The diary reads:

Could this veteran have been senile and maybe a little unstable?  Sure, maybe.  He was 89 years old.  But given what we know now about how the VA treats disabled veterans of the current wars, I doubt it.

Senility and instability are medical conditions, which deserve medical attention and treatment, and not neglect to the point of suicide.  

Even if -- perhaps especially if -- this man were senile and mentally unstable, here is an example of the failure of his medical care.

That's the conclusion I've come to, that obedience is the root cause.  Obedience is touted as a virtue, but it relieving the individual of responsibility for the moral value of his own acts, it sets the predicate for risk-taking and violent aggression, which, in retrospect, the moral person can't reconcile.  Only the sociopath comes away unaffected by the anti-social behavior his obedience to the directives of superiors leads him to engage in.

We tend to overlook or forget that obedience is the central component of every gang-like organization.  And, it isn't enough to say that following orders is no excuse.  The fact is that once obedience becomes habitual, it's just like every other human habit very difficult to break.  Easier for some people to just break themselves.

Much like the US Government owes our veterans the best healthcare possible in exchange for their service, the US Government also owes its' people something in exchange for their taxes.

The problem is that people have been listening to the wrong politicians since the advent of Nixon.

For example, in this country, people tend to get more outraged over the cost of social services, while ignoring the costs of waging war and national defense.

People should be upset that their tax dollars are basically funding the coffers of private corporations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Instead, we get diatribes against people who are on welfare and other social services. It's absolutely pathetic. People on welfare and social services are labeled as the bogeyman. They are harassed, generalized and blamed for a lot of problems.

As a disabled (by law but I don't feel disabled) American with Section 8 housing assistance, I get pissed off whenever someone accuses me of leeching off the system. I applied legally for my assistance and I got it. They make adjustments based on my income.

Regardless, I am getting more and more fed up with this country everyday. We should get free healthcare for our taxes.

Instead, we have let capitalism and free market hooey run amok.

I hate to go off-topic but I just got home from working third shift and somehow, I feel like ranting.

...which addressed the very same concerns you expressed. That diarest brought out a great point, too. Seems America as a whole is working itself to death. We often take the "vacation check" rather than the badly-needed time off, which quite ironically, would stave-off many of the health problems we face because we're constantly running non-stop on the corporate treadmill. You can't put a price on good health. Many nations, especially in the EU have realised this and have mandated lowering their average hourly work weeks, and that their citizens take vacations.

But this is what happens when our corporations are allowed to move their assets to offshore bank accounts in the Cayman islands; when we still give them taxbreaks for outsourcing American jobs overseas to foreign countries who don't require the health and retirement benefits our workers need and rightfully demand!

Yet these same companies who close shop here in America, expect us to treat their personal, private so-called right to "individual citizenship" as some sort of sacred cow, above the economic and civic responsibilities and national loyalties that is the moral and right price of that "citizenship".

The Founding Fathers didn't say in the preamble to our Constitution, "a government of, by and for the corporations"! Somehow the notion of responsibility and accountability has given way to the concept of endless corporate greed and their pervasive "go to hell" or as they like to say, "privatization" (of everything) attitude which says, "we've gotten ours, and the rest of you are on your own"!

There is an "outcry" and people are angry, but our administration and its docile lapdog media (which I'm particularly steamed at right now) simply ignore or minimize the complaints. You can "outcry" all you want but it's the Republican who have brought us here and for dix long years there was nothing we could do. Now of course, thing are slowly changing with people in congress like Barack Obama for whom treatment of veterans and military families has been a priority.

Anyway, 81% of citizens DO realize they're worse off, according to a recent poll. Let's see if the media lets people understand how MUCH worse John W. McBush would make that. Remember, there are limits to what even us hard fighters can do. I'm so frustrated right now I'm considering dropping our of all my Democratic ativist groups and resigning as a Neighborhood Leader. I feel like I've done everything for four years and the Republicans just have us by the balls.

Why there isn't a public outcry over this in a country proud of its military tradition and of its armed services is beyond me.

Because our country is not actually proud of our military tradition and armed services - it's proud of aggressive machismo. Once someone becomes "weak," they are no longer of use in the aggression game, and thus no longer a source of pride.

The Europeans, especially the French, have it right when it comes to protest. Americans complain about their government, but don't do anything about it.

and she routinely tells me how disgusted she is with some of its policies and employees, but she also tells me about how it often has its hands tied because of a lack of funds.  

What a tragedy.  

Wright.  Certainly, our present administration is a disgrace.

by negligent operation of the government is I think the best you can do.  Of course, all the deaths in Iraq could probably be called premeditated...

It took Congress to pass the budgets that allow the VA to be strapped for funds.  Both parties are guilty there.

Like the Iraq vet on Queen for a Day Extreme Home Makeover. He lost a leg and is raising more kids than you can count without a scorecard as a single Dad.

Somebody needs to do a mental health follow-up on these families that get taken from the skids, made celebrities out of, then left. Not to mention, if the guy wasn't making it before, how is he gonna afford the increased property taxes on this (at least) half-million-dollar home?

If you haven't, watch James Gandolfini's Alive Day special on HBO. It's hard to watch, especially because so many of these severely wounded vets would go back to Iraq if they could. Their service is honorable--this fucking war...not so much.

But hey, I have a made-in-China "Support Our Troops" magnet on my car, so it's all good, right?  (Not)