Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
Mr. President, Honorable Congresspersons and Senators:
For 52 days now we the American people and veterans of the United States have sat and listen to the reason for the bombing in Yugoslavia, I must tell you now that the use of the words Ethnic Cleansing have completely lost there meaning.
I for one Mr. President even doubt that you understand the meaning or ever did, you have done more now then Milosevic had ever hoped to do in destruction, you are destroying a country, no matter the name or cause you wish to call it. What Mr. President are the Albanians going to return to? NATO and yourself keep saying the bombing will continue until all Albanians are allowed to return home safely, to what may I ask, flatten homes, no conveniences such as water, toilet facilities or ways to keep warm, no food, hospitals or doctors, under constant guard by NATO troops for the rest of their lives.
I'm sorry Mr. President we are not solving the problems we are adding to them and the price tag will be carried by every citizen of the United States now and for our children's children far into the future, not only will this price tag involve money it will involve American lives.
That brings me to my next point, what of those Americans that are wounded and need care, will you utter the same phrase as you did when those young men were captured, "America takes care of her own," have you sir and the rest of our elected officials figured out what that means yet. It does not mean for your appointed yes man Mr. Togo West and the Department of Veteran Affairs and yourself to allow veterans of yesterday to die to make room for tomorrow's veterans.
Everyday I receive mail on how the Department of Veteran Affairs has screwed up, a Department that has no one to answer to by the way, such as lost mail so claims have not been completed for years and all the veteran gets is an apology while he falls asleep in a box under a bridge, records burned in fires that never happened so a veterans claims can be denied, veterans turned away because the work load is to large, disability money given to unfaithful spouses by a justice system that has also lost the meaning of the word, misdiagnosis of patients, experimentation against veterans wishes, does this not fall under your definition of Ethnic Cleansing? There are over 8,000 layoffs pending in the Department of Veterans Affairs while Mr. Togo's new car awaits him in the parking garage, I forgot, paid for by whom?
Mr. President and all of our elected officials you claim to understand the meaning of human rights and are first to condemn other countries for their lack of it. Please then, will one of you out there answer this for me.
Why in Big Mountain Arizona, Indian reservation are federal police officer's there? Why are the Native Americans elders of the Navajo tribe being made to live in homes with no roof's on them? Why has the water been turned off? Why has the government made it against the law to cut wood to heat with? Why must Native Americans first be issued a permit to practice their religion? Does this not meet your definition of Ethnic Cleansing? Or at the very least go against all the meaning of Human Rights? In case you forgot, many Native Americans fought and died for this country and are still doing so.
Mr. President, the other day you saw fit to explain your actions in Kosovo to two hundred members of the VFW, I ask you and not just you alone but all elected officials, why will you not speak to one hundred thousand veterans or more on Saturday, May 29, 1999, in Washington Memorial Park. Could it be your are afraid? Could it be you cannot look that many Veterans in the eye at one time and lie to their faces again?
Must you always have a hand picked crowd to put your spin on. Why have you told the media to stay away, does the truth scare all of you that much or is it the fact that the other 99% of this countries veterans know the true meaning of what is behind those smiles of yours. Let us not forget our friends the media while were talking facts, we know they are in the hip pocket of the government, the treatment in this country of the Native American and the Veteran is not news for them, many letters have been written and ignored, they would rather blast another country for their treatment of their people then to look at home for the mistreatment of ours, they did a nice interview of the first lady at CNN on the hardship of the Albanians in the refugee camps, why does she and CNN not do an interview with the elders of the Navajo at Big Sky Arizona, is it because your administration may be compared to Mr. Milosevic in this particular instance.
I again ask you Mr. President, Congressmen, Senators and Media, listen to your citizens, speak with us, look at the mistreatment in our own country, you cannot continue to use the words Ethnic Cleansing and Human Rights to bomb another country when your own citizens are being denied their Human Rights every day. How do we teach our children that violence is not the answer when for 52 days they have watched us try and bomb a country into submission?
I leave you and all our elected officials with this last question Mr. President, I'm on 100% disability pay, I was a career soldier, I'm not entitled to my retirement pay along with my disability the government has seen to that, my question for the Congress and the Senate is this, how many retirement and pension awards will you receive for your service?
Mr. President how large will your pension be for your service at Oxford, England? How much is the disability and pension of the military men left behind at the end of all our wars by this grateful nation and government.
ALLVETS United
Sincerely,
Michael D. D'Andria
ALLVETS
Email: ALLVETSINC@aol.com
