In our previous post, Doing the Troops Wrong, I pointedout how “born-again fiscal conservative only in his last year in office” George Bush had found a way to sell his troopers short once again by refusing to pass an education GI Bill for all Iraq War veterans. This Bill has several benefits including a)honoring the troops for their service in Iraq, b)putting some of the best women and men in the armed services in position to better their skills for the leadership positions they will naturally command in the country they have served so valiantly, and c)raising the implicit cost of going to war so that it never shall be done as cavalierly and inappropriately as Bush and the neo-conservatives have done in Iraq.
I fully expected John McCain, heretofore a champion of the troops in Iraq, to depart from his President and support the Troops. Wrong – and hiding behind the same reasoning – “we Republicans can do this more economically (read limit the breadth and extent of the GI Bill 2) – so Troopers, wait again.” We short changed you on troops, short changed you on battle armaments, short changed you on tough diplomacy, short changed you wounded on domestic medical care and economic benefits, and now we are going to short change you again on getting along after serving the country so well.
Don’t even give John McCain a fifth of a second of attention to plead – “well we will do something ….”
I would love it if the Troopers of the Fifth (all the wounded and disabled from past wars) would invade Crawford Texas and lay siege to the place until sheer embarrassment would lead to surrender by the Commander in Chief on this issue.