flag given them my Governor Doyle.

"Stop Chick Point". Nice.

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Biden chosen as Obama's running mate.

It was announced this past weekend that Senator Joe Biden (D) from Delaware will be Barack Obama's running mate in the presidential election this November.

Good move. I've always liked Biden and remember checking out some of his stats on his website when he was running for president earlier in the year. Biden speaks his mind - which has backfired once or twice - but at least he doesn't speak around the issues, offering little more than political rhetoric. My first recollection of Senator Biden was when he chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and presided over the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas in 1991. I was impressed (with Biden - not the pubic hair on the Pepsi can issue).

Go to Biden's website to see where he stands on the issues. Also, if you're interested in watching Biden deliver a his version of a "fire and brimstone" speech to the Senate regarding the war in Iraq, watch this YouTube video.

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8 seconds of the Iraq War = My annual salary.

We are constantly being told about the millions and billions being spend on the Iraq War, but do we REALLY have any concept as to how much money that is? Let me put it into perspective for you. Here's how I could better understand the scope of this waste: More money was spend in 8 seconds on the Iraq war than my annual salary.

Better perspective?

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Another benefit of being an illegal alien in the U.S.

While over 4000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq for a war that is unquestionably controversial, I wonder how many of the 11 million plus, 18-25 male illegal aliens currently in the U.S. have registered for our Selective Service? I mean, it IS the law, even if we don't have a draft. I did it. EVERY legal citizen of the United States has to do it. It's the law in Mexico as well (see below). Legally, every Mexican man is obligated to a year of servicio militar nacional — SMN (national military service — NMS), generally only a few hours of drill on weekends, not true military training. And yes, I understand we have other illegal aliens in the U.S. besides those from Mexico but I use illegal aliens from Mexico as an example because it's the largest group.

Though I suppose registering for the draft isn't one of the benefits that draws so many people to illegally enter our country, now is it?

(*Incidentally, each year in Mexico, the SEDENA (Secretariat of National Defense) requires every eighteen-year-old man and every man who be that age within twelve (12) months of the draft date of a designated Clase de Servicio Militar Nacional (National Military Service Class) to report to his municipality's designated military recruitment center. There, he will register to the conscription program with his birth certificate and standard-size, head-and-shoulders portrait photographs in order to be issued a precartilla (pre-military identity card) with a serial number, photograph, right thumb fingerprint, weapons licence number, and personal data (address, current schooling level, etc.) that finally, after the draft lottery and a year of service, earns him full conscript status and a Cartilla de Servicio Militar Nacional (Military National Service Identity Card), informally, cartilla (military I.D. card) attesting to his having fulfilled his civic obligation in duty to the nation. The SEDENA's lottery determines who will be exempted from or drafted for military duty — either with the army or with the navy.)

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Say it isn't so, VA hospitals!

Ty Ziegel (above), 25, was critically injured in Iraq by a suicide bomber. He was severely burned, lost part of his skull, half of his left arm, and most of the fingers from his remaining hand. He has a left lobe brain injury, is blind in his right eye, and suffered a jaw fracture.

He cannot work, yet despite the severity of his injuries and the fact that there is no question that they were incurred while he was on active duty, he had to fight the VA for benefits. In fact, the VA gave him only a little over half of what he should have been receiving. That is, until CNN ran his story and WWII Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams stepped up to the plate to register his disgust with the way this young man has been treated. Within 48 hours, the VA had reviewed his case and granted him the benefits he should have gotten all along.

It is appalling that the media has to intervene to shame the Veterans Administration into doing the right thing, the thing they should have done in the first place - to properly care for our soldiers when they return home. Shame on the Veterans Administration. Shame on the Bush administration for overseeing what the VA should have been doing .

Asked to name one question she would like to pose to senior officials about the Walter Reed Scandal, Washington Post reporter Dana Priest said, “The root of so much that we cover is money. And the question is, why isn’t this funded to the extent that it needs to be funded?” Indeed, as Paul Krugman wrote in a recent New York Times article, the crisis in the veterans’ health system “starts with money“.

The quagmire in Iraq has vastly increased the demands on the Veterans Administration, yet since 2001 federal outlays for veterans’ medical care have actually lagged behind overall national health spending. To save money, the administration has been charging veterans for many formerly free services. For example, in 2005 Salon reported that some Walter Reed patients were forced to pay hundreds of dollars each month for their meals. More important, the administration has broken longstanding promises of lifetime health care to those who defend our nation. Two months before the invasion of Iraq the V.H.A., which previously offered care to all veterans, introduced severe new restrictions on who is entitled to enroll in its health care system. As the agency’s Web site helpfully explains, veterans whose income exceeds as little as $27,790 a year, and who lack “special eligibilities such as a compensable service connected condition or recent combat service,” will be turned away.

The administration’s approach to funding wounded veterans should already be clear. In 2005, the Wall Street Journal noted the growing cost of veterans benefits due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon’s response was to complain that it would “rather use [the funds] to help troops fighting today.” David Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, stated, “The amounts have gotten to the point where they are hurtful. They are taking away from the nation’s ability to defend itself."

