Recently by Andrew Mason: An Iraq War Veteran's Quest for the True Meaning of Liberty and Patriotism

The state has little care for veterans. The notion of an uncaring state has shown itself over the course of America's one-hundred years of imperial conquest. This can especially be observed when their contract with the state is no longer valid. Of course, some will argue that the benefits the government gives to veterans (G.I Bill and disability benefits) claim otherwise. However, these so-called benefits create a culture of dependency where the veteran is made a slave to the state like many other Americans who need the government to survive and not thrive. Furthermore, veterans have and will be financially and physically violated by the state in the long run. I am not going to talk about the fact of being sent to unjust wars, or the hundreds of thousands that have been murdered or maimed. What needs to be brought to light are the more subtle costs of war that do not get as much public attention. If you are a veteran reading I beg you to read carefully.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is quite animate in leaving you and your family in misery. The agency that is supposed to look out for your best interests and help care for you, Department of Veterans Affairs has failed miserably, it is after all a government agency, and has dealt a great has even made a deal with Prudential Financial Inc which was withholding the death benefits from your family when you are deceased. Prudential would then use this money for their investment pleasures. We have only just begun.

I hope that some of you remember the depleted uranium rounds you used while deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan. Some of you probably had some concerns about handling depleted uranium and your officers probably told you that it was harmless since the word "depleted" is next to "uranium" but this is really a misnomer. Uranium is still uranium no matter how much of it is in an armor-piercing projectile. Once depleted uranium munitions explode, uranium oxide is released into the atmosphere or absorbed into the soil which is extremely toxic. There are thousands of Iraqi children now being born with birth defects as a result of uranium weapons usage in and around the cities of Iraq. God knows how many innocent Afghanis and most likely Libyans have been exposed to this toxicity. Of course, there are also countless numbers of veterans who have also been exposed to this weapon of mass of destruction, so there is no telling how many of them have been afflicted. The government refuses to acknowledge that "depleted" uranium is terrible for one's health. This is also cited as a potential cause of the Gulf War Syndrome the veterans of Gulf War I have encountered. Not only is the government sanctioning the use of ammo that also harms you but remember they are burned waste products next to your dwellings.

Yes, the thought that the burning trash pits next to your barracks probably never crossed your mind. I, for one, was more concerned about not being killed by Iraqis who were upset by our military's occupation of their country. Nonetheless, there have been veteran victims of the burning trash pits which the state or government contractors rubber-stamped. This is should be extremely disheartening to all of us. Those who were prepared to be killed by a bullet from a foreigner are actually being slowly killed by the actions of their own government.

Of course now that you have returned from the wars abroad and are now mostly liberated from the physical clutches of the state; you are much more of a liability. Remember those towel wearing cave dwellers who we were fighting because they "hated us for our freedom"? Well, now you are the terrorist threat, according to state security. Head of the Department of Homeland Thuggery, Janet Napolitano, has already made her official apology, or in other words, she apologized that you found out how the government perceives you. The threat is grave for the state lest you learn the truth about what you (and I) have really helped defend.

You see, the longer we are at war across the sea the greater the state's power over us becomes and has it become great. The power of the state has rapidly increased with the creation of an agency whose sole purpose is to spy on you and other Americans who just may be anti-establishment. Moreover, the state also has the power to kill those who are considered terrorists and the state's definition of terrorist can change whenever it wants. In other words, it may not always be the turban-wearing cave dwellers who are the terrorists but it could be you. Remember they believe you already have the potential to be one. The state did not "thank us for our service" in the defense of the American people, rather we were being thanked for perpetuating the state's own interests. You would have the potential to spark a revolution in the minds of millions of Americans who buy into the official lies of the state's imperial policies. Of course, this is because you have seen the horrors of war yourself and would be most influential in swaying the people's opinion on this government's foreign policy based on your experience alone.

The war-mongering and chicken-hawk conservatives absolutely do not give a flying crap about your well-being. One self-proclaimed conservative who claims to support the troops does not in fact support them after they come home and are left with the scars of war such as missing limbs, PTSD, and various other war inflicted diseases. In essence, she says let us continue to fight the war on terror and leave the increasing amount of war veterans on the side of the road. If that is not the definition of a double-standard I really do not know what is. You have members of Congress support the troops when they are killing for them but when they come back home; well, it was the killing that really mattered. Thus the conclusion should come as quite a serious matter.

The state has no real interest in your well-being for many reasons although it may appear to care. From the signing away of death benefits to financial firms, using toxic weaponry in combat, building burning trash dumps next to your quarters, and countless other examples of willful negligence by the state; it should become quite apparent that we were mere pawns on a global chess board. The media has reported that veteran's disability benefits and medical care are to become as big as social security, so with the economic crisis deepening there is a good chance these benefits will not last. We need to start looking to build a society based on self-reliance, peace, and liberty. Lastly, the liberty I speak of has been encapsulated into a book and has been defined!

Andrew Mason is a former corporal in the U.S.M.C.

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