They say that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes.
I think of that as veterans are fighting to be taken care of for the sicknesses they’re suffering from exposure to toxic burn pits..
..just as earlier veterans had to fight to be taken care of for the sicknesses they suffered from exposure to depleted uranium..
..just as veterans of my generation had to fight to be taken care of for the sicknesses they suffered from exposure to Agent Orange..
..just as veterans of my parents’ generation had to fight to be taken care of for the sicknesses they suffered from exposure to nuclear bomb tests.
History is telling us that “Sign up and you’ll be taken care of” is an empty promise.
As Jon Stewart put it: Republicans don’t want to support veterans. They want to keep feeding the war machine.
The war machine is the multibillion dollar industry which feeds off of fear, federal tax dollars and Congressional corruption to sustain itself.
Veterans who have given their youth, their health and frequently their lives have little more to give to a corrupt Congress people, other than to be free props for sentimental “patriotic” campaign moments. Otherwise, the men and women in power who feed the war machine would prefer that veterans stay out of sight…disposable and somehow grateful for crumbs of attention and care. Is this a moment that veterans turn against the war machine and those who profit from it…and expose the cynical hypocrisy? “Thank you for your service” means nothing without substance behind it.