Whitewash

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it
--Douglas MacArthur

I read the Wall Street Journal's editorial coverage of opening ceremonies for the new, privately-funded rehabilitation facility in San Antonio dubbed Center for the Intrepid with a heavy heart ("Help for the Intrepid"):

"The center is a 65,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art physical rehabilitation facility...built entirely with private funds. More than 600,000 Americans contributed $50 million to construct the Center for the Intrepid. Thousands more donated the $8.3 million needed to build the new Fisher Houses for Brooke Army Medical Center, home to the sole Army Burn Center and one of two Army Amputee Care Centers. BAMC has treated more than 2,600 service members injured in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. has cared for more casualties."

John McCain said, "What you have done for us, we can never do for you." What garbage. Although I appreciate the private funding for this facility, it is a step in the wrong direction.

Our soldiers fought for this country and this country should care for them in a realistic medical manner. Soldiers are not beggars, and should not and need not be the recipients of privately-funded care. This is a responsibility of the federal government.

In fact, the state leadership should also step up to the plate, since the National Guard is also being bludgeoned and bloodied in this phony war.

This country owes veterans care and benefits that are not contingent upon politically-based budgetary considerations (see previous post on Congressman Boyd's comments.)

":Democratic strategist Paul Begala told (author Joanathan Gurwitz's) colleague Scott Huddleston, "It is an obscenity that a government that can find billions in no-bid contracts for Halliburton and trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy cannot find a few million dollars to bind up the wounds of its heroes."

America must honor all its veterans, both service-connected disabled and non-service connected, with realistic service and benefits. This is not a free ride; these benefits were paid for by their selfless service. American lawmakers must put our money where our mouths are. This is something my WW II veteran father used to say.