VoteVets? I Don't Think So.

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I've been seeing commercials on TV funded by votevets.org, and they always strike me as odd. I would think a veterans group would be actively campaigning to end the wars, for example. Or maybe campaigning to get better medical care and treatment for the wounded, better support for those unable to work or for the homeless alcoholic/drug addict veterans we create in every single war among those traumatized by their experience. Or maybe they would be campaigning to help the victims of Agent Orange from Vietnam -- help the Americans who have gotten sick or died because of exposure to Agent Orange, to help the poor Vietnamese who have a radical increase in cancer and birth defects because of the indiscriminate soaking of their nation by the U.S. with Agent Orange and other chemical weapons.

Or, a veterans group might even lobby to get help for the veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome from the first time we invaded Iraq. I think the veterans from that war include about 40% disabled, from mystery disease and illness that is killing them and their families. The government denies it is because of the war, but come on. Some think it is depleted uranium disease. But they certainly need help. And if our government is using chemical warfare (another international war crime) and exposing our troops in the process, don't we in the public have the right to know that? Do you think the macho young "I Want To Be A Marine" thick-necked 18 year olds who want to go to war and kill people might have second thoughts if you told them that when they get back, they're going to get cancer and give it to their wives, girlfriends, and children? Is it possible our country would rise up and shut down wars if they knew that we were giving cancer to our military people?

But no. That's not the concern of VoteVegs.org. Instead, I see VoteVets.org sponsoring very slick commercials about the need to get off of oil, and about how terrible Iran is, which is why we should get off of oil. What? What does Iran have to do with it? Next they'll be saying it's all Shirley Shirrod's fault. It's Iran's fault that we use oil? What type of thinking is that, other than extreme right-wing militaristic pro-war b.s.?

Who's really funding this group? That old man Pickens who is trying to get the government to buy his gas fields so he can get even richer? The nuclear industry that has apparently already bribed Obama to support their goal of One, Two, Three Chernobyls, public be damned.

As for electing veterans?? No, thanks anyway. I wouldn't necessarily vote against someone because they are a veteran. It's not like they're lawyers, for example, who should be prohibited by law from holding public office. Or the feeble-minded, like George W. Bush. But I wouldn't vote for somebody just because they're a veteran. Come to think of it -- that was Rahm Emanuel's strategy, just run veterans for office to continue the nation's commitment to neverending war. Maybe Rahm is funding this group. Personally, I think we need more women, school teachers, nurses, librarians, factory workers, carpenters, and moms in government, people who know how tough it is just to get by in our society, and a lot fewer of those who love war, and just want the chance to "do it right," as is apparently the goal of this crowd. Somebody needs to tell them there is no way to ever make a war "right."

VoteVets? I don't think so.