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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Barack Obama on how you do not support the troops by denying them opportunities at home
Posted by Jill | 6:08 AM
Speech on veterans' affairs in West Virginia yesterday:





"The young men and women who choose to serve are defending the very rights and freedoms that allow Americans to speak out against government actions we oppose. They deserve our admiration, respect and enduring gratitude.

"At the same time, we must never forget that honoring this service and upholding these ideals requires more than saluting our veterans as they march by on Veterans Day or Memorial Day. It requires marching with them for the care and benefits they have earned It requires standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our veterans and their families after the guns fall silent and the cameras are turned off. At a time when we’re facing the largest homecoming since the Second World War, the true test of our patriotism is whether we will serve our returning heroes as well as they’ve served us.

"We know that over the last eight years, we’ve already fallen short of meeting this test. We all learned about the deplorable conditions that were discovered at places like Fort Bragg and Walter Reed. We’ve all walked by a veteran whose home is now a cardboard box on a street corner in the richest nation on Earth. We’ve all heard about what it’s like to navigate the broken bureaucracy of the VA – the impossibly long lines, or the repeated calls for help that get you nothing more than an answering machine. Just a few weeks ago, an 89-year-old World War II veteran from South Carolina told his family, “No matter what I apply for at the VA, they turn me down.” The next day, he walked outside of an Outpatient Clinic in Greenville and took his own life.

"How can we let this happen? How is that acceptable in the United States of America? The answer is, it’s not. It’s an outrage. And it’s a betrayal – a betrayal – of the ideals that we ask our troops to risk their lives for.

[snip]

"There is no reason we shouldn’t pass the 21st Century GI Bill that is being debated in Congress right now. It was introduced by my friend Senator Jim Webb, a Marine who served as Navy Secretary under President Ronald Reagan.. His plan has widespread support from Republicans and Democrats. It would provide every returning veteran with a real chance to afford a college education, and it would not harm retention.

"I have great respect for John McCain’s service to this country and I know he loves it dearly and honors those who serve. But he is one of the few Senators of either party who oppose this bill because he thinks it’s too generous. I couldn’t disagree more. At a time when the skyrocketing cost of tuition is pricing thousands of Americans out of a college education, we should be doing everything we can to give the men and women who have risked their lives for this country the chance to pursue the American Dream.

"The brave Americans who fight today believe deeply in this country. And no matter how many you meet, or how many stories of heroism you hear, every encounter reminds that they are truly special. That through their service, they are living out the ideals that stir so many of us as Americas – pride, duty, and sacrifice."


My father was able to go to graduate school because of the G.I. Bill. My late father-in-law, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was able to buy a house because of the G.I. Bill. My generation grew up in a land of prosperity because people like my father, who grew up poor in the Bronx, or my father-in-law, who grew up poor in Jersey City, were thanked by their country for their service. The very politicians who are still trying to punish people who advocate for peace, or when peace isn't possible, war as a last resort instead of a first, oppose a new G.I. Bill because it's "too generous." John McCain, that most cynical of cynical politicians, thinks if you offer too many ways to say "Thank you for your service", the military will have retention issues instead of a bunch of kids who keep re-upping because they have nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. To John McCain, a military stocked with young men and women whose future in parts of America where the job base has long since been sent overseas so that corporate executives can get ever-bigger compensation packages looks bleak is a docile military full of kids that won't complain when asked to be deployed three, four, five, six, even seven times -- or until they're killed, whichever comes first.

John McCain can't have it both ways. He can't pose as the Ultimate Supporter of the Troops (when in reality he seems to believe it's All About Him and HIS experience as a POW, rather than the reality today's troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are enduring) and want to cut them off at the knees when they return home. John McCain seems to believe that the presidency is his Just Reward for having endured five years in a Hanoi prison. Only this kind of narcissism, a narcissism on a par with that of George W. Bush, would make a veteran, someone who KNOWS how difficult active combat duty is, decide that a comprehensive package of veterans' benefits is "too generous."

UPDATE: Paul Reickhoff has more.

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