(NaturalNews) It's becoming clear -- honorable US service men and women are becoming nothing more than expendable numbers filed away in a system set up to profit off their service, rather than respect and honor their service. For those who volunteer to serve, it's about defending the country's freedom and values, but as they begin to take orders, many realize that they are just being used. Some soldiers feel like they are nothing but mere pawns in a global industrial chess match. Stamped through one at a time, brave men and women are turned into fodder for the gears of a machine that no longer represents true national defense. Soldiers' valiant sacrifices are now swallowed up in an ongoing spiral of profitable, perpetual conflict abroad. When they are sent home, many soldiers are put on psychotic medications and some veterans are housed in the most despicable conditions as they age.

Today, military men and women return home in significant numbers with post-traumatic stress disorder. A shocking number of these returning veterans commit suicide today -- a sure sign that something is wrong with the foreign policy that is executed today. Why are veterans ending their life when they return home?

In connection with that, US military men and women return home only to be subjected to heinous psychotic medications and lethal combinations of painkillers. Effective mind-body healing protocols are disregarded as soldiers are prescribed bottle after bottle of prescription drugs to mask the pain. Does today's foreign policy even care about soldiers at all? What does the American flag really stand for today? In what ways are we burning the flag and the Constitution every day, metaphorically speaking? Respecting veterans goes deeper than just saluting a flag in vain and pledging allegiance to a country without understanding the nature of its foreign policy.

Veterans living in poor conditions in New York City, plagued by rats, mold, potential disease

To see how veterans are mistreated and disrespected, look no further than a veteran's home in New York City. In a building that holds 175 units on E. 119th St. near Madison Ave., over a hundred veterans get nothing for their service but disgusting living quarters -- a dilapidated dump filled with cockroaches, bedbugs, rats, mold and frequent mechanical failures. That's the report coming from several veterans living at the New York City-owned East Harlem building.

57-year-old Army veteran Walter King says he's been housed in the building for six years. "To treat us like we're second-class citizens... it's like our service didn't mean nothing," he said.

City records show that there have been nine violations at the East Harlem building -- violations for mice, roaches, bedbugs, water bugs and a broken ventilation system. On top of that, veterans and residents alike have lodged 54 complaints with the city Department of Housing and Preservation in the past year for leaks, lack of heating, mold and pests.

When investigators visited where veterans were housed, they found huge cockroaches laying in the hallways and mold growing across the ceiling of a shower room. 61-year-old veteran Michael Barnes said he caught 15 mice this year alone. "It makes us feel like people don't care," he said.
The angered veterans report that the trash compactors don't even work outside the building, so large waste cans are brought in only to welcome in pests on a weekly basis. Bed bugs infest many rooms. Army veteran Vincent Killen says he was hospitalized after a rat bit him in his sleep.

The place is not only infested; it's also breaking down mechanically. The angered veterans report that one of the elevators breaks down weekly. One veteran returned home one night to a sewage backup on his second-floor unit. Now the floor tiles buckle, says veteran Killen, who has lived in the building for 17 years.

The dilapidated building, which houses over a hundred veterans, is owned by the city Department of Homeless Services and managed by Volunteers of America, an organization that provides housing for veterans. Why are honorable veterans living in such disturbing conditions, right in the very country they fought and died for?

It's a sure sign that the military-industrial complex is so overextended overseas that it cannot even take care of its own veterans living within US borders.

Sources:

http://www.nydailynews.com

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