Peace be with you.
Justice for Veterans
Veterans face growing anguish and frustration over a system positions itself as the only means available for obtaining the services and benefits promised to them as a condition of their military service. But at the same time they confront the reality that the same system views them as costs to be minimized. To those now running the military they are not individuals who are owed the benefits promised, they are the enemy.
What has happened is this.
The system that provides a military for the United States once operated on an organizational model that assumed that benefits promised must be provided. That same system, funded by tax-payer dollars dedicated to defense, ignored the costs because the benefits were viewed as expenses already spent. Those promises had to be redeemed so the books would balance.
That was how government worked. No one expected it to generate profits. It was viewed as a large service center, carrying out the functions, for instance defense, entrusted to it by Congress and the President acting on behalf of the people who elected them.
That was appropriate and honorable. It never worked very well but those involved were well intentioned.
Then a different philosophical point of view was introduced, making its argument from the viewpoint of 'profitability.' These people, few of them ever having served in the military, gave us outsourcing and privatizing. They viewed former military who needed benefits or active military as an expense to be lowered in any way possible. They were very inventive.
Stalling, forcing veterans to jump through hoops ensured that those most in need could be waited to death. Rewriting the rules, changing definitions, ignoring the causes of diseases caused by conditions brought on by things like Agent Orange allowed them to slide out from under the problems caused by the service given at great cost by our military.
Waves of shock and despair began to impact veterans seeking promised benefits desperately needed.
This new management team also looked at and used the oath taken by every man and woman who signs on to serve their country. This team, think of them as Team Profit, decided that the oath allowed them complete control. They could do anything, ignore any promise, because the veteran had to obey; veterans and military active service have no recourse, they thought
This is a form of racketeering, installed intentionally to use the loyalty and honor of individual military to silence them and deny them the benefits they were promised.
It was a moral watershed for America that most of us did not see. Team Greed probably got bonuses.
But their actions were and are criminal.
Those responsible are acting under color of law and authority to defraud. Those benefiting are numerous. The corporations who clamored for contracts; the lobbyists who sold the changes to Congress; the political parties who accepted bribes (donations) from the eager corporations. Those in Congress, the White House, and those they hired or appointed also share blame.
Because of this we need to take action.
