Playing politics with the troops

I finished college with the Vietnam-Era GI Bill after I retired. I only needed one year of the benefit because I’d gone to college at night and on weekends off-and-on for my twenty years. It was probably my most important benefit, next to my medical benefit. But if I’d come in the Army three years later, I wouldn’t have gotten the extensive education benefit I did, because the Democrat President and the Democrat Congress lessened the benefit to the Montgomery GI Bill. To save money. And to undermine the effectiveness of military recruiting for our new Volunteer Army. Two years later, Jimmy Carter, that same Democrat President, brought back draft registration because recruiting was failing miserably and threatened out national security.

Now, having failed at hindering recruiting, the Democrats want to undermine reenlistment by adding an incentive for troops to get out of the military after their first enlistment to get a richer education benefit. Of course, the media doesn’t explain that to the public. They frame it in terms that make Republicans appear opposed to the troops (CNN link);

The new GI Bill being debated in Congress would expand education benefits for veterans who served at least three years in the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The bill’s main sponsor, Sen. Jim Webb, is a Virginia Democrat and, like McCain, a Vietnam War veteran. The Senate passed Webb’s bill 75-22 last week. McCain was not in Washington for the vote.

Barack Obama used the same framing this weekend;

“I revere our soldiers and want to make sure they are being treated with honor and respect,” Obama said Saturday. “I think the GI Bill is one way for us to do that, and I hope that John McCain and George Bush decide they believe the same thing.”

This is cheap election year politics designed to undermine the war effort under the guise of supporting the troops – it’s a way to force the Republicans to enact a Stop-Loss program to prevent hemorrhaging combat-experienced junior NