I've written before about how 'Support our troops' is nothing more than an empty phrase used to silence critics of the president and the Iraq aggression. Certainly not all people who use the phrase intend it that way; my mom has a bumper sticker with that slogan on her car and she's opposed the war from the beginning. But in reality, the seemingly innocuous phrase has been hijacked by those who believe in the un-American premise that you can't criticize the Leader.
The other sad part about the phrase is that people use it without thinking. It's become a bit like the prayers said at Sunday mass. Most people just intone the words from memory without really pondering them. It's just what you do in that situation.
But putting up a lawn sign or wearing a ribbon that says 'Support our troops' doesn't really support the troops. I've often said that if you really want to support the troops, demand that they never be put in harm's way lightly or for bogus reasons... that their commander-in-chief order them to risk their lives only when it's absolutely necessary.
There are others ways too. Such as making sure soldiers are treated properly after they leave the armed forces. My brother, an ex-Marine, has sent me many articles on the dysfunction in the veterans' benefits system.
The blog of Foreign Policy magazine offers several other examples.
A lot has rightly been made of the recent vets' identify theft scandal. But there's more. As FP notes A staggering 144,000 veterans of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have sought treatment from the VA system, but the VA can do little but try to care for them on the cheap, given its slashed budget. Astonishingly, 33,858 more vets asked the VA for treatment in just the first quarter of [Fiscal Year] 2006 than the VA expects all year.
The magazine also interviews Jon Soltz, director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America PAC. Soltz offers the following assessment: The veteran who walks into the Department for Veterans Affairs (VA) today is drastically worse off than he or she was four or five years ago. They pay more for their prescription drugs. There is now a fee for them to enroll into the system. Iraq war veterans put a tremendous demand on the VA, specifically because we’ve deployed so many members of the Guard and Reserves. There’s also a problem with diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A lot of people with PTSD get diagnosed with “adjustment disorder” primarily because there’s not enough money in the VA budget to provide these heroes with the disability payments they should be given.
Of course, if we stopped wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on an insane war of aggression with no prospect of an end, we might have money to actually help the soldiers we ordered to prosecute that war.
No comments:
Post a Comment