SOLDIERS BEWARE
Posted: January 28, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 David H. Hackworth
hackworth.com
In his State of the Union address, President Bush is expected to
give yet another strong warning to Iraq, while Axis of Evil
member North Korea continued threatening the objects of its
dissatisfaction as well. But on Feb. 12, an army of scarred and
ornery warriors will once again be walking the walk instead of
talking the talk, invading this nation's capital for real. And they
won't be Saddam's thugs or Kim's crazies – but true-grit
American heroes protesting the raw deal they've gotten from
dishonest politicians with short and shifty memories.
Barely a month before Bush's Missiles of March will more than
likely thump Iraq, thousands of World War II and Korean War
vets – all more than 70 years of age – will travel by train, bus,
plane, car, horseback, wheelchair and shoe leather to stand tall
together in front of the Supreme Court while they tell the
nation how the capital gang has hung them out to die on
promised lifetime health benefits for retired vets.
Their skipper – leading the class-action lawsuit – is Medal of
Honor recipient turned Florida lawyer Col. George Day, now
flying with a briefcase full of hard facts instead of the jet fighter
he piloted over Vietnam. Although the feisty three-war vet has
been battling this case for years, only now, after much
shameful government double talk, backpedaling and welshing,
is the case finally going before the highest court of our land.
Their story is as old as war and peace: how promises were
conveniently forgotten or baldly broken; how the Justice
Department has cynically used stonewalling and other slippery
delaying tactics, knowing full well that these senior citizens are
dying daily – which statistics show will save the feds big bucks
if and when the liars lose.
Bush clearly stated during his campaign for the presidency and
again after his boots hit the Oval Office that the nation must
keep faith with our vets and that vows made by our
government must be honored. But despite all the polished
political words, the promised medical support is still AWOL.
Navy vet Jerry Bell says: "This is our last chance to show how
we feel about being betrayed. When warriors are treated in
such a shameful manner, both the fabric of our country and its
military institution are in question."
Billboards around Washington are delivering that same
message with the hard thud of a 155 mm barrage:
"WWII/KOREA RETIREES FIGHT TO RECOVER STOLEN
MEDICAL CARE. 'COURT SAYS THEFT IS OK.' WHO IS
RIGHT, WARRIORS OR GOVT?"
Despite George Washington's wise warning, "The willingness
with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no
matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they
perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and
appreciated by their nation," American vets from our Civil War
to Desert Storm have been consistently treated like orphans.
Most recently, more than 161,000 Desert Storm vets have been
disabled, and almost 10,000 have died from Gulf War Illness.
During the near-decade they spent pleading for help, in pain
and dying, their ingrate government kept insisting that their
wounds – now proven to be caused by U.S.-destroyed Iraqi
chemical munitions and an assortment of other killer cocktails
such as oil-fire fumes, untested inoculations and local bugs that
they weren't protected against – were "all in their heads."
Now Bush and his war hawks – who almost to a man dodged
service in the Vietnam War, just like the majority of our
members of Congress – are again sending warriors to employ
the military solution in the Gulf at even greater risk, since the
Pentagon has just admitted the bio/chem suits our attacking
troops will wear are good only for bunker duty. There's
already a buzz of putting plans in place for bulldozers to
mass-bury our sons and daughters who fall from germs. Not
that this scenario would trouble the dedicated folks in Veterans
Affairs. You know, no messy claims or protesters to worry
about down the track.
Consider the pattern of betrayal: We rebuild Afghanistan but
don't take care of our heroes, or spend the bucks on the right
bio/chem suits to protect our troops.
It seems that "Lest We Forget" is no longer the American way.
Now it's "Use 'em, abuse 'em and lose 'em." |
