Happy Veterans Day to All Who Have Served And Are Now Serving
Eleven
eleven has come round again, when we remember what used to
optimistically be referred to as the last great 'War to end all Wars.
As our nation celebrates the
contributions and sacrifices of America's Veterans today, today is more than just a day to give Veterans a parade and a thank
you. Veterans Day is about honoring those who have fought in service to
this nation. The best way to honor our sacrifice is to take care of their
needs and answer the questions they have. To date, all we have gotten from
most people in Washington
is a bunch of lip service and requests to be window dressing for advantageous
politicians.
We hope
that every politician – from the President on down – will finally tell us:
Why is
there no mandatory baseline funding of the Department of Veterans Affairs? You say you support the
Troops, but year after year, the VA is woefully underfunded because funding is
at the discretion of Congress and the President. The result has been the
agency charged with Veteran care has been continually underfunded by as much as
13-14%, according to the agency’s own Undersecretary. The agency does not
have enough centers and personnel to properly screen for and treat Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder or provide adequate and timely health care.
Some Iraq
and Afghanistan Veterans are already homeless. There is no system set up
to help them.
Why has
no one been fired for underestimating the VA’s funding need by billions? A wave of new Veterans is
coming and the VA is not ready. Earlier this year, Secretary Jim
Nicholson crawled to Congress with his tail between his legs to admit the
agency miscalculated its need by almost $3 billion for the next two
years. Who has been held accountable for this foul up? Has the
agency kept a closer eye on the developing need to make sure they aren’t caught
unprepared, as our Troops return from war?
Why did
we become Veterans in the first place? On behalf of the Veterans of Iraq, I ask that the
question is finally answered: Were we misled into war? We deserve
to know.
Does
anyone have a real plan for Iraq? Many of us who served in Iraq
feel there was never a well thought out plan for after the invasion. We
never felt there was a clear mission with attainable goals. We are told
by many of our friends still over there that there is still no clear mission.
Is there an exit strategy that is responsible and practical? Neither
Democrats nor Republicans have offered anything on that front.
Today, Sen. Dick Durbin demanded the truth on behalf of the American people.
We want to know how and why the Bush administration
distorted intelligence to lead us into war in Iraq. We want to know who
else was involved in Lewis Libby’s efforts to conceal the White House’s
deceptions. And we want to know why the Republicans who control
Congress have, until just last week, repeatedly accepted the deception
coming from the White House and refused to ask the hard questions about
the misuse of pre-war intelligence.
Most of all we want to know when George Bush will stop misleading
Congress and the American people, acknowledge the mistakes we’ve made
in Iraq, and develop a strategy to achieve military, political and
economic success to bring our troops home.
As our nation celebrates the
contributions and sacrifices of America's Veterans today, today
