This shit has been been done to vets for generations. From the "Bonus Army Action" in 1932, to the dismal funding of the VA, really since its adaption
Veterans Affairs: Historical Budget Authority FY1940-2012. Of all people, John Stewart has been trying to bring this crap to light for a couple of years on his
Comedy show!
This is not a Democrat/Republican thing (administrations in both parties are at blame), although it is interesting to see that during Reagan's big military build-up and multiple small actions, the VA saw a dip in funding... In 2003 just before the war, Bush said (and I'm paraphrasing because I am too lazy to look up the actual quote) "Unlike Viet Nam, he was going to take care of our veterans." I call Bull Shit. Obama said he was going to correct things. I call Bull Shit.
Firing Shinseki—clearly he wasn't doing his job, but it is a scapegoat measure. "We fired this guy. Nothing to see here. Move along."
Criminal charges need to be brought on all the people who participated in this crap (not just the current rounds, but a full investigation from day one). The bonuses need to be seized (and property, etc and sold at auction) and the veterans who have been on these f*cking lists, need to be moved to the top of the list, post haste, and given whatever treatments they need, within the VA system or outside.
"Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it’s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing.
Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs.
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government." -
Thomas Jefferson to
James Madison,
Paris, January 30, 1787
Although I think that the VA has gone too far, for too long. A little bit isn't going to do it. The whole thing needs to be scrapped and restarted.
