As Fort Bragg Crumbles...

Each week a new national outrage goes underreported beneath the primary noise. Last week it was the Pentagon puppets, this week it's the deplorable living conditions at Fort Bragg, reported by a military father with a camera and a conscience.

If the people who are devoting their lives to fighting for one side of this primary devoted about 2% of their attention to some of the injustices being committed on the current administration's watch, like the fact that we have soldiers returning from 15-month tours to living spaces not fit for a prison, we'd probably live in Candyland by now.

Enjoy this week's song "If That Don't Make You Madder", and go to Vetvoice for a much better view of the tragedy at Fort Bragg than this highlight reel we put together.

If That Don't Make You Madder

I wasn't born with a sense of outrage, just a sense of trust
7 years of disappointments, it's managed to adjust
It'll stay that way longer after this horrifying chapter is complete
And I've looked at all the pictures, kept them playing on a loop
Long enough to keep me angry, but the volume can't cut through
The warring megaphones and billboards
And bumper stickers parked along my street

'Cause sometimes it don't matter which side you're on
You don't have to pick a side to look at this and know it's wrong
And I don't care what argument you make
If this don't make you madder
If this don't make you madder what will it take

You won't see it reflected in the water on the floor
There's a different kind of shit he's in just a dozen hours before
They'll cut corners instead of losses
But never pay respect that they demand
So if you're begging for the perfect at the very good's expense
May you focus on some things, that are actually worth fighting against
I know they're fighting back now, some of us could really use a hand

'Cause sometimes it don't matter which side you're on
You don't have to pick a side to look at this and know it's wrong
And I don't care what argument you make
If this don't make you madder
If this don't make you madder what will it take
What will it take

Max and the Marginalized are a blog and a band that does a song every week on Huffington Post. To download this song and 30 others, go to our page.

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Email: maxmarginal[a]gmail.com

Comments

[ldelp84227]

By the looks of the rust, the mold, and the peeling paint there is a serious indoor water problem. Rust just doesn't get all over handrails from not cleaning the place. It seems like they are just painting over the mold and rust and really this building should be condemned. If they just paint it will come back. The danger will still be there for the soldiers.

I saw this video before it was on CNN . I read this kind of stuff every day since I have an illness from indoor mold. Most people don't know how serious indoor mold can be for even healthy people. I was very healthy before my home had it and it got into the air system.

Geo. Bush had it in the governor's mansion back in the 90's.. There are several airports where air traffic controllers are ill. A judge died that worked in a court house in Miami and some people that work there are ill. The last I heard the building was closed. Senator Nelson recently wrote about it at his website. I read about a school everyday where there is mold and teachers and parents are getting the run around. It is very expensive to clean up so there are conflicts of interest in many gov't journals where doctors go to get info on indoor mold. Many famous people have had it Sandra Bullock, Ed McMann, Erin Brokovich, Bianca Zagger and the list goes on and on. Linda

[egal]

Unfortunately, it's not a new outrage. Obviously; these conditions didn't happen overnight. Soldiers have been voicing their issues for years, but they're not allowed to complain to the media, and because their direct superiors are powerless in these sorts of situations, their non-officer superiors are usnually living in trash alongside them and ban complaining (at least about things the soldiers cannot themselves rectify) as a matter of principle.
Soldiers suck it up and drive on.
Which is why there are so many PTSD and suicide issues, as well, but the resources to address that and physical living conditions will never be allocated to them as things stand now because the contracting companies with close ties to the Vice President and other politicians continue to get by far the most of the military funds. And "Supporting the troops" has degraded into a rallying call, something denoted by lapel pins, rather than actual actions.

[bavaria]

As Dick Cheney said : SO.......
Nobody made them put on a uniform
They volunteer !!!

[egal]

Soldiers volunteer to serve our country. They don't volunteer to be put in barracks with dangerous levels of asbestos, lead in the paint, bodily fluid stains on the cloth, improper structuring so that they sway in the wind and will collapse if the only support so much as cracks, and too many other health hazards to begin to list here.

Not to mention the utter lack of health care and monetary accountability accompanying the current combat because most of the government's money is tied up in their contractors. Most soldiers volunteer because they want to give back to their country; many volunteer for school money or just to have a job that gets them out of bad areas with hopeless future. To say they deserve to suffer through unforgiveable conditions just because they have a sense of civic responsibility or no better choices is cruel, selfish, and elitist.

[Mack20]

2nd Try:
A military barracks is not a motel with daily maid service. Service people living there have a personal responsibility to keep their quarters clean and in order. Since you leftists don't believe in personal responsibility, you may have a hard time with that notion. Wasn't your liberal controlled congress trying to cut all kinds of military funding? Maybe Nancy P. should try to fund maid and butler service for our military? I'd guess some of the liberals crying about this were spitting on returning vets in the 60's.

