WhatFinger


Instead of stepping out to honor this country's veterans, Obama blocked them from visiting memorials during the 2013 government shutdown

What About Our Veterans, Mr. Goodrich, Rep. Waters, President Obama?



In 2005, at a Rally Against War in Iraq in Inglewood California [Check 1:14:00---1: 25:00], anti-war activist and currently Torrance, California City Council candidate Tim Goodrich (one of the cofounders of leftist group Iraq Veterans Against War) took to the dais of a local church and rallied veterans and left-leaning groups against the war in Iraq. He commented on a video in which he and other radical activists blocked the jeep of General Tommy Franks, who had just spoken at a local elementary school in LA Unified.
Some of Goodrich's comments include:
As you can see, it doesn't take a lot of people to create a bit of ruckus. Imagine what a little more planning and the amount of people in this room could do against this war. Since leaving the military I have found a new mission, and that mission is all about accountability and holding the people responsible for this war, holding their feet to the fire until justice has been served.
Following Goodrich's brief speech, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) returned to the dais, where she recognized the efforts of one veteran caring for other veterans:

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There are thousands, thousands of veterans, many of them homeless, many of them with drug problems, who have been kicked aside by our own government [the Bush Administration, presumably] who said they would take care of them. . .
Nearly ten years ago, Goodrich and Waters blasted the Bush Administration for "lying" the American armed forces into war in Iraq, then Waters slammed the same administration for poor treatment of this country's veterans. I guess they forgot about the many moments when President George W. Bush greeted, thanked, shook hands, and commiserated with the many veterans who served their country. Bush never neglected the contributions of the United States veterans from World War II and Vietnam, either. Apparently Rep. Waters and Mr. Goodrich also forgot about the pains which Bush took to placate aggrieved parties at home and abroad following the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2003. To this day, President Obama has taken no responsibility for the deaths on September 11, 2012 of four diplomatic personnel in Benghazi. Instead of stepping out to honor this country's veterans, Obama blocked them from visiting memorials during the 2013 government shutdown. Orders specified to make the automatic cuts "as painful as possible". Bush wanted to help this country's veterans. Liberals in Washington (and even in Main Street America) despise their contributions or neglect their suffering, and they certainly ignore the current President's ingrained passivity to serve those who served us, all while enabling and pandering to illegal immigrants and left-leaning special interests Even now, Americans have yet to see President Obama reach out to the veterans in our country, standing proudly with them or comforting them in their time of need as President Bush did time and again, who risked his own life to pay them a surprise visit during Christmas time in 2004. Returning to Waters' and Goodrich's "Against the War" rally in 2005, grieving parents alleged that the War in Iraq was based no false pretenses, including oil, although such speculation has been discredited. They also railed against the failures of the Bush Administration for not doing enough to help returning veterans. Granted, the United States Government Veterans Administration has been a travesty of failed care for our veterans. Such is the sad result of government-run health care -- not exclusively the fault of President Bush -- which at its best is so poorly administered. Our veterans deserve better than this state-run monstrosity. The Walter Reed Veterans Hospital scandals in 2007 put the Bush Administration on the defensive, and the media were more than happy to hammer the 43rd President for everything, including the scandals of poor care which veterans were enduring. The Walter Reed Hospital closed in 2011. However, the care has not improved for our veterans, and the media have said nothing to disparage President Obama, or at least not nearly as severely as Bush. Why has neither Rep. Waters nor Mr. Goodrich said anything about the unfolding reports of secret waiting lists in Veterans Administrations during the Obama Administration? Now eight (perhaps nine) VAs are under fire, all suggesting another culture of corruption, that bureaucrats were trying to keep the money flowing by giving the impression that veterans were receiving proper and timely treatment from the government hospitals. In April of this year, the New York Daily News reported about secret waiting lists, which delayed appointments for up to twenty weeks, while an "official" list at the Phoenix VA suggested wait times up to 30 days max. The Washington Post followed up on the questions now facing President Obama because of this scandal, which has spread to eight VA facilities. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post labeled Obama "President Passive" regarding the unfolding the excessive wait times. President Obama claimed that the Veterans Affairs would be a top priority for his presidency. Emails show, however, that Obama knew about the backlog of patients and the poor treatment of Veterans in those government hospitals as far back as 2008. Yet to this day, he has done nothing about it. Obama ignored the VA. Despite arrogant claims about his pen and phone, President Obama issued no executive orders to repair the slow care and excessive waiting times which veterans faced in Veterans Administration hospitals throughout the country. These Democrats, these liberals are in big trouble when even the left-leaning Politico blasts them for gross incompetence:
And this one’s no contained, bureaucratic flub. The problems at the Veterans Affairs Department have engulfed an entire Cabinet department and may have left hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for care, and as many as 40 of them dead.
 Instead of helping our wounded warriors, Obama has hindered their recovery and reintegration back into American Society. Even though Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki is facing pressure to resign, Democratic US Senators are still focusing on climate change, the Washington Redskins, or the Koch Brothers. Mr. Goodrich wants to build solar panels in Torrance. Rep. Waters still thinks the TEA Party can go "straight to hell." Unfortunately for them, the politics of distraction is not working this time. Two Democratic US Senate candidates in the 2014 election cycle are demanding Shinseki's resignation -- Michelle Nunn of Georgia and Alison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky. These candidates refuse to be quiet. When will the rest of Washington Democrats speak up? What about the Democrats here in Torrance? Why hasn't leftist veteran Tim Goodrich raised a ruckus about the Obama Administration VA abuses? Because of her ongoing indifference to the well-being of our nation's veterans under the Obama Administration, Congresswoman Waters might as well shout: "The VA can go straight to hell!" In the face of his unprecedented passivity, President Obama may assure the American People: "If you like your veterans, you can keep them. Period." Don't our armed forces deserve better than what they are getting under the Obama Administration? Rep. Waters and Mr. Goodrich boldly confronted and indicted the Bush Administration for the failures to treat and support veterans. Why won't they say anything now?


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Arthur Christopher Schaper -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance.

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