The recent article published by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board that argues that America must cut veteran-earned disability benefits for combat and training-related conditions like tinnitus and sleep apnea, is a profound moral failure. Our nation’s budget must not be balanced by the Americans who incurred the physical and psychological costs of our nation’s civilian foreign policies.
According to the WSJ, the U.S. House nixed a bill that would help veterans while reducing dubious disability claims that have soared. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced questions and protests July 21 over the endless U.S. war with Iran, which he estimated has cost $37.5 billion so far. Meanwhile, Republicans prepare a $95 billion GOP budget package to fund the military, farm aid and elections — but not veterans.
Less than 2% of our nation’s population serves in the military. This means 98% of Americans, including the wealthiest tech billionaires and politicians who like to cosplay war, are completely spared the brutality of seeing their privileged children return with permanent, debilitating conditions such as chronic sleep apnea and profound hearing loss, ailments that are virtually nonexistent among their civilian peers.
When tech billionaires lobby for poorly conceived and nationalist foreign policies, these civilian billionaires rely on a volunteer military drawn overwhelmingly from working-class America. It is a vile hypocrisy for the wealthy elite in our nation to send poor American kids to fight their wars, reap the economic and geopolitical benefits, and then complain about the bill when those same kids return home injured.
Modern warfare ravages the human body in ways that are not visible to the billionaire eye. Tinnitus is not a “loophole”; it is a permanent, maddening ringing in the ears caused by proximity to blasts, jet engines, and constant convoys of large trucks and tanks. Sleep apnea is tied to the chronic stress, toxic exposures, and PTSD of combat operations – these are medical findings.
The House proposal to fund veteran care by reducing future injury compensation is a diabolical shell game. If Congress needs to “fix” our budget, they should look toward corporate tax loopholes, criminal insider traders, or defense contractors making billions of dollars – while we all get poorer.
Caring for veterans is a sacred agreement between civilian leaders and the soldiers they send to war. When this sacred pact is not upheld, veterans start to wonder, with deep and increasing rage, what the hell they even served for.
Less than 2% of our nation’s population serves in the military. This means 98% of Americans, including the wealthiest tech billionaires and politicians who like to cosplay war, are completely spared the brutality of seeing their privileged children return with permanent, debilitating conditions such as chronic sleep apnea and profound hearing loss, ailments that are virtually nonexistent among their civilian peers.
When tech billionaires lobby for poorly conceived and nationalist foreign policies, these civilian billionaires rely on a volunteer military drawn overwhelmingly from working-class America. It is a vile hypocrisy for the wealthy elite in our nation to send poor American kids to fight their wars, reap the economic and geopolitical benefits, and then complain about the bill when those same kids return home injured.
Modern warfare ravages the human body in ways that are not visible to the billionaire eye. Tinnitus is not a “loophole”; it is a permanent, maddening ringing in the ears caused by proximity to blasts, jet engines, and constant convoys of large trucks and tanks. Sleep apnea is tied to the chronic stress, toxic exposures, and PTSD of combat operations – these are medical findings.
The House proposal to fund veteran care by reducing future injury compensation is a diabolical shell game. If Congress needs to “fix” our budget, they should look toward corporate tax loopholes, criminal insider traders, or defense contractors making billions of dollars – while we all get poorer.
Caring for veterans is a sacred agreement between civilian leaders and the soldiers they send to war. When this sacred pact is not upheld, veterans start to wonder, with deep and increasing rage, what the hell they even served for.
Learn more about VetsFWD at www.vetsforward.us.
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No civilized nation can send men and women off to strange lands to kill strangers and expect them to return unharmed and normal. Every GI who serves in a combat zone should be entitled to lifetime health care.