I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them - Isaac Asimov

Monday, March 05, 2007

This is an expanded version of a comment I just left to this post.  I thought this deserved its own topic.

I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I blame Bush entirely for what is going on at the VA.  Having been to a VA hospital before, I know just how ghastly they can be.  I sure as hell would never want to be treated in one again.  If you ever want to see just how well socialized medicine works, go down to your local VA.  It’s a mess, and it has been so for years.  So, with this in mind, I know that Bush is no different than any other president in the last 30 years.  Look, we know that most Congressmen couldn’t give a squirt of piss for the military one way or the other.  This is especially true of the Democrats, but the Republicans are barely any better.  They’ll all wave the flag and talk about how much they appreciate the sacrifice our soldiers are making, blah blah blah.  They all talk the talk, because it’s politically beneficial for them to do so. 

So, Bush talks the talk just like any other president.  One of the things I really liked about Bush was the way when he came into office he immediately upgraded military pay and housing benefits.  I was so goddamned impressed by that I can barely express it in words.  Having been a junior enlisted military member myself I know just how dismal the pay and benefits are.  Our soldiers deserved more money, better housing, and better benefits.  Bush got the ball rolling on this and he should be commended for it.

So now we’re six years into the Bush presidency, five of which have seen us involved in some sort of military operation.  The calculus has changed.  We’re not talking about increasing a housing allowance or a pay raise here, we’re talking guys who are coming home with horrible burns, with faces and limbs missing, with blind eyes and deaf ears, with every conceivable type of disfigurement that the Armies of Islam have been able to throw at them.  This is far and above what most recent presidents have called upon the military to endure.  Bush speaks of the necessity of sacrifice, of doing what is right, of going the extra mile for the good of the nation.  And the men and women of our armed forces, the finest people anywhere in the world, are answering that call.

Ask yourself this:  is the president, the most powerful man in the world, doing all he can for them in return?  I don’t think he has.  Take a look at the numbers yourself.  Here’s a cold, hard fact.  “Federal spending has grown twice as fast under President Bush than under President Clinton.” You know what else has grown significantly under President Bush than under President Clinton?  The number of wounded soldiers who are going to need lifelong medical care.  Because of our advanced American battlefield medical technology we’re much better at keeping soldiers alive than we were 20 years ago.  Soldiers who sustain injuries that would have killed them in Vietnam are now living and coming home to face lifelong medical care needs.  If anyone in the world should have been aware of this it’s the president.

Bush has clearly shown that he has no problem spending billions of dollars on just about anything.  So it’s not a money issue.  He clearly values the military, so it’s not apathy.  What is it?  I can only speculate here, of course, but I think it’s a symptom of the fundamental disconnect that this president has with reality.  The only time he sees wounded soldiers it’s as part of an organized event.  (This isn’t a criticism of Bush, all presidents do this.) Some handler has gone ahead of him to make sure that he only sees the right wounded soldiers, and that they’re not going to say anything embarassing to the president, that sort of thing.  And, as anyone who has ever served in the military can tell you, when some Head Motherfucker comes to visit your facility it gets cleaned from top to bottom.  So the image that Bush sees is not really the reality of what is going on.  And I think the evidence is pretty compelling that Bush doesn’t tend to question that which he isn’t directly shown.  The soldiers appear taken care of, so therefore they must be.

Where I fault Bush is in not being proactive enough on their behalf.  He’s certainly able to use wounded soldiers in photo ops and the like.  So where has the major push been to spend billions of dollars upgrading the VA hospital system?  We’ve all seen the lengths that Bush will go to push for one spending bill or another.  Look at how many times he pushed that goddamned prescription drug benefit for seniors.  Funny how he was perfectly willing to get on TV every night talking about how we needed billions of dollars for this program, when the majority of seniors in this country have no problem being able to afford medication.  Now, do you know WHY he did this?  Because old people vote in large numbers, and the GOP wanted a slice of that pie.

How many votes do you think wounded soldiers cast?  Not many.

Bush probably isn’t any better or worse in this regard than other presidents.  But, given that military sacrifice has been the hallmark of his presidency, I expect more from him than just being like other presidents.  Our soldiers are sure as hell sacrificing everything they have for us, I think that adding a few billion to upgrade the VA hospital system is the least we can do to honor them, especially considering the trillions of dollars that this administration has pissed away on absolutely nothing.

This is why I say that supporting the troops means a lot more than putting a yellow ribbon on your car.  It’s being proactive, making sure that the needs of soldiers are met.  Contact your representatives, ask them what they’re doing.  (I’ve done this many times.) Hold their feet to the fire.  Any dickhead can put a sticker on a car or wave a flag.  There’s nothing wrong with doing either of these, of course.  I’ve waved flags and have the stickers on my truck.  But I also think we can do a little better than that, don’t you?

Supporting troops is not a political tool.  Supporting troops is not a cudgel you use against your political opponents.  Supporting troops means exactly that, supporting troops.  And, yes, I expect more of Bush in this area than I have past presidents.  He expects more from our fighting men and women, and in return I expect more of him.

I wish more people thought like me.