The Bush administration is cheating our vets
Posted by mofembot Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:25:00 GMT
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t read yet another story about how our brave soldiers and veterans are being cheated out of promised health care and other benefits by the Bush administration, which has consistently cut funding throughout the 7+ miserable years of its existence. It is already a national disgrace that on any given night, more than 195,000 vets are homeless, and a larger number of them are unemployed. But what is truly unconscionable is that the Bush administration is using our tax money to pay lawyers to fight against veterans’ legitimate claims of neglect and unlawful denial of services: check out this recent article, and this report. (Be sure to check on some of the links accompanying the report.) When this story was first discussed on DailyKos, I commented, “Where can BushCo even find lawyers slimy enough to argue such immoral nonsense?”*
This flagrant violation of fairness and decency makes me livid.
In their wrongheaded quest to kill good government, Bush and his minions are willing to renege on the promises they made to induce our young men and women to sign up for military service. They have extended people’s tours of duty through “stop-loss” orders, failed to provide body armor and armored vehicles (yes, even now, almost 5 years since invading Iraq, there are still soldiers missing equipment or using inadequate equipment), failed to protect soldiers’ homes from foreclosure, failed to prosecute those who illegally refuse to rehire vets … but cheating wounded and traumatized veterans out of needed treatment is the lowest of the low, part and parcel with failing to provide adequate funding to VA hospitals and other treatment facilities.
Bush apparently doesn’t care that it costs more than $220,000 a minute to prosecute his illegal and immoral war in Iraq (perhaps because a significant percentage of this money goes to his corporate cronies), but apparently he is unwilling to spend what it takes to keep our nation’s promises to its soldiers.
Remember the G.I. Bill? Some members of Congress have proposed a new G.I. Bill to reward current vets for their wartime service. This is an excellent idea, just as was the original G.I. Bill, but one that will never come to fruition until after Bush leaves office†. The man who did not bother to fulfill his duty to the Texas Air National Guard doesn’t lose any sleep over failing to fulfill his obligations to those who have put their lives on the line to do their duty: one of the most shameful chapters in a book brimming with shameful chapters.
*Answer: Pat Robertson’s Regent University School of Law.
†Preferably by being impeached, tried, convicted, and removed from office for high crimes and misdemeanors, and then shipped off to The Hague to be tried for war crimes… but given the spinelessness of Congress, the dream of justice remains only a dream. January 9, 2008 cannot come soon enough (assuming a fair election).