Saturday, October 04, 2008

Veterans of domestic wars

John McCain suggests that he would freeze spending due to the current financial crisis. Except for defense (duh), "critical" sectors (whatever that is) and veterans' care. Fine. I understand. I have eaten noodles out of a cup for lunch when in grad school; belt tightening is a natural corrective instinct. I know John is a veteran and that the U.S is in the middle of a few wars. But why single out veterans of foreign wars or for that matter military veterans alone for benefits? What about the support to veterans of the war against crime or the war against drugs or for that matter the war to leave no children behind. Sure, calling all domestic struggles "wars" is counterproductive. But heh...I didn't invent the terminology or the tactics used in any of the so called wars. I digress. The point being, why is it that the mechanism and the people to conduct foreign wars is more important than those used to conduct domestic ones? How do you expect the domestic wars to succeed if the schools and civil services are left to rot because the economy is "cratering"? Maybe it is time to form a VDW? Not to counter VFW, but to supplement it?

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