John Cory begins: "Dear Mr. Milbank, I read your column today and was saddened by your defense of Alan Simpson and your belief that Vets and veteran's benefits are 'special interest groups ... the real sucklings at the public teat ...' I must have missed that in my Vietnam combat brochure."
Army veteran Chuck Luther shows a tatoo on his forearm at his home near Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, 08/13/10. (photo: LM Otero/AP)
Dear Mr. Milbank
05 September 10
Reader Supported News | Perspective
read your column today and was saddened by your defense of Alan Simpson and your belief that Vets and veteran's benefits are "special interest groups ... the real sucklings at the public teat ..." I must have missed that in my Vietnam combat brochure.
I don't know much about you, Mr. Milbank. I'm not a big reader of The Washington Post,but I did see a couple of YouTube videos that you and another fellow made in your smoking jackets and wingback chairs, ala Masterpiece Theatre. It wasn't very funny, and neither is your article on behalf of the miserly skinflint.
You obviously agree with Simpson's declaration, "The irony that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess."
Translation: we don't make war like we used to - too many survivors nowadays.
Of course, if you want to avoid the debt of paying veterans for their service to the country, maybe you all should stop making so many of them by waging endless dishonest wars. Just a thought.
I noticed you pointed out that Simpson was an Army veteran. Yes, he was. Maybe you read this People Magazine profile from 1991? He tells how he had problems. "They made me assistant adjutant of a regiment and I didn't even know what I was doing ..." Plagued by anxiety, high blood pressure and suffering a mild depression, Simpson was transferred to the infantry where he recovered by "being out in the woods and shooting again." Of course that was 1955 Germany and no one was shooting back. And what lessons did Alan Simpson learn? Here are his words, "I couldn't administer my way out of a paper bag. I could never be a governor or a President."
And this is the guy you think is "spot on"? The guy you describe as, "The folksy and salty Simpson ... has long been one of my favorites in politics." Seriously? Wow.
Let me introduce you to a couple of other special interest "sucklings," Mr. Milbank.
My old high school chum, Jim West was as gentle a soul, as you could ever know. But the Big Green changed him in ways that shocked even me when I first saw him on the Psych Ward at the VA Hospital where I worked after the war. On good days, Jim's eyes danced with life and dreams and that warm easy smile. Other days his eyes were vacant as he sat still as stone, lost on a trail he humped out of nowhere toward somewhere but it never led anywhere.
I took Jim to the VA disability office to fight for his PTSD claim. But in those early days, PTSD was just a bunch of hippie Vietnam Vet crap to scam the government cause hippie vets were a bunch of babies who didn't want to work for a living. I remember the man who looked us square in the eye and said, "That's the trouble with you vets today, you want something for nothing. Get over it. Get a job. Move on."
That VA "counselor" was not there the day we found Jim in his freezing cold apartment. Windows open to the winter. Jim crumpled on the floor. Alone. Suicide. A simple note: "Today, I'm not crazy anymore."
When I suffered my first attack of peripheral neuropathy, the VA doctors spent two weeks drawing lines on my body - feeling side, numb side - and puzzling over cause. When I ended up bleeding from orifices you're not supposed to bleed from the VA doctors once again were puzzled. No answers. Kind of crazy.
And then I learned about Paul Reutershan, who spent the last year of his life advocating for veterans, spreading the word about Agent Orange, battling for his band of brothers against Dow Chemical and the VA for care and disability benefits. He was 28 years old when he died in 1978. In his appearance on the Today Show earlier that year, Paul uttered those chilling words, "I died in Vietnam, but I didn't even know it."
When I sought help from the VA I was set aside and told it was no big deal. I got sprayed with a harmless chemical. Nothing to worry about. Call again if your symptoms reappear. Bye-bye. Don't ask for money.
Years of Dow Chemical hiding data, fighting to keep its studies secret, and the federal government covering up the revelation that it had knowingly sprayed troops with a carcinogenic agent that could and would have long-term health issues for Vietnam Vets took years and decades to gain recognition and validation. Agent Orange is deadly and debilitating with a vast array of symptoms and diseases. My friends and brothers are dying long, lingering, painful deaths from service to their country - but perhaps it is not their country any longer.
If Alan Simpson and you, Mr. Milbank, think we Vietnam Vets are adding to the deficit of America then maybe America suffers a more serious deficit than money.
I made a new friend recently, an Iraq Veteran who has been battling the VA for disability benefits. She lost an eye and suffers TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) but she tells me the VA ratings system has the same attitude of the VA from my day. Veterans are trying to get something for nothing.
Support The Troops! - Until they come home. Then sweep them under the rug because as we all know - old soldiers never die, they just cost a lot.
Vietnam Vets battled, begged, and raised hell for recognition and treatment of PTSD and the lethal legacy of Agent Orange. We fought to be treated as equals to those WWII vets who used the VA and often received better care and higher preference than we did. We fought for our country only to spend forty years fighting for our rights and benefits at home. Be all you can be - but do it for free.
The new generation of constant unremitting war, repeated deployment and multiple tours of war and more war are going to come home to a country that was willing to enrich the defense industry, the chemical companies, write blank checks for bombs and drones and huge embassies and bases and no-bid contracts for corporations but cannot spare a dime for a veteran.
The coming wave of PTSD and TBI disabilities are the signature of Iraq and Afghanistan. The hundred-year war doesn't stop in your head just because the bullets stop flying. The REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Riots become habit. Close your eyes and watch your worst nightmares become midnight entertainment. Watch family become strangers. Watch friends shrivel and fade away from chemicals or depleted uranium or a dozen other unknown secrets of war.
Mr. Milbank, I hope you do something journalistic and investigate before you next endorse a miserly, arrogant man who sees himself as above "the lesser people" and more patriotic than "suckling" veterans. Or not.
Slogans are good. Snarky old guys are fun. I get it.
Not to worry, my friend Jim West never suckled on the teat of government. Neither did Paul Reutershan. They had the decency to pass over without becoming a financial burden on "good" government.
Patriotism on the cheap is cost effective.
Support The Troops - buy a Welcome Home greeting card.
Paul Reutershan died for the sins of war but he never forgot his brothers.
He never left a man behind.
How about you, Mr. Milbank?
-Peace-
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Comments
business whatever on that committee. Do you recall his nasty
interrogation of Anita Hill? Better than Torquemada. Just look
at this man's features and tell me honestly if he isn't straight
out of a Dickens' novel
Can life get any better?
I see he is still the same person. Obama should be ashamed of appointing him to any post involving people's welfare.
The public is too detached from the consequences of our behaviors abroad and even at home. We are detached from the reality of our nations behaviors under the rule of the powerful because we have no real say in it. Our freedoms, our standards of living, all of our here to fore virtues as a society all seem to be dying or even dead...and we persistently don't seem to know it...yet. Any responsibility for our nations victims which include our veterans is lost on those in power.
It isn't the terrorists without that cause me to fear, it is the rot within, not just the death of conscience but the sacrosanct rot on top. Is it too late to revolt?
we need to scream from the heaven's about depleted uranium now.
these vets are coming "home" in real trouble...many poisoned by Depleted Uranium. the Pentagon is keeping that dirty secret out of the mainstream media. What a country huh?
always wanted to ask you...did you ever read the book "and a hard rain fell" by John Ketwig?
Will we ever learn that war is seldom worth the cost...?
Answer: FUBARs
If I understand correctly we have a priorities issue.
Defense Sec'y Gates is asking for LESS funding for some defense projects, i.e. salaries, machinery, etc. that are no longer necessary and amount to nothing more than pork for the congresspeople in whose districts the defense contractors reside. Every dollar we spend on outdated, unnecessary projects is a dollar we don't have available to help the people who have sacrificed their well-being for us, U.S.
The funding of unnecessary pork projects in Congressional districts is disgusting enough, but it pales in comparison to the outrage of diverting funds from caring for our veterans.
I hope you will somehow be able to reach the next generation before they are recruited to sacrifice their futures for the sake of Big Lies and Big Greed,Inc.
Yes men for a price. Vote sellers. Tea Party demonstrators. More of the greedy, intellectually dishonest hoard selling themselves to anyone meeting their price.
You are all right, Simpson should be fired from the commission. He is a disgrace and a disgusting old man. Many have been fired from various positions for less offensive remarks.
In regard the to the V A. I had hoped General Shinsecki would be able to help the Vets and improve the V A system.?
It may be a mission impossible. Sad, sad.
I can accept all the above as I'm a Veteran myself, but seriously, it's not news how your Govt treats Veterans, what I don't understand is the idotic tendency of young folks signing on to become another victim ?
No matter how badly vets are treated, ex-cons are treated worse.
Ask Sarah Palin's son what his choices were after getting caught vandalizing the Wasilla school buses. Notice he's never been interviewed and kept out of the lime light. What's up with Sarah's son, the vet,eh?
As for young kids joining the military, its because they are unable to find work, and the military offers training that they can use later in life. My brother and my son got very good jobs because of the training they received in the military. Free college is also a big draw. Let's be clear: this society is set up to deliberately push poor kids into the military. "Rich man's war, poor man's fight."
Has the VA up till now been consulting with Fulk and company? No way. Much easier to say: "What's past is past. Take a couple aspirins."
And I wrote the White House asking them to remove Simpson. Like any of them listen to us. :-(
My uncle a wounded WWII war vet, said it best to me. ALL WARS are bad, they are ALL scams. The rich make money and the poor die.
Interestingly [re]publican iceholes like Simpson and Democratic corporatists want to blame the elites screw-ups on the poor. This is not an accident, it keeps happening, it is the plan.
God Bless you John.
"Mr. Simpson has demonstrated that he has neither the temperament nor the necessary human compassion to be involved in a commission overseeing such an important service program."
Couple that with a GOOD candidate to replace him, and he could be doing something.
My heart goes out to the veterans whose stories I read here. This is not an indictment of you. It's a cry to prevent more children, because that's what you were when you made the decision to join up, from suffering your fate.
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