Has our Government Turned Its Back on our Veterans?

There are very defined duties that the Constitution outlines for the federal government. Perhaps the most important is that of the Common Defense of the Nation. Most Americans acknowledge that as a given but they would probably be quick to add that the federal government is also responsible for ensuring that you have money to live on and lots of food in the fridge.

This false presumption of what the government “owes” us obfuscates the true responsibilities of the government and has put the health and welfare of the Defenders in jeopardy.Our country has been defended for the last three decades by a volunteer force of men and women. Before that time, military conscription occurred from time to time to supplement to ranks of those that enlisted.

The one thing that everyone who has served in the military has in common is that they took an oath to protect this country and were prepared to sacrifice many things, including their life, to do such a thing. For the last twenty years those who have sacrificed for our country have been relegated to the status of a second class citizen.

All warfare, especially modern warfare, has changed the nature of physical and mental harm to soldiers. Better technology and equipment for our soldiers in recent years have lowered the mortality rate but increased the number of injured. We now have a flood of disabled veterans, people who have sacrificed for us, on disability but receiving disability benefits that are far less than those receiving disability in the of citizen population. 

That is shameful.

To make matters worse for our veterans they are stuck in a medical system, the Veterans Health Administration, which is horrendous in its ability to meet the serious physical and mental health needs of those that have served this nation. Veterans have no choice. The federal government will allow them to be treated only in clinics and hospitals that are run and regulated by the Veterans Health Administration if they wish to have their treatment paid for. 

The civilians that have never served but are on public assistance or Social Security disability, have far greater benefits and choices in higher quality health care than veterans. To add insult to injury (no pun intended). A recent Senate audit of disability claims in the last ten years finds that as many as 25% of those Americans receiving disability did not meet the legal threshold for receiving benefits!

The President, the Defense Department, and Congress better wake up, and fast, to the injustice that they have created by this inequality in their treatment of veterans vis-a-vis the rest of those fine Americans clamoring for government assistance. They may wake up one morning and realize that many of these great men and women in the military have decided it’s not worth fighting for a country that does not value them.