Dempsey Wants Dialogue About Veterans
MANHATTAN, Kan. - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he wants to increase the national conversation about war veterans and how they're treated and regarded in society.
Gen. Martin Dempsey spoke to a large audience of soldiers, faculty and students at Kansas State University. He said he believes the nation has a positive image of its military men and women and that there is a conversation taking place about how to help veterans reintegrate with work, school and their families.
"I want to turn up the volume," Dempsey said.
Dempsey said that, after many years of war, it's important for veterans and the nation to talk about the role of those who have served, where they fit in society and whether they're regarded as heroes, victims or average citizens.
The general said that many organizations had increased their efforts over the past four years to help link veterans with colleges and employers.
Dempsey graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1974 as the Vietnam War was winding down. He said he doesn't believe the public views its current generation of veterans with the same disdain they held for Vietnam veterans.
But the general wants to renew the focus and conversation, especially with the war in Iraq over, the war in Afghanistan winding down and a downsizing of the military on the horizon.
"We ought to have that conversation," Dempsey said.
He said he believes future military action will be decentralized conflicts to which the nation sends smaller groups of soldiers to battle, unlike most wars in U.S. history.
"I just don't want to wake up one day and decide that I should have had a conversation with America before it occurs," he said.
Dempsey said that one of the lessons from the recent wars was that "protracted conflicts" make it harder to sustain interest.
"That's a long time to maintain interest in distant conflicts," he said.
Dempsey's speech was part of Kansas State's Landon Lecture series. The general also planned to visit with soldiers at nearby Fort Riley, home of the 1st Infantry Division. About 750 soldiers attended his lecture.
Replies
Can anyone make sense out of this article? It's either Dempsey or the writer.............??
PFA, Mr. Riley, Makes about the same sense as a screen door on a submarine, or tying up a ship to a Land Mine..!! Typical of our leadership...Unthinkable..
The General is falling victim to the same rhetoric congress is. Most of the talking heads have retained the idea that our future wars are going to be brief and small. This attitude has been injected into our stratigic planning by design of our enemies. If we continue to believe this it will lead to a reduction in the size and scope of our defenses. Our leaders (if anyone still thinks we have any) will reduce the military to the point they feel will be sufficiant to handel these "so called small conflicts" then get slapped with a full scale war. What kind of fools are we allowing to make decisions about our very lives. This IS the election that will decide our life or death, simple as that.
I have NO distain for soldiers that serve our country. It's the leadership in the military, Pentagon, Panetta and white house that is the whole problem.
If the headline is accurate, then the country was loaded with "radicals" and we should have stopped them then. The treatment that Vietnam Vets got from this country was nothing short of atrocious. It went way beyond offensive. It was disgusting and not in line with anything American. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there were and are that many communists/ screwballs/etc even then that occupied this country. It was just a failure on part of apathetic, even if more reasonable, Americans that allowed it go on unanswered.
THE CJCS IS JUST ANOTHER OF THE GUTLESS WONDERS --IN POSITIONS OF LEADERSHIP,
WHO ARE TOTALLY IGNORING THE OATH THEY TOOK--TO CURRY FAVOR WITH THE
CIVILIAN GUTLESS WONDERS PUT IN OFFICE BY THIS COUNTRYS' OSTRICHES.
Check out this Panetta-Dempsey video at the bottom of this page http://normanhooben.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-case-of-hillary-clinton-... Dempsey tries to get Panetta out of a jam...makes it worst
This man is a pathetic excuse for a leader let alone the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He doesn't care, not one whit about the troops he is supposed to lead or veterans. He has already thrown military retirees under the bus why would he want to do more for veterans in general. In my very limited view the picture alone is enough to show all what a vain, arrogant person he is.
People did spit on Viet vets. In airports.( I am that old.) But they were "peace-niks". I had a friend that was a "peace-nik". They were mostly dopers as I recollect. And their issues were with the war. But they were not clear-thinkers, for sure. Today most go up to a vet and say "Thank you." I do.
Other than that, tell it.
Let's give this General a break .... I think he suffered to many hits to his head!! What the hell is he thinking and what military has he served in?