Representative Ron Paul on Mistreating Soldiers and Veterans:
Congress recently voted to send $87 billion to Iraq, money that will be used to build everything from roads to power plants to hospitals. Yet while Congress appears ready to rubber-stamp unlimited monies for nation building in Iraq, thousands of our own soldiers at home are languishing with substandard medical care.
You may have read about conditions at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where hundreds of injured reserve and National Guard soldiers are housed in deplorable conditions and forced to wait months just to see a doctor. These soldiers made huge sacrifices, leaving their families and jobs to fight in Iraq. Now they find themselves living in hot, crowded, unsanitary barracks and waiting far too long to see overworked doctors. This is hardly the heroes’ welcome they might have expected. Only an expos‚ in a major newspaper brought attention to their plight, prompting an embarrassed Defense department to rush additional doctors to the base.
Read the rest of it. It is a sad state of affairs, but it ain't a secret. Veterans have been screaming about the sorry state of health care and benefits for years. When will the "support the troops or you're a traitor" folks start to chime in?
Real support has nothing to do with putting a bumper sticker on your car or wearing an American flag pin on your lapel. And it sure as hell isn't about screaming "traitor" at those Americans who disagree with your warlust. It isn't about boycotting France or renaming fried potatoes or a hundred other childish things that have supposedly been done to "support the troops."
Mr. and Mrs. Warblogger, if you really do "support the troops," get off your ass and do something about the sorry state of health care for active duty and veterans. Do something about the unserviceable chemical and biological protection gear still in inventory and being used by today's military men and women. Do something tangible and legitimate. Screaming "traitor" and hating on the French isn't helping relieve the medical or financial woes of a single veteran.