WHO WILL GO?


If we can rush to War but can’t take care of our Veterans needs, what does that say about us as a people?

What is wrong with us?

Why won’t various Veterans groups stand up for their fellow veterans?

Why will we let America go to war without thinking about the wounded veterans who return from wars….

Our short term memory of convenience is an embarrassment to us as a people.

Here’s just the latest example of those we’ve allowed to slip through the cracks:

The latest brouhaha concerns the fact that the head of the Veterans Administration has resigned and there is no replacement as yet. Who in fact would want to take on an unpopular job with problems heaped upon problems for fewer than eighteen months and then get unceremoniously dumped. No wonder there are no takers. Nevertheless, Bush has put it on the back burner.
And as a result, no one is looking out for our service people who were put in harm’s way.

But this is a Federal problem that begins at the White House. Clearly, while we can ask for nearly a trillion dollars to maintain our troops and provide for a mercenary army, there is not enough money in the kitty to do what is needed to help out our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

As it turns out, those with various mental disorders have been largely overlooked, denied benefits or otherwise just fell through the cracks. Their numbers have not even been included in the 27,000 wounded Iraq veterans that this government will admit to—even though it is virtually impossible to get responsible figures that can be verified. . And even the numbers given fall short by nearly 100% of the numbers previously estimated.

Were that by itself not bad enough, returning veterans are facing a six month delay in making their claims to the VA.

With veterans having to get by on their own after their service benefits run out and facing cut-backs in other benefits, and with over a million veterans without insurance, we are left with a total mess on our hands.

One wife of a veteran put it best, it seems that we have money to conduct wars but no money to take care of the disabled caused by war. If we needed a more apt or stunning indictment of the way this war is being conducted by our government, we would have to look long and hard to beat that one…

The fact is that the VA has played second fiddle to the conduct of the War. The real heroes are being left pretty much on their own after they served their country and the VA is either ill equipped to do what’s right or is simply trying to ignore the problem in the hope that it will go away. Either way, the buck stops at Bush’s desk.


If we cannot treat our heroes any better than that, it’s a sad commentary on what we have allowed our government to become. Who will go to War in the future and do the country’s heavy lifting knowing that we can’t even take care of our heroes now?


Keep that in mind with all the talk of invading Iran.

Who will go?


Les Aaron