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Veterans Deserve Support, Not Petty Politics
During his Memorial Day trip to visit troops in Afghanistan,
President Obama said, "When it comes to supporting you and your families,
the American people stand united. We support you. We are proud of you. We stand
in awe of your service."
The
president has strong personal credibility when he praises our veterans. He
personally made significant donations to Fisher House Foundation, a program
that provides support to wounded soldiers and their families. And his
administration has improved veteran services in a number of ways, especially in
the areas of veterans' employment and medical care.
But
some won't accept that the president joins all Americans in supporting our
veterans. Since President Obama first came to office, viral right-wing messages
during the president's first term claimed that he was trying to cut military salaries,
had threatened to withhold military pay, and refused to honor veterans on
Memorial Day. These claims are completely false, as five minutes of basic
research reveals.
Another
part of the Republican efforts to paint the president as anti-military is their
obsession with recasting the Benghazi attacks as a scandal. Rather than
honestly investigating the attacks to find ways to prevent future attacks,
Republicans have made dozens of false accusations against the president, none
of which have proven accurate.
As
their latest attempt to make Benghazi into a fake scandal once again falters,
Republicans have turned to problems in the Veterans Administration for their
next attack on the president. Their scapegoatting conveniently ignores the fact
that the VA problems date back to well before Obama took office and are rooted
in the two wars that were launched and mismanaged by the previous
administration.
Both
Democrats and Republicans need to work together to address the VA problems.
Democrats and the president need to make this issue a higher priority, not for
political reasons but because it's the right thing to do for the men and women
who put their lives on the line for our nation.
Republicans
have a much harder task that mostly involves abandoning their usual petty
political games. I doubt they'll welcome advice for a liberal like me, but
Republicans need to make several difficult changes if they hope to lend a hand
in addressing this issue.
First,
Republicans need to stop using the military and veterans as pawns in their
attacks on President Obama. They need to accept the fact that he isn't running
for a third term and pivot from their worn-out strategy of claiming that every
issue is somehow the president's fault. They need to stop trying to say that
President Obama and Democrats do not support the American military. That's a
battle that they've lost with all but a confused minority of hard-right
ideologues.
Second,
Republicans need to cooperate with Democrats in taking action to support
America's veterans. Republicans have blocked several bills for veterans,
including a veterans' jobs bill and an expansion of VA medical centers. These
weren't blocked for policy reasons. The current Republican agenda simply cannot
allow cooperation with the president and Democrats for fear that successful
policies might be viewed as a political victory for the left. Republicans must
accept the fact that good policy is a victory for all Americans.
Third,
Republicans need to stop using the VA problems as a knee-jerk excuse to claim
that government never does anything right. The tired conservative philosophy
that government is the enemy can't guide the Republican Party's efforts to
serve veterans. Like it or not, Republicans must understand that the military
is part of the government. Republicans need to stop making the false and absurd
claim that the VA problems are proof that Obamacare can't work either. No
government program can be fully effective when it's being sabotaged, and
Republicans have gleefully become the saboteurs of American government.
Fourth,
Republicans need to remember that wars and their consequences aren't free.
Lincoln paid for the Civil War with tax increases, and taxes paid for
subsequent wars. But the Bush administration pushed through the first wartime
tax cut in American history. Those who got the bulk of that tax cut, the
wealthy and corporations, also benefit the most from America's military
protection. The direct consequences of tax cuts are reductions in services, and
the VA has been hit especially hard by that basic reality.
Finally,
Republicans need to alter their war impulses. Many high-profile Republicans
have criticized the common-sense foreign policy that President Obama recently
outlined in a speech at West Point as "weak" or "appeasing."
Some have even condemned the president for his lack of military actions in
Syria, Iran, Russia, and elsewhere. Is the Republican memory so poor that they
have forgotten the lessons of recent wars? Those lessons include the fact that
war costly, certainly in terms of dollars, national image, and, most important,
human lives. Most Republicans seem to have forgotten that the long lines of
veterans who now need the services of an underfunded VA are the direct
consequence of wars they helped start in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Despite
the complexity of the VA issue, the bottom line is simple: Those who wish to
honor and support veterans must understand the consequences of war, work for
peace, and forget petty political games. The president and Democrats are on
that path. Can Republicans follow?
###
Originally published in my hometown newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
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