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Another Year Of "Remembering" by Harry Riley
"On this peaceful May morning, we commemorate a great victory for liberty," Bush said at Europe's third-largest cemetery for American veterans near here in Margraten. "We come to this ground to remember the cause for which these soldiers fought and triumphed" (President Bush remarks in the Netherlands as reported by Fox News on May 8, 2005.)
It is important to honor and remember our warriors, and one could extend
remembering to essential, even critical, but unfortunately, too many
politicians terminate their support of veterans with one or two
yearly remembrances.
Perhaps the greatest honor a nation and government can extend to freedom
fighters is "keeping faith" with them...fulfilling
obligations, recognizing sacrifices made by warriors and their families,
understanding support does not end as the smoke of battle
clears...when our government makes commitments, sends us off to
war, and then fails to honor obligations such as health care, is
less than truthful about the Survivor Benefit Plan, fights veteran
disability compensation tooth and nail, implies spouses and widows
are baggage, and identifies military benefit funding as
"harmful to our nation", it doesn't take a rocket scientist to
deduce that leadership is playing politics with blood and
body-parts left on the battlefield.
With all due respect, in a pre-inaugural address on 19 January, 2001
President-elect George W. Bush said:
"In order to make sure that morale is high with those who wear the uniform today, we must keep our commitment to those who wore the uniform in the past.... We will make sure promises made to our veterans will be promises kept." President Bush has made many statements of support for our warriors but has resisted initiatives in Congress designed to provide earned benefits to our service members, spouses, and widows..."pork" funding takes priority over care of our nations defenders and President Bush has made no effort to stop it. If President Bush's intention is to "keep faith" with our warriors he should direct his staff to announce politically motivated funding of "pork is harmful to our nation" and ask Congress to raise veteran, spouse, and widow funding as number 2 priority right behind funding of our nations military forces. Harry Riley To Comment on this Blog To View Responses to this commentary please click here Responses To: Another Year Of "Remembering
Harry,
President Bush is a liar and traitor. The agenda he has been told to follow doesn't include you, me, or anybody else in this country. But just be ready to offer up your kids when comes a callin' cause we have to root out those pesky WMD's afterall. What our Military REALLY needs to do is root out those SOB's in Washington before our troops don't have a country to come home to, or none of us are going to have a leg to stand on. Howie The only way I would volunteer again for giving up my health and my eye sight to protect the rich is for a contract that would guarantee me and my wife the same retirement of a senator gets. Lied to, through Vietnam and lied to, through Iraq. Lie to me all you want but pay me what I have earned Now I know why young people make warriors and old men know the mistakes a young person makes trying to get out of the dumps we lived in. I serve from 1960 to 1983. No where have I been thanked for my long history of intelligence gathering to win the Cold War.
William S Pettit Jr
USAF MSGT Retired 1983
Great Blog Harry....I love it! Put it in "My Favorites" list! Today's was the best...
John Howard...The Old Chief...
The citizenry of our nation are becoming more and
more aware that our govern has for decades used the
poor young men and women to fight the Rich Mans
Wars...Used them up, as it were, and Tossed them
aside to be forgotten...except of course, when on
certain days the president all elected officials use
for Photo ops to gain votes.
But Americans have and are learning that Ideological
statements and Rhetoric by public officials on
special occasions are NOT the Same as Supporting our
troops and veterans! Americans are waking up
to the fact that our government Both Parties) has
made promises to Military Retirees and other
Veterans, but have said and shown by their
actions for many, many years that we are just not
worth the money it takes to keep their promises.
...Military Retirees and Veterans DOD tells us are Just
to Costly to maintain...so they have Broken Many
Promises....Took the funds away from Veterans and
used the funding for many Wasteful
Projects...PORK SPENDING!....27.3 Billion just this
last go around.
When our officials state Loudly and Often that they
love and support out troops and veterans...IT is
JUST LIP SERVICE>>>LIES! They
are Just to GREEDY and POWER HUNGRY to keep their
legal obligations to our troops and veterans and
their Lack of Funding for Keeping their promises only serve
to belie their claims.
Our President and most congressional members are
steady blowing smoke at the American
public....until it gets in their eyes and they can't
see what is going on! And Now these
elected officials can't understand why our young men
and women are not falling over each other to enlist
or reenlist into the military services! They
Just Don't Seem to GET IT!
Hollis Stanford
CWO US Army, Retired
Springfield, Missouri
This is
very aptly put and it is unfortunate that people
will read this and not connect. It seems that
congress is hell bent on ignoring veterans of
previous wars. All efforts and talk are about
the war in Iraq. But what about these men and
women a few years from now when they retire and
get older? To pit the current service personnel
against retirees is very unfortunate and wrong. It
seems that we have people in leadership positions
now that have no shame.
Joe Scott
USN/
Retired
For the
DEFENSE of our Country, a strong and well-armed
military
is
required..........To maintain the readiness, to
serve and protect both women and men are
required..........in our all volunteer military.
It would
be MOST difficult for me to become a volunteer at
this
time, due
to the manner many in both the Congress and the
Administration
are refusing to support the retired military and
their
eligible
dependents.
Eliminate
the "pork" and make good on the
"promises made" for we that have made
the military a career, and for those that desire
to
serve
twenty or more years.
SUBMITTED
BY A MASTER SERGEANT E-8, U.S. ARMY,
RETIRED
AND A FORMER FIRST SERGEANT E-8 that served
during
the period 9 August 1954 - 1 September 1974
The recent passing of Colonel Hackworth is a reminder that our time is
running out. I feel deeply that the tally of daily losses of the
Retirees/Veterans is welcome news to the Commander In Chief, those members
of the Congress and DR's.Chu and Weinkenwerder (?), as well as
others of their ilk who think we will all hurry up and die in order to
please their way of thinking erroneously; that we Retirees/Veterans and
surviving spouses are a burden to this country. Even if that were
so, the solution is simple. REPEAL the tax break for the wealthy;
let them pay for the Retirees/ Veterans, Spouses, promised health care.
After all, very few of them or theirs participated in the countries' wars!
Andy Spolski, MSgt. USAF Ret. (Medicare Eligible)
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