Now what context are you saying cannon fodder in?

That they are treated as such, or that they really are cannon fodder. There is a distinct difference between the two.

I agree wholeheartedly, and that kinda freaks me out.

__________________
Memo to DC:
Quit screwing around and get it done, I don't care whose idea it was.
Right and wrong are obvious, as are ethics.
Do what we've hired you to do and lead.
Shut up and fix things. Now.

I am going to guess that the government sees "used" soldiers as a welfare drain, and given our history of constantly cutting welfare back to the point of near-uselessness....well, you do the math.

Perhaps to properly take care of our used soldiers, it would leave less in the budget for shiny new toys to mothball, and the Pentagon doesn't consider that they'd get any "return" on the "investment"? After all, aren't they rescinding the enlistment bonuses for injured/discharged vets, because the vets haven't fulfilled their contractual obligation?

It's sad and sick, and it's pathetic for a country this rich and powerful, that prides itself on it's military might to be so callous towards post-combat care, but the Pentagon never struck me as the empathic, sentimental type.

__________________
Memo to DC:
Quit screwing around and get it done, I don't care whose idea it was.
Right and wrong are obvious, as are ethics.
Do what we've hired you to do and lead.
Shut up and fix things. Now.

If that accurately describes what they're being used for, yes. Let's call it what it is.

Of course they don't appreciate it but let's not try to hide behind nice-sounding euphemisms.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Of course, there would be less use for the military if we weren't going around interfering in the internal affairs of other nations.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

indeed

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The infantry is unarguably the cannon fodder in every war. Infantry bear the brunt of the casualties in every war.

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Corporation, noun: an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
~Ambrose Bierce

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.

~Dom Helder Camara

Businessmen have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public.

~Adam Smith

That is more or less correct. But what I am trying to point out is that they may bear the brunt in every conflict, that does not mean that they are expendable. Or that they should not receive assistance and care once there tour is up.

And this is an issue that has to cross party lines and class lines. The fact is, it's largely working class and poor kids who enlist and fight our wars. Injuries to a dad or a son can cost jobs, and even houses. No fair saying to that one armed poor kid with a brain injury that it's his fault he can't support his kids, or that his mother had to quit work. We need to target them with rehab and with job skills, and provide a disability pay for families while it is being done.

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It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.
-- Robert Houghwout Jackson,
Chief Judge at the War-Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg