The families of US soldiers who have died in the US-Israeli war against Iran are battling to ensure they receive appropriate pay and benefits for their loved ones.
Libby Klinner, a widow, wrote on social media that the US air force had deemed her ineligible for additional benefits following the death of Major Alex Klinner, her 33-year-old husband, because Congress had not officially declared war.
He was one of six crew members of a KC-135 refuelling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq in March while supporting US strikes against Iran.
An ex-convict gave horrific insight into serving in the Russian army, saying his officers refused to collect the dead bodies of soldiers from the battlefield so that the Russian military wouldn’t have to pay their families, according to The New York Times.
In an interview, the soldier who served in one of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s convict units — who was identified as “Aleksandr” — told the Times he was ordered not to collect the bodies of his fellow troops.
He told the Times that officers could register the men as “missing in action,” meaning their families couldn’t collect compensation for them being killed in battle.
One shitty dictator starting a completely unwarranted war doing the same thing as another shitty dictator running a completely unwarranted war.
Give Putin some credit. He’s doing this much more intelligently. He maintains a plausible pretense to not pay out death benefits while Trump just goes “No”.
Putin’s Ukraine adventure has been an abject failure.
Which is why he needs to weasel out of paying death benefits.
Because he knows Americans will roll over and accept “no” without a fight
And if anyone tries to fight it the MAGAts will fight on his behalf.
There’s a reason Trump loves stupid people.
So?
Put MAGA down.
Might not be a coincidence.
I’ve said it forever: Screwing over veterans is more American than apple pie. We’ve been doing it since the American Revolution.
I can’t imagine President Pedophile being the one to change that. He doesn’t even care enough to pretend.
If it’s not officially a war, what happens if a combatant chooses not to engage?
I suspect they’d be court martialled as if it were refusing a wartime order.
… That might be the excuse they’re using.
The reality is that they don’t have the money because they spent it on bombing schools for young girls.
fuckers need to fuck right off to the fuckerville composting center.
I think you are on point here.
please stop joining the military
Imagine joining the US military.
I am not a fan of the military, but man, Hegseth and Trump are driving people away in droves with this kind of crap.
Oh well.
Congress can basically make “non wars” into wars for benefits.
OEF and OIF cover post 9/11 up to like 2010 in most of the middle east.
It could be fixed right now, but trump and the Republicans won’t.
But the real solution has always been giving everyone the benefits disabled vets get
they don’t even have the money for payroll right now.
So no, they really can’t fix it overnight.
Congress could do a lot of things that they are refusing ro do.
Because Republicans have both majorities and the presidency…
Our system sucks, but it used to be functional, and can be again.
Obviously one of the first things to do once it’s functional, is improve the system and put in protections to stop this from happening again.
Like, everyone complains about the electoral college, but we could just get rid of it and make the presidency a straight popular vote. But the real problem, is a president was never meant to have this much power in the first place. They’re supposed to be an essentially powerless ambassador.
No real power, just the person we said can speak on our behalf in situations where there’s just a single seat at a table for America
one of the first things to do once it’s functional, is improve the system and put in protections to stop this from happening again.
Agreed, that will be critical in trying to regain any level of trust from the rest of the world.
the real problem, is a president was never meant to have this much power in the first place.
Again, you have identified another of the issues that needs fixing.
Between fixing those issues and repairing all the damage Trump (and his acomplices) have done, the USA has decades of work to do.
I hope they are both willing and able to put in the effort.
Between fixing those issues and repairing all the damage Trump (and his acomplices) have done, the USA has decades of work to do.
If you think that, you need to look back on how fast FDR fixed shit, and how the only thing that stopped him from doing more, is people not following up by flushing incumbents holding back progress.
Back then the average person didn’t have the same outreach. Social media means people can actually organize and hear how things are going. That’s why oligarchs keep gobbling up social media and flooding it with bots.
They’re fucking scared.
Remind me in 6 years.
Based on the level of apathy I see from a majority of Americans, I don’t expect much more than surface level changes (re-naming things back to their original names, de-trumping the white house decore etc) and little else.
I also don’t trust that the Americans won’t just elect another complete asshole 4 years after Trump is no longer president.
Then you don’t understand how bad the party was under neoliberalism from 1991-2025, and you just assume that was actually trying or that the party went in a different direction with the 2025 chair election.
Like, if you ignore everything, obviously it’s not going to make sense.
If you pay attention to what happened and what is happening, you wouldn’t spend your free time shitting on the best and only chance to save the country…
Unless you were a trump supporter or neoliberal despite to depress dem turnout to stop progressives
despite to depress dem turnout to stop progressives
I assume that was supposed to be “desperate”.
That aside, I would much prefer the Americans elect a Democrat over a Republican, but I also would prefer the democrats put forward more progressive candidates than they have been.
You also can’t lose a war if it isn’t a war! 😅
That’s how they avoid saying they haven’t won a war since WW2.
Iraq was a pretty clear military victory.
The war so nice they did it twice.
But it just lead to wider conflict and terrorism in the region.
So Iraq being in disarray after defeat somehow implies the US lost the war against them?
And wider conflict? Do you think Iraq was some sort of peaceful neighbor leading up to its demise?
The lack of a victory implies the US didn’t win.
Unfortunately for your hot take, Iraq signed surrender and the US executed their former leader. The US objectively won that war. I get it, in your mind victory or defeat hinges on whether you like the victor or not, but reality doesn’t work that way.
But if it’s any consolation, Iran also defeated Iraq and the US didn’t take on Iraq alone. I personally don’t believe Iraq was a worthy opponent for the US. But saying the US hasn’t won a war since WW2 is factually incorrect.
The US kept bombing them and reinvaded, that doesn’t sound like the surrender ended it.
The first time, yes. The second time proved what history has proven countless times. Killing a bunch of people with a big military is easy. Occupations are really, really difficult.
In its history, the US has only had 2 really successful occupations, (West Germany and Japan after WWII), and both of those were because they occupied nations were cooperating with the US and its allies.
So are they going to rename the Department of Defense again?!
I can’t fucking believe this. Well, i can because 🍊☝️
First time I’ve seen that emoji used for “fuckhead”.
JD Vance gets asked about the widows case and he responds to the journalist “send me her contact info so I can discuss it with her” as if he isn’t the second most powerful person in his country and already has full access to all of the info but doesn’t care. If they have to start paying out benefits to dead soldiers it might become more clear how many service members have actually died.
There are likely more fatalities of American soldiers but they are hiding them behind mission secrecy.
The department of war, at war? How ridiculous.
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
And losing at that.
No, right, it’s just a Special Military Operation.
I don’t know … they followed the obviously illegal orders to go to war without congressional approval. They betrayed their oath to the constitution and favored Trump instead. Getting stiffed by Trump, as everyone expects of Trump, seems hardly something we should care about. Trump called them suckers, they chose to turn their backs on USA and follow Trump. It is of course sad when anyone gets hurt, but being willing participants in an unlawful and unjust war that is only about moving the stock market to make Trump rich … when Trump has betrayed the constitution practically every day …
Fucking disgusting Russia-tier semantics.
