All the flag-waving and cheering "in support of our troops" has a hollow ring to it. Our nation has a history of abandoning our veterans after they've returned home from foreign wars. It's like: "Thanks a lot; you've served your purpose; you helped us conduct our hegemony; now get lost."
Any vet applying for benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs is met by a barrage of unending paperwork, rejections and dead ends in typical military-style harassment.
For years our government denied any claims of health problems associated with exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange by Vietnam veterans. It was a similar story with Gulf War Syndrome. As veterans we are still being told by the VA: "You can't prove that your health problems are service-connected; you don't deserve any health care; so go take a hike."
If people are truly serious about supporting our troops, instead of the phony flag-waving and mindless cheerleading, they should be contacting our decision-makers in Washington, insisting they provide health care for the soldiers who were forced to do the dirty work for the armchair generals and couch potatoes who think war is like some sort of sports game or Hollywood movie.
Better yet, vote out of office the treasonous politicians who keep involving us in foreign wars, which hasn't solved any of the world's problems, but only made things worse.
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Our government continues to squander billions of our tax dollars overseas, while failing to take care of our own people here at home.
Kenneth Emmel
Wahpeton, N.D.
