Veterans Burned by Republicans, Return Fire

By SAM URETSKY

Veteran’s Day won’t be until Nov. 11th this year, but companies are already making plans for how they will reward service members and veterans for their service and sacrifice. The Outback Steakhouse chain is offering veterans, active-duty service members and spouses a free Bloomin’ Onion with any Coca-Cola beverage. Ample Hills Creamery, an ice cream chain, offers veterans and active-duty service members a free kids scoop. The ice cream is given on the honor system, no need to show your military ID. The list of free hamburgers and 10% discounts is maintained all year long on Military.com

Of course the State of California Department of Justice has its own list – groups that are specifically targeted for fraud. According to their list, the main target groups are immigrants, seniors, service members, veterans, and students.

This type of hypocrisy isn’t all that new. Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Tommy” was published in 1890, and describes the disrespect afforded to Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for common soldiers in the British army. The poem, five stanzas of eight lines each, ends:

… Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Chuck him out, the brute! “
But it’s “ Saviour of ‘is country “ when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

And then there are Republicans. The Washington Post reported “Senate Republicans ... blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.”

When the veterans’ health bill came back from the House with minor changes, after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) that will allow Democrats to move ahead on an unrelated economic, health-care and climate package without Republican votes, 25 Republicans switched their votes on the veterans’ health bill from “yea” to “nay,” effectively blocking passage.

The bill would change the way the Department of Veterans Affairs treats claims of illness from veterans who were exposed to toxic chemicals and fumes from burn pits. A burn pit is an area devoted to open-air combustion of trash. The use of burn pits was a common waste disposal practice at military sites outside the United States, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under current rules, any soldier who claimed injury from toxic gases was forced to prove that the illness was directly linked to exposure to the toxins. Under the bill, the Veterans Administration would be required to presume that certain illnesses are linked to exposure to hazardous waste incineration. President Biden had a strong emotional interest in passage of the bill since he believes that exposure contributed to the cancer that killed his elder son, Beau.

According to the Washington Post, Sen. John Tester (D-Mont), chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said, “It’s 100 years overdue. My dad would have told you it should have been done to take care of World War II vets exposed to radiation. And my granddad would have told you it should have been done for World War I vets who were exposed to mustard gas.”

As Americans, we’re justly proud of our military might. A modern nuclear aircraft carrier set taxpayers $12.8 billion. An F-15 Strike Eagle runs to $31.1 million each, but one of our two major political parties worries about the costs of medical care for soldiers injured during garbage disposal. The bill was called the “Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022.”

NPR published a list of the senators who changed their vote: Sens. John Barrasso, Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Mike Braun, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, Tom Cotton, Kevin Cramer, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst, Deb Fischer, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Jim Inhofe, Ron Johnson, John Kennedy, Roger Marshall, Mitch McConnell, Rob Portman, Ben Sasse, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Dan Sullivan and Todd Young.

One anonymous poet posted a limerick in the Vote Vets Facebook discussion group:

Serve your country and here’s what you get:
Suffer burn pits with no safety net
Cuz the Trumped GOP
Doesn’t care about me
Or my brothers in harms, says this vet

On Aug. 2, chastened by five days of condemnation from veterans and Stewart, 37 Republicans joined 49 Democrats to finally pass the bill.

Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in Louisville, Ky. Email sdu01@outlook.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2022

Populist.com