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Talk Given at Faith Leaders for Peace Event March 19,2006

As a Vietnam veteran, and as one who has worked for the VA helping other veterans with combat stress, I know what war does to people. The war may be wrong, but those who go into battle deserve their country's support during and after the war. The country owes them this--but our leaders withhold this support.

We know our leaders do not care for Iraqi civilians. But they never said they did. We know the lies and deceptions about this war--but maybe we believe them when they say they support the troops and veterans of war. They do not.

They wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim their support for American troops. They accuse war critics of endangering the military. But they lie--here too they lie. They do not really support the troops: not active duty personnel, not reservists not National Guard, and not veterans. Look at what they have done.

They refused to send enough soldiers to maintain order in Iraq. They give huge sums of money to private contractors and don't give their own soldiers adequate armor and supplies.

They strain the National Guard and Reserves to the breaking point. They fail these people on their return to civilian life. They give them poor medical treatment and no job assistance.

People cannot recover from the psychic scars of war if they have to go back into combat again and again. But they continue to send young men and women back for second, third and even fourth tours--back into a war with no apparent reason, purpose or end. Today we learned that they have to send many of them back on anti-anxiety drugs and anti-depressants.

Stress on military families is unprecedented--but our leaders do not care. Already veterans of the Iraq war are having employment problems. The rate of homelessness Iraq veterans is three times that of their age cohort.

In spite of all this, the administration's budget proposes a 13% decrease for the VA over the next five years—this at a time when new veterans are flooding the system and there are over 16,000 wounded in Iraq. They are forcing the VA to decrease its services and forcing veterans out of the system.

Military doctors are being pressured to misdiagnose combat stress disorders. This way the government does not have to pay for treatment and compensation.

They tried to question 72,000 legitimate awards of combat stress, so they could throw veterans off the compensation rolls. They failed; but they are at it again. This at a time when 33% of returning veterans already have mental disorders.

The facts contradict our leaders' platitudes of support for the troops. They are hypocrites. They do not care about military personnel and veterans. They say one thing and do another. They abuse the military and abandon the veterans.

What was said in Scripture can be said of them: They are hypocrites. They are a nest of vipers. But, wait, it is we the people who allow them to do it. We endorse their hypocrisy. It is we who are the hypocrites. It is we who are the nest of vipers. It is time to wake up. It is time to repent.