Um... it's not because the country isn't more socialist.
tecelote (978 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251367955
Why do Vets have so much trouble adapting to life back home?
They go from a socialist military life back to a capitalist society and they get lost. Forgotten. Hidden.
They are generally no longer part of the military community and they become an expense to society. Not a person anymore, but a cost of war. A cost that many citizens, business people and and politicians would like to hide.
A cost no one is willing to bear because we were lied in to war. A great excuse for not funding their needs.
Many great Americans served their country for the best of reasons and we can not let them down now.
Don't let corporate profits and fiscal responsibility trump the rights of our military veterans. They have earned our support.
Capitalism is only a mindset and has become an excuse. Purebred Capitalism is not as good as the mongrel that Capitalism and Socialism create. The Real USA. We need to continue supporting our vets as they assimilate in to our capitalist society. They need the socialist support they had in the military.
Why do we treat our vets so different than our active military? Profits.
Society needs to step in.
TheMastersNemesis (3,972 posts)
1. Society Does Not Really Care Since Less Than1% Ever Serve. Restore The Draft
Restore the draft and see what happens. With an all volunteer military force it is easy to say they knew what they enlisted for.
People are so pressed they don't want to pay any extra taxes even for returning vets. And employers are not engaged in hiring vets because corporate employers are more interested in cheap labor whether through immigration or emigration of jobs to 3rd world countries where profit can be maximized.
Being a Vietnam vet myself my sense is that vets are seen as a potential problem and NOT an asset. Being a vet now is more of a barrier to employment. With PTSD and potential physical problems employers are wary of vets. And since most vets now are combo arms and not the usual occupational specialties in the past they have fewer civilian related skills. Most occupational specialties in the military are now privatized.
First, this is the first time I've read about TMN being a vietnam vet. Not that it makes it a lie... just saying.
Second, most veterans are not Combat Arms vets. The same % of support to CA is there. It is just that in a large non-conventional battlefield more are exposed to combat. It's like saying all we sent to Vietnam were infantry guys because thats what all the movies were about.
grilled onions (1,891 posts)
3. In Uniform They Have Support..At Least From Other Soldiers
They come home confused and often angry. Many feel they have been had--not told the whole story of why they were there or could they have made a difference. Reality sets in. Some come back unscathed but without a job and or a home to go to. The support they thought they would get are not there. The ones coming home who have major injuries find even less support. Where are the flag wavers when they come home? Clinics,hospitals prove to have long lines,refusals. These soldiers have enough on their plates without having to battle for care.The third group comes home, perhaps thinking he's ready for civilian life(family too thinks he/she is ok) but something happens. It could be the challenge to getting a job or perhaps trying to go back to school. Something happens,something triggers a violent episode while being overseas and the former soldier finds it impossible to concentrate. Perhaps depression sets in. Some turn to alcohol or drugs to erase the nightmares. Old friends and neighbors often forget those who show little injury need just as much help and understanding as those severely injured but a back home party and a lot of company in the beginning is not what they need. All the flag waving is for those going over. Little concern for many is for the trip coming home. Many feel like old buddies or family,wives or girlfriends cannot understand the Hell they went through. They may feel like they don't fit in. This does not make you want to continue the life you had planned before you went.
In so many ways we let them down as soon as they arrive back home and we continue dropping the ball through medical and mental wards, therapy, trying to reprogram them back to civilian life.
Another non-vet explains how vets feel. Every vet I talk to is pissed off at the way this administration trew away our vicotries on the battlefeild and the left's continued hate on all vets. Add to it the slime piled on by the media reviving the old "crazy vet" meme and most of us see a country we served going down the gutter as fast as it can.
Cosmocat (5,700 posts)
6. yeah, very convoluted OP
What these young people see and do over there ... Incomprehensibly horrible things that would negatively impact most human beings, and frankly, a lot of the young people who go into the army in particular have some issues to begin with.
Political/economic paradigms have little to do with it.
I do wish we would stop giving lip service to our service men and women and first and foremost not be so casual in allowing them to be put into battle ...
Yeah. We are all crazy baby killers.
jmowreader (27,702 posts)
7. A very large reason is many vets have no marketable skills
Veterans are, by and large, good people. I'm going to draw the line at Allen West and Charles Graner, but most vets are respectable citizens.
Here's the problem: Take a high school graduate. Bounce him back and forth between Iraq, Fort Hood and Afghanistan for eight years, and you wind up with someone whose entire skill set revolves around patrolling. Last I checked the number of civilian employers who run patrols is REAL small. These guys can't even get jobs as rent-a-cops because it's a different kind of patrolling. Civilian employers want specific skills...if someone is hiring a Windows server operator and a Navy UYK-44 operator who's never managed a Windows server shows up, the vet will not be hired.
I saw way too many guys in the service not work on getting a skill for when they got out. When they did get out, as we all do, they couldn't get a job suitable for their years of experience. Running a Waffle House, if you weren't a cook when you were on active duty, is no life for a vet...but quite a few Waffle Houses are being run by vets.
This young man will have three choices in civilian life: sign up for a college education and hope like hell you picked a major that's still going to be hiring four years from now, go to work at a store, or make a "Homeless Vet - Anything Helps - God Bless" sign and head for the nearest off-ramp. If you think being un- or underemployed is depressing for a civilian, trust me: it's ten times worse after you served your country.
The biggest disservice we do our troops is not making sure they can get a job after they get out. And this is what I believe we need to do:
First, evaluate every military specialty with an eye toward its applicability to the civilian market.
Some jobs are "directly applicable." If you drive a semi in the Army you can also drive one in the civilian world. If you run a mess hall in the Marines you can run a restaurant in the civilian world. Make sure these folks have whatever certifications or licenses required before they head out the door, and they're taken care of.
Some jobs can be done in the civilian world with a year or less of transition training. Here I'm thinking of the process of transitioning military field medics to civilian paramedics...since many paramedics work for fire departments, they'd have to go to fire academy. The government should pay for this.
The third batch are jobs that have no applicability to the civilian world...artillery, anyone? Require those folks to decide what they want to do when they grow up and work with their recruiter to develop a plan to get there before they report for basic training, then as well as possible design his assignments so he can go to school off-duty to develop those skills. This won't always work; if you have a 19-year-old infantryman who wants to become a lion tamer, he's going to have to pick something a little more reasonable because the places you go to learn that aren't near military bases.
The one thing the military teaches people is discipline, a good work ethic, and personal courage. Three things the DUmpmonkiez hold in no value.
