Veteran Affairs Karma

February 8, 2017

Understandably, over the ninety-two days since the unnatural selection, we have focused on all things Trump. It’s been hard to look elsewhere. Clumsy propaganda, playground gossips and comic book characters are hard to ignore. Trump’s like a huge car wreck in the middle of the road – we can’t help but gaze at the mess. The human compulsion to stare into the abyss is strong and, likely, about survival. It’s a “See what those assholes did? Don’t do that!” kind of a thing.

But while we’re watching the assholes, other shit is going down. (Unartful? Sorry.) For one, we’re conducting military activity on the other side of the planet. In another time, we would call the activity war. But, nowadays, congress doesn’t declare wars – it just funds them. A rose by another name, perhaps alt-wars.

The alt-wars, of course, are real and yield the one thing all wars always yield – veterans. And, after over a decade of continuous funding, it’s arguable exactly what the alt-wars have accomplished, other than exceed the expected veteran count. So, we have that.

Let’s see, we have an abundance of veterans, but still playing alt-war. Plus, the Donald wants to build up our, already largest on the planet, military. Sounds expensive. I wonder, when budget time comes, where he will spend our money. Actually, I don’t wonder. Government has a long history of favoring the next war over the last. But, they’re always thankful for our service. So, we have that.

Yesterday, while his, non-veteran, Veterans Affairs Chief David Shulkin was being blessed by congress, the Donald held a “listening’ session on veteran affairs. First, Trump kicked out the press (a typical Trump military move). Then he spent some quality time listening to Tiffany Smiley, the wife of an injured veteran, Isaac Perlmutter, chairman of Marvel Entertainment (??), and “health care experts”.

The veteran affairs listening session was conducted without input from organizations like American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I guess because they lack the insight the Marvel Entertainment guy brings to the table – after all, the rich alt-warrior point of view could be valuable (think of the franchising potential).

As bad karma stains the republic with each veteran failed, is it odd that what I desire most is to never again hear “thanks, for your service” from some fucking hypocrite?

In Peace and Justice,
osv