Getting DIC
If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?And if I am only for myself, then what am I?
And if not now, when?”
--Hillel, ~30 BCE
No soup for you!
--The Soup Nazi, Seinfeld
_____________
The second installment of "We Love the Troops" is the court "victory" hailed by the Disabled American Veterans requiring the Department of Defense to remunerate military spouses for wrongly withheld survivors benefits.
In Sharp, et al. vs. United States, the Department of Defense was required to refund an estimated $30 million in military retiree Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuities that were wrongly withheld from the widowed spouses' Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), which is administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Hard to imagine DoD actively screwing widows of Disabled Veterans and chalking it up to a "faulty interpretation of the law." That sounds so Yoo and Addington-like.
As with the previous post about Under Secretary Chu, disabled veterans (in this case, their surviving spouses) are being denied their propers. So if the DoD doesn't screw them when they are alive, they will do so when they are dead. To borrow from Bob Dylan, everybody must get screwed when passing through the government wringer.
Is DoD That desperate for funds that they must deny loyal personnel? People are more important than the acquisition of new weapons systems.
One would think the DoD would be proud and happy to pay these widows as required by law. Instead, the DoD will appeal the ruling. No yellow ribbons for these veterans.
"(U)ntil the court's ruling, to accept DIC, the Department of Defense required an equal cut in SBP, illegally saving the Pentagon millions of dollars in unpaid benefits. An estimated 59,000 military survivors were impacted by the SBP-DIC offset last year.
"The government has projected that the reinstated benefits will exceed $30
million."
"The Defense Department is expected to appeal the ruling."
Doesn't it seem odd that DoD expends $100's of billions to kill insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it can't pony up $30 million for rightful benefits for America's soldiers? The DAV thinks it is odd, because they have run two articles on disabled veterans getting the Pentagon shaft in their current November/December issue (despite the fact that this case was settled in Jul 08.)
Fraternal magazine usually wave the flag, but lately they are becoming more disgruntled by the shameless marginalization of their constituents.
Labels: dav magazine, DoD withholds survisors benefits, landmark court ruling victory for widoes of diables veterans, phony war on terror, PWOT, sharp et. al. vs. U.S.
posted by rangeragainstwar at 9:00 PM
7 Comments:
one of the things i still delight in to this day is to explain to the techno wonks that without infantry, preferably heavy infantry, the finest weapons systems in the world will amount to nothing but rubble and noise makers.
it's been like that since before the phalanx. the nations which relied on cavalry, or chariots always ended up bankrupt from the expense, or were brought to grief when forced to fight outside the open plains of their home turf. or, in the case of alexander and his macedonians, with a cohesive unit of heavy infantry that fought as a unit.
all the way back in the fifties the great cartoonist bill mauldin noticed it. one of his last "willie and joe" cartoons featured the two dog faces consoling a torch jockey in korea. the pilot was horrified reading a headline that screamed "new missle technology renders pilots obsolete"
willie (or joe, i forget which one was which, but that normal for grunts ain't it?) says to him
"don't worry mac. i been obsolete for a t'ousand years."
thing is, the other tradition of nearly all governments, is to raise their armies, fight their battles, take their profits and then leave the soldiers, sailors, and marines all behind.
it's a crying shame. one of the biggest problems that gaius marius, sulla, pompey, and ceasar had with the roman senate was trying to get the promised grants of land and treasure paid out to the legionaries who enriched the roman empire through their conquests.
the senate was always big on promising huge tracts of land in the provinces to the soldiers who would save the republic by defeating hannibal, the gauls, the belgians, the turks, the germans, the spanish, and on and on. the bills would come do and the senators would have many other things on their minds, like making themselves and their families richer.
at last, with caesar, they decided that republics are messy things, even a sham republic like rome had become (crassus, the richest man in rome had bought himself a filibuster proof majority in the senate) to unwieldy for something as clumsy as democracy to manage.
infantry is the only armed service that is capable of taking, holding, and building the ground needed for real victory.
MB,
Thank you for the excellent Mauldin cartoon reminder. I am horrified when I read the enormous chunks of money beyond budget set aside for new weapons systems, when it seems we have quite enough already, and tragic cuts in social benefit programs.
And it's not like the "enemy" has grown exponentially more savvy over the years. I read their latest innovation is shoving even more explosives in metal drums, to the tune of 200-500 lbs. They can now easily flip a multimillion dollar MRAP 15 feet into the air -- I'd call that some asymmetrical warfare
And Bush's immigration service is trying to deport the widow of a soldier killed in Iraq. But there are still people out there who think that Bush&Co is God's gift to the military. Amazing!!!! They say that I need to start listening to Fox and Rush to get the true story.
Mike,
People like Bush don't even live in the same universe that we tread. I read that Bush is worth 22Mil$ and he's going to try to replenish his account by speech tours. Yep thats really something!And we wonder why our leaders are out of touch -with their money why would they even care? jim
Hate to say this, but with the demise of conscription veterans are now just another special interest group.
I strongly feel that people banged up in the military should be taken care of. I don't differentiate between combat and training as it's a dangerous business. GI bill and loans - part of the benefit package.
I do have a problem with those who served and came out healthy and unscathed and who are, decades later, still hammering at the trough. There are people whose only success in life was getting through two years of draft service. As a society, how long are we obligated to them? After all, a person needs to get on with their life.
Big Bird,
Colin Powell said it best re Iraq.If you break it you buy it. jim
Big Bird,
The gov't by having categories of Disabled Vets causes a split in the ranks.Veterans groups must then compete for diminishing assets.It's simple-disabled means disabled-like you point out. jim
Post a Comment
<< Home