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EDITORIAL: OUR DEBT MUST BE HONORED -- DON'T PLAY

POLITICS WITH VETERANS' ISSUES -- The Independent Mail

says, "And don't allow those in power to forget our

debt to them. It is one we must honor."

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Story here... http://www.independentmail.com/
news/2007/nov/09/our-debt-must-be-honored-dont-play-politics-vetera/

Story below:

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-------------------------

Editorial

Our debt must be honored: Don't play politics with veterans issues

Veterans Day is Sunday, but because there are activities spread over a period of several days, it can help us understand that we must remember every day the sacrifices that have been made if we are to truly appreciate what it means to live in a free nation.

You would be surprised, possibly even angered, to realize that so many of those who have fought for this country are fighting their own battles for benefits, health care and independent living. They are from World War II and Korea and Vietnam. They are new veterans, coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with little more than a distortion of what they have endured enmeshed in the rhetoric of partisan politics.

Their problems have become fodder for campaign speeches and quotable quotes, from current members of Congress as well as those who aspire to the highest office in the land. We won’t presume to doubt their sincerity, but it is the emotional topics that make for good sound bites on the campaign trail.

Sometimes their ideas have merit. At an appearance in Iowa before a veterans organization, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson made several proposals to spend $15 billion to “revamp the U.S. veterans benefits system,” according to a report in the Des Moines Register.

That money would be well spent. According to the Senate report on the VA-Military Construction spending bill, there is a backlog of 400,000 veterans’ benefits claims, with each claimant waiting at least 177 days until his or her case is addressed.

A proposal that would increase veterans benefits awaits the president’s signature, but it raises benefits only 2.3 percent, an average of an extra $215 per veteran, per year. It seems like little help. Yet the total cost of around $590 million can aid us to put into perspective just how many veterans are quietly among us, some struggling for survival. Many of them have serious medical conditions that are a direct result of their service to our country.

The president has threatened to veto the $750 billion appropriations bill that includes $65 billion for veterans affairs, calling the inclusion a “cynical ploy” by Democrats. Bloomberg News reports that Democrats, by combining several bills, “are forcing Bush to accept a $10 billion increase in domestic spending for education, health care and job training.” The alternative, to veto the measure outright, would mean a veto of legislation that would benefit active military and veterans, not a politically expedient move.

But Mr. Bush isn’t above politicking on the subject for his own purposes, saying in a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation that “this is no time for Congress to hold back vital funding for our troops,” playing on the nation’s fears for even more losses in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are some in government who are truly trying to do something of benefit to our veterans. But we are saddened that in some cases, these men and women who have given so much to our nation have become to some of their fellow Americans nothing more than a photo op or used to make a point for a political party’s use.

With all that said, we propose that we forget all the politics for the moment. On Sunday, stop at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month and think of those who have fought over the last 200-plus years so that you can go to a job of your choice and worship or not as you please. Because of them, you can go to your public library and read at your discretion both the positive and the negative forces that exist in the world. You can speak out when you see a wrong without worry there will be a knock on your door in the night.

That’s what they fought for, the people we honor on Veterans Day, that we could all live free. Don’t forget them.

And don’t allow those in power to forget our debt to them. It is one we must honor.

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Larry Scott  --

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