As A Vet Why I Won't Join The Legion Or VFW

[TheMastersNemesis]

In a sense this is a message to both organizations and its leadership. The GOP has been continuously and consistently endorsed by both organizations. It is a good bet that they will endorse Romney who supports the Ryan budget that will cut veterans benefits. From my take they don't like Obama because he is black. If they were to actually support Obama it would be a cold day in hell.

I am sure that I will tee off a bunch of vets but I really do not care. I used to be a member of the Legion. As far as I am concerned both organizations have become right wing hacks who really no longer serve veterans' needs. The country would be better off if both organizations passed away into history.

The new generation of veterans need to start new organizations that are more politically independent and really do serve the needs of veterans. All these old vets do is just sit at the bar and drink for the most part. And I as a Vietnam vet feel that I have nothing in common with either organization or its members. I see almost no efforts to push for veterans employment. And the support the GOP that is actually indifferent or even hostile to recent veterans. By sabotaging the job market the GOP hurts vets as well. By calling for huge cuts in public servants they lay off thousands of vets. Yet both organizations remain silent.

They support unlimited military budgets at the expense of everything else. They are pro war. They stayed silent and supported Bush on multiple tours.

So all you new vets boycott the Legion and VFW and go with your new organizations like Vote Vets and IVAW. Leave these antiquated and right wing hacks in the past. The Legion and VFW have nothing to offer the new generation of veterans.

[freshwest]

1. Yes, they've been perverted. They should have stayed focused on vets.

[Warpy]

2. I know a bunch of tough old Vietnam vets who joined

just so they could go and tell those right wing peacetime vets at the Legion exactly why those old boys were so full of shit.

Depriving those outfits of dues is a good idea, but I felt my friends had earned the right to join and let fly.

[AsahinaKimi]

4. Do you like the VVAW?

What ya think of this one?

Good group?

[TheMastersNemesis]

5. Yes I Do

The newer vets groups are better for veterans at this time. The VFW and American Legion seem to have lost the vision of their mission to serve veterans. That means supporting politicians who will fund veterans programs to help our wounded warriors.

Being against unnecessary and stupid wars is just as patriotic as anything else.

[DiverDave]

9. I'm a Vietnam era vet

I wonder If they'd take me?
I'll mosey on over and check em out.

[Wounded Bear]

6. I'm a Vietnam era vet, not a member....

Last time I was approached and almost joined one of those groups (I forget which) I was accosted with a lot of junk mail. I guess they sold my info.

I don't drink, so even the bar is no attraction to me.

Not a joiner, but I will support pols that support vets. Very few Repubs really do. Here in WA, we have a couple of winners that actually fought for increased vet services. The VA is keeping me alive right now, as I am between jobs and it's my only source of health care.

[madokie]

7. I don't belong to either

and I won't be joining them either.
I don't like republicons and I make no bones about it

[DiverDave]

8. Several times over the years

I've received mailings from them.
I just toss em.
The only reason I get them ( no combat- or in country) is because they need members.
If they started to REALLY advocate for vets, I'd join up in a minute.
Until then...

Oh, and the bars they have in the clubs used to pour a stiff drink.
I quit drinking so I dont need that either.

[Mr Dixon]

10. WOW

I got married there 25 May 12 in Northern VA, Mrs. Obama visited there also, I kind of got the feeling that it was a good old boy right Wing Hangout, but they sat on their hands and never said a word, just accepted our money and decorated our wedding hall beautifully. Now the hostess got a lil nippy once, but I blew it off because this was our day, and she was a chain smoking 50 years old but looking like 80 years old hater, my guess is in her day interracial couples were not the norm ROFL. Seems as if they make their money doing weddings and bingo, LOL I was not asked to join despite the fact that I’m also a VET, I was crushed ………ROLF not really.

[kctim]

17. "Now the hostess got a lil nippy once"

In May?
What was the AC set to, 40 degrees?

[Fumesucker]

11. I remember being told "We won OUR war" at one of those organizations..

Don't remember which one it was..

I never went back.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. Holy shit! That is a really shitty thing to say. As if

Americans could have ever 'won' the Vietnam War which was, at heart, a civil war. It's true that our side in that civil war did not win but it was a side without much popular support that was picked by politicians pursuing grand ideological strategies.

I'm re-reading Neil Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie" right now. Chapter 2 ("Antecedents to a Confrontation&quot completely demolishes the entire rationale for U.S. involvement.

It was politicians who put us there, not the grunts in the paddies, FFS.

[pinboy3niner]

18. I was told the same thing, in those exact words, at a VFW

Initially, returning VN vets were ineligible to join the VFW because "it wasn't a real war."

When they changed that policy and allowed us in, too many of us encountered comments like those (another I remember is that "VN vets are just whiners and crybabies&quot .

Of course, over the years VN vets rose in the VFW to command posts and to hold national positions.

I have friends in Canada, VN combat vets, who, when they were dissatisfied with the leadership and policies of the vet orgs, made a move to join and take them over--and they did it very rapidly and successfully.

Here, I don't think groups like the VFW and the Legion are legally allowed to endorse candidates, but I do recall instances when their RW leadership was forced to dial back on their political rhetoric.

I prefer supporting Vietnam Veterans of America, VoteVets, and the newer groups for our returning troops. The older traditional orgs may have clout, but it's VVA and the newer groups that consistently do the original work on veterans' issues today.

[Scuba]

12. This vet agrees. The R's are using these veterans groups to undermine veterans....

... and the VFW and American Legion leadership are complicit.

I'm not a "joiner" so I would not become a member even if they changed their politics. On the other hand, both VVAW and IRAW get support from me.


http://www.vvaw.org/

http://www.ivaw.org/

[Sirveri]

14. I'd add swords to plowshares to the list as well. Though I need to research them better.

They actually do veteran outreach to homeless vets and vets in need.

http://www.swords-to-plowshares.org/

They might be local to the bay area only though...

[progressoid]

13. My Dad (lifelong Democrat) is in the Legion.

He has to constantly fight the right wing bullshit and hypocrisy that he hears at meetings etc.

But he stays in there to help with military funerals and honors.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. 4 years was an eternity too long for me. The only vet group I joined was anti-war group.

As I recall, it was the California Veterans Association. We marched around the Federal Building in L.A. while lots of cops with shotguns drove around and around the block giving us the hairy eyeball and other guys with telephoto lenses took our pictures.