WOUNDED MILITARY AND A CHILD TAKEN

Tim Samuels did it again last night with the second in the series of Power to the People. This was about the abandoned soldier and how many fall through the cracks – become one more neglected statistic in spite of being injured in the line of duty.
Yes, I may slam the USA over many things; but I lived there for 2 years – my friend is a Veteran and I saw the facilities offered to veterans. The USA has special hospitals for Veterans – the American public respect their veterans. We in the UK should be ashamed of the way ex-service people are often treated. We remember the dead – what about those living - those injured, often permanently? We close what few hospitals they have. The government claims they get better treatment in NHS hospitals where the medical staff have more experience. Isn’t it a case of saving money? Isn’t it a case of saving money on treatment of injured military so more money’s available for the civil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? They throw more money into Iraq and Afghanistan every week, and yet when it comes to our injured military personnel, they throw money around like a man with no arms. Priority treatment on the NHS is supposed to be the rule of thumb for injured British military. I wouldn’t call 7 months waiting for extreme pain where a limb’s been amputated priority treatment – would you?
The Queen is head of the armed forces. She may not be personally responsible, bur surely there is something she could, or should, do if she can? Surely she is as morally guilty as the government Ministry of Defence? Or are our ex-service people just retired canon fodder? Do we give a damn about them, or would we prefer it if they kept quiet and accepted what had happened - fade into the background?
Remembrance Sunday for the fallen? One day a year for those who died.
How many for those who survived? NONE!
I had thought about it before I watched the programme – I’ve read the news about military hospital closures and remember the facilities offered by the USA Veterans association.
Our government wants to emulate the USA – do something about taking a bloody good look at the VA and then compare it to the crappy way we treat our military after their service to the country has left them wounded or disabled.

My sympathies are with this McCann family and their missing daughter sure; but how come educated parents leave their child alone in that apartment and go have dinner? 5 metres or 50 metres. Who in their right mind leaves their child alone for one minute and in a foreign country? The publicity attached to this whole saga is getting out of hand. I wonder if the same enormous involvement of celebrities and hype would have occurred had it been a working class or black kid instead of a middle-class professional family? Kids go missing every year, and yet nothing on this scale has ever been seen before. The public quickly become tired of news – will the family’s attempts to keep it in the public domain cause more harm than good? I, for one, am tired of seeing yellow ribbons everywhere I look. I guess this missing child of a white, English professional couple is far more important than the 100’s of kids being blown up in Ghaza and Iraq. Has anyone given this much attention to the BBC reporter Alan in Ghaza? No! And yes, I did sign a petition calling for his release.

See ya