Wednesday evening, a dozen or so Virginians gathered in the City of Fairfax at dusk to hold a candle light vigil in honor of our military personnel who are now in, or have served in, Iraq-Afghanistan. We gathered, as did thousands of other Americans across the country. in memory of the 2,000 brave men and women who have given their lives in Iraq. We started with a moment of silence, and then the Gulf War veteran who organized the vigil remarked that well over 1 million separate individuals have served in Iraq so far. He noted that over 100,000 of these veterans have required medical care, that a third of them have developed psychological problems stemming from the war, and that many are having trouble finding jobs.
Disgracefully, the Bush Administration and Republican Congress have all too often cut services to veterans, supposedly for budgetary reasons. This includes, for example, defeating a bill authorizing additional funds for prosthetics and research to help amputees. In addition, the Administration fought against legislation that would have authorized the Department of Defense to reimburse individual servicemen or their families for the expense of buying protective vests and gear when these were not provided by the government. "Support our toops," indeed.
To put things in perspective, here is a link to a short but important, hard-to-watch, high-impact video.