They fought for our freedom

[Babba_not_Gump]

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[Babba_not_Gump]

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[Terris]

Yup...

Freedom so hard fought for, frittered away into selfishness...

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=62A9E578

[The Green Barbarian]

[featfan]

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[Silverstarqueen]

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Is it not possible to house both? Many servicemen have sacrificed to defend those refugees. Some veterans previously fled to Canada to escape war torn countries.

Have some Canadians lost their respect for veterans and war dead?
https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/37 ... r-Memorial

[hozzle]

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Is it not possible to house both? Many servicemen have sacrificed to defend those refugees. Some veterans previously fled to Canada to escape war torn countries.

Have some Canadians lost their respect for veterans and war dead?
https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/37 ... r-Memorial

Look here instead.

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[Silverstarqueen]

Budget for Veterans affairs for 2021-2022 is 6.29 Billion. There was an 18.5% increase and a 20.1% increase in the last two years.Over 90% of the Department's budget represents payments to Veterans, their families and other program recipients.
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/about-va ... igures/2-0

In 2018, when Trudeau made the statement above, there had been a 29.3% increase to the budget.

[hozzle]

GAFFES AND SCANDALS: Veterans still angry and fighting for proper pensions.
https://torontosun.com/news/gaffes-and- ... r-pensions

[GordonH]

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[The Green Barbarian]

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[Bsuds]

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[The Green Barbarian]

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[sitting rabbit]

Both my parents were WWII Vets - my Mom was head surgical nurse and triage plus did every and any thing else when needed, my Dad worked on the floating medical labs.

They each taught me a great deal – one thing my mother taught me was: life comes in stages and it is our job to learn how to deal with it with grace, and carry on.

[sobrohusfat]

Afghanistan "Underground Railroad"

For two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American military fought for the freedom of a nation, created bonds of brotherhood between two countries, and made promises on the ground to our soldiers. But last August, with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region, 20 years of relationships were squandered in the blink of an eye.

The stark reality we learned a year ago is that, when it comes to Afghanistan, we can no longer look to our current leaders for help. Nobody’s coming. We’re on our own.

Veterans of the long War on Terror know this better than anyone. A recent survey conducted by the Veterans and Citizens Initiative found that 76% of American military veterans are angry about the withdrawal from Afghanistan; 73% feel betrayed; and 71% are having a hard time processing the end of the war. Our troops risked their lives and suffered immeasurable physical and moral injuries. What was it all for?

My fellow veterans and I felt this acutely last year when we launched a rescue mission to save our friend Sergeant First Class Nezammudin “Nezam” Nezami. An Afghan special forces soldier, Nezam trained at Fort Bragg, fought alongside us, and was wounded defending American freedom. And yet, when the time came for his paperwork to be processed, none of us could get the U.S. government to help.

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We took it upon ourselves to work directly with the NATO military heroes in Kabul to get Nezam out, utilizing a Signal group chat populated by veterans, State Department officials, and a few media figures. Once we got Nezam safely through the wall in the Kabul airport, we realized we had created an “underground railroad” for more Afghans and their families to find safe passage. It required a treacherous journey through Taliban checkpoints, seething crowds, and rank open sewers where those seeking refuge would look for a chem-light or orange flag signal. Once located, they had to use the password or show an image of a “Pineapple,” to the Marine or soldier standing guard at the hidden entry point.

The Signal group chat supporting these efforts, now known as “Operation Pineapple Express,” grew to 150 individuals from all parts of the country. Together, we worked diligently to get as many people as we could to safety, but we knew we were on borrowed time, as everyone expected an IED to detonate somewhere amidst the chaos of Kabul airport. It did, killing 13 Americans and over 100 innocent Afghans. The bomb ended our official operations, but we continued to work the underground — and we do to this day.

While veterans and volunteers stepped up, the silence from American politicians, diplomats, and senior military leaders has been deafening. Not one senior leader resigned in protest over the embarrassment and human costs of what happened. Instead, these leaders passed off the risk to more junior active-duty members of their organizations and to the combat-fatigued Special Operations Forces veteran population. Operation Pineapple Express was just one of dozens of privately run operations where individuals stepped in to do the work that our military higher-ups and our government refused to do.

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- Lt. Col. Scott Mann is a retired Green Beret with over twenty-two years of Army and Special Operations experience.
- His new book is Operation Pineapple Express:The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan.
- He has also written a play about the war called Last Out—Elegy of a Green Beret on Amazon Prime.[/size]