[MaxMarginal]

Umm. To say that missing ceiling tiles, live pipes spitting out sewage gas, and broken plumbing that results in three feet of shit water is the troops' fault for being messy is the ultimate joke of GOP-personal-responsibility bullshit I've ever come across.
-Max + band

[knighthowl]

4th try:
As a former returning Viet Nam vet who is appalled at the treatment given our Iraq vets, I'd guess that the right wing conservatives defending the administration are the ones spitting humongous gubbers on the returning vets of the 21st century. I would hazard that guess because it is they, not the dems, who refuse to fund veterans programs and think that it is fine to provide substandard housing and substandard health care to our troops. Anyone who defends such policies should be ashamed.

[knighthowl]

gubbers should be goobers

[knighthowl]

3rd try:
Somehow, my characterization of you as a modern-day spitter has failed to pass muster. Those troops just returned; they were not responsible for maintaining those barracks. Nancy P. has not failed to support the troops, that job has fallen to the faux patriots of the Republican party.

[coolmaiden]

So overflowing toilets and burst pipes in a building owned by the government are a personal responsibility and not a health hazard? Wow, I learn how to blame everyone but the people at fault every day from people like you, Mack. I really hope you own your home so you don't have to whine to a landlord that pesky feces are coming through your wall. After all, it's your responsibility to keep your area clean.

[Mack20]

A military barracks is not a motel with daily maid service. Service people living there have a personal responsibility to keep their quarters clean and in order. Since you leftists don't believe in personal responsibility, you may have a hard time with that notion. Wasn't your liberal controlled congress trying to cut all kinds of military funding? Maybe Nancy P. should try to fund maid and butler service for our military? I'd guess some of the liberals crying about this were spitting on returning vets in the 60's.

[americanwhocares]

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

Macko20. You are a total IDIOT with this asinine comment. (you most likely are a draft dodging republican and/or a republican who never bothered to serve) I thought you repugs SUPPORTED THE TROOPS, guess not.

[knighthowl]

My 5th try:
For some reason, I have been prevented from making the point that Mack's post in fact spits upon our Iraq vets. I would like to know why.

[Betsy]

Speaking of mold......My sister and her family reside on Lackland AFB in San Antonio. The house they lived in on Fairchild for almost 7 years is infested with mold. There are also issues with the water on that base.

The American people either don't care about our enlisted men and women and their families or they simply aren't aware of the shoddy treatment they're subjected to. I like to believe they aren't aware of it.

MSM needs a good swift kick in the behind and John McCain who has done NOTHING for the enlisted or our Vets should be ashamed!

[rektruax]

Bring back the draft, and make it non-deferrable. Put the military back in the hands of the people (thereby giving the people a stronger voice in it's activities) and not all these private contractors.

I was raised near Bragg, and did basic at Lackland and can't believe the imagery I saw in this video.

[MitchW]

Here's a clue for the Army leadership - rent out the nearest Hoilday Inn outside of post for all of those troops in the barracks - thats something they can do right now and the the very least the Army can do for these men.

[egal]

I'd agree (I DO agree), but it's fiscally impossible. For the Army and the Marines, who get the least funding, at least (the Air Force has really cushy digs, nothing health-threatening, except sometimes while they're deployed to an Army base). It SHOULD be possible, it SHOULD have already happened, but all the military money goes to contractors who do the same work soldiers used to do better (but the contractors do so for a starting salary of minimum 12 times as much, even though most of them are non-expert and not American).

So soldiers get WWII barracks and serious health hazards and no recourse for better.

[CactusTom]

The big military funds go to the heads of the military industrial complex via those billion dollar weapons systems. Indeed, corporations and congress feed on the mega bucks. There is simply no money to be made by the powers to be by properly training, outfitting , and housing the basic fighting man. I mean, who needs bullets and body armor and a decent place to live if you at the bottom of the military food chain.

[ramiperlman]

This video is truly heartbreaking. It's a testament to the media's inability to report on real problems that this country faces. To think that we can't even take care of the people who protect us! But as we all know, stories like this do not sell newspapers or draw viewers. It's a shame-R

[Rixar13]

The media is overwhelmed with the injustices of this administration.

[fungeezer]

This is awful and it is unacceptable. This is just more proof of how this administration views the men and women serving their country. They don't care.

[democrattotheend]

Of course this doesn't get reported. In the words of one MSNBC anchor, it's not as sexy as Reverend Wright.