During hearings of the House Oversight and Government Reform, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) called Chu’s remark “offensive.” Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, whose eye and skull were shattered by an AK-47 round in Iraq and who is waiting for prosthetic eye surgery, said Chu was “absolutely” inaccurate.

I have a relative whose first job out of college was the VA in Milwaukee. I remember him saying, "You don't ever wanna have to be admitted to the VA".

This was back in 1976. If you know me, than you know I'm as patriotic - no...above-patriotic - as the next guy. But this entire issue makes me wanna puke on our flag. I don't want to talk about it anymore.

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My Perspective on the War in Iraq

After perusing the website The War Comes Home, which I blogged about below, I'm finally resolved to share my opinion on the war in Iraq. I've blogged about the war before (search topics on right panel - down a ways), but I've never really stated my opinion.

For the record, I am neither a conservative or a liberal, but a moderate. I don't believe in the first two labels. Quite frankly I don't believe in the effectiveness of our current political party system. It's archaic and it will always be an issue of bipartisan politics which is NOT representative of the American people but only of the interests of the politicians who claim to "serve us".

Ready? My opinion on the war is...

...we need to get the hell out of Iraq. Wars are waged for three reasons: 1) To gain something as a result of (the war), 2) to come to the aid of an ally or a peoples who can't defend itself/themselves, or finally 3) to defend oneself. No one from Iraq waged war against the U.S. We're supposedly helping the people of Iraq escape a cruel dictator. Well he's dead and they don't seem to want us there anymore - so we should leave. Strike one and two. The only thing that's left is a U.S. motivation to gain something by attacking and occupying Iraq.

That must be the oil.

At first I wasn't positive that was the reason. People have said this but, I mean, no one really knows this for sure. Look at Iraq - or go in your backyard or to a park and sift your hands through a child's sandbox. It's sand. That's what Iraq is - a sandbox. What possible use could we have for sand? What possible use is this country to us? It HAS TO BE OIL. And yet it's amusing to me that our gas prices continue to skyrocket upwards. God dammit! If our government came out and just told us we were there for the oil and our gas was $1.00 a gallon, at least I'd make some sort of sense of this insanity.

Who's winning...because of this war? The Iraqi people? No. Hundreds of thousands have died. People there are dying every day. They will continue to kill each other - and we will continue to kill them until we leave. Our soldiers? No. They are dying; they are coming home maimed; over 450 have committed suicide since returning to U.S soil; many are homeless; many are not getting the treatment or help from our VA hospitals. The U.S. contractors? Yes - millions of dollars. If we as a country can't win SOMETHING - why are we there?

To help the Iraqi people. To insure a democratic Iraq. To free Iraq of the terrorists within so they don't get to us. That's what our government keeps telling us anyway. The Iraqi people have about as much of a chance of unifying themselves as the American people would have in protesting their taxes by deciding - en masse - not to file. I'll take my chances digging a hole to China. Every day 10, 15, 20, 40 Iraqi's are killed because of acts of terrorism within the country - terrorism not JUST aimed at the U.S. military presence there. Am I wrong about this? The Iraqi people are a divided peoples. That means civil war and no power can go into a country and offer them freedom and democracy within a divided country unless the warring nation goes in no-holds barred and is prepared to kick some ass. People bitch, "where's the Iraqi army?'. As I'm writing this, the Iraqi militia is being discussed on NPR, and how their performance in the next week or so will be a telltale sign for "things to come". Excuse me but the Iraqi's are too busy fighting amongst themselves to help the U.S. in our "quest for freedom and an end to terrorism". Read What Was Asked Of Us - the entire book is cover-to-cover first-hand accounts of the war. It's an enlightening, but emotionally exhausting read. According to many of the soldiers interviewed, we had the Iraqi people eating out of our hands in the first month or so of the war. Then Washington sent in new orders - a change of plans. And it's been fucked up ever since. I know - harsh language. But our young boys are dying in a sandbox halfway across the world for a half-ass cause is harsh too. If THAT reality is tough for you to grasp or have a thing or two to say about it, go to Arlington National cemetary - and shout your real loud.

My cousin may be shipped off to Iraq within a year. He has two young boys. I wish I could give him a reason for WHY HE'S GOING THERE. Quite frankly, I don't know what that reason is. Someone with a clue please tell me. My stance on this "clusterpfuck" stems not from me being an actor or a playwright or an artist, of sorts. I am not a pacifist nor a warmonger by nature. I am a patriot. I love the American soldier. No - my opinion is based on common sense. The American people have been very vocal about their distaste for this conflict, war, military action - whatever the hell you wanna call it. If the American people can see this war is wrong, why can't the people who are working for us in Washington shed their blindfold long enough to realize this as well? Why does it seem that the only people who want to be in Iraq are some politicians and our President? Or does our push for democracy in Iraq have nothing to do with setting the example?

The Iraq War is our generation's Vietnam...and we all know how that "conflict" ended. It's just a matter of time.

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