TIME FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND OUR GOVERNMENT TO HONOR THEIR DEBT
PRIORITY #1: PAY VETS WHAT THEY DESERVE AND GET OFF THEIR BACKS!
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Anyone who doesn’t know that a veterans advocate who goes to Washington waits in line behind thousands of insurance, defense and coal/oil lobbyists, generally just to be "blown off" is living on the wrong planet. Why do we act like beggars when we are there to collect a long overdue bill?
We don’t have the private jets, the secluded island retreats and the big paying jobs for family members that are required to be heard when talking to Congress or even Veterans Affairs. The last president who understood veterans was Lyndon Johnson. After the bashing Bush gave us for 8 years, being ignored by Obama is a relief, sort of.
The story is simple. Go to Washington and you are laughed at behind your back because Congress sees you as just another "funny hat" outfit with your hand out, more interested in being patted on the back than collecting an overdue bill. Why pay attention to quickly disappearing organizations tied to a dead political party that they were too stupid to notice was screwing them for decades? Is moving from ignorant to dumb to invisible progress?
Tens of thousands of veterans have died, waiting for medical care, disabilty compensation and the benefits they earned for their families. They didn’t die in the mud or blown apart at the side of the road like their friends. They died, ignored, abused, insulted and harassed at the hands of a nation that loves parades and war movies but has no memory when it comes time to paying bills.
One of the big mistakes was elevating the Veterans Administration to cabinet status. What was once a hospitial system with its own social security system is now a monolith that makes its own rules that has built an empire with its own version of the FBI and CIA, paid for with money earmarked for veterans benefits.
The DVA can spit in the face of any Congessional committee, ignore any veterans group and crush or even jail any veteran at will.
When the DVA operates in a state, they can use unlicensed medical personnel and violate any state regulation at will. When DVA employees commit crimes, the DVA keeps their names secret, performs their own investigations and prohibits local authorities from investigating though all authority rides with the states.
No other federal group threatens the sovereignty of a state like the DVA.
Who do you call when you are told you are banned from medical care for two years because a DVA employee doesn’t like your attitude? No, I am not talking about someone screaming and kicking but veterans who irrate employees paid to take care of them by asking questions like, "Why have I been sitting there for 6 hours?"
We get this every day.
I have a veteran coming over this morning who filed a PTSD claim a bit ago. He was just awarded 70% and got a $15,000 dollar back payment. The problem is, he can prove his claim was filed nearly 5 years ago. Do I tell him to go after the money he is owed or warn him that he may end up in prison if he demands what is owed?
Considering I have another disabled veteran on suicide watch while awaiting a hearing on criminal charges for "asking for what was owed" I am likely to say, take the money, accept being screwed and keep your mouth shut.
Does any of this sound like I live in Sicily and just had the Mafia make me an offer "I couldn’t refuse?"
Another friend, an retired Air Force Lt.Col. is owed $55,000 by the DVA and has been for a very long time. Without the money he will be living in his car. Every day he writes a letter, sometimes they are angry letters. I tell him, "Every time you do this, they move your file to the bottom of the stack."
I am asked to make suggestions for how to fix things. Let JD Power or ISO evaluate the VA as any other company and hold them to industry standards of performance and customer satisfacton. When I see the ISO Certification flag outside a VA facility, I will be alot happier.
The real answer to fixing things is fixing our national love affair with lying like dogs. When a veteran lies to the VA, they go to prison. When a veteran tells the truth to the VA and a VA employee lies, a veteran goes to prison.
I love that.
Then the VA lies to Congress, which they do as naturally as drawing breath, nobody cares. When Congress lies to veterans and the spineless clones who represent veterans in Washington all they hear is, "Thank you sir, can I have a bit more?"
Military service is not meant to be a free ride for life. For many, it does work out that way and I don’t begrudge them that. Service should be a career option and when it all works out well, success, recognition, advancement and good health, we have the best of all worlds.
When the people of the United States make horrific errors in political judgement and choose leaders who are corrupt, dishonest and immoral and thousands of our troops die and tens of thousands suffer, whining about paying the bill or asking an unfeeling and ‘out of control’ bureaucracy to "take care of the problem" and "no questions asked" then I have a problem.
Electing a new government and pointing derisive fingers at the people you supported 15 minutes ago doesn’t let you off the hook.
Vietnam taught Americans that veterans were poor, uneducated or delusional, to be kept out of top jobs, kept out of your country club and out of your social circle, unless they were service academy career people, really civilians pretending to be soldiers.
When Reagan told us the poor were "inferior" many learned to look away. When we learned that so many of the rich had gotten that way through corruption we were told to forgive them and jail only a few. This became the conservative motto.
Now veterans are both: Not only torturers and baby killers who don’t seem to be able to win wars anymore but also social inferiors who live under bridges and ask for handouts.
Lets stop lying and admit this is how America thinks.
Lets stop lying and admit that Veterans Affairs has been assigned the duty of keeping veterans quiet and out of the way as cheaply as possible until they all die.
Lets stop lying about phony patriotism and American values when our economic elite are more in bed with our enemies than our friends. Who do you think built the oil refineries in Iran? Was it the same company that sold poisoned water to our troops?
Maybe if we can stop lying and stop believing lies that make us feel less responsible, less guilty or less powerless we can start standing upright like actual humans.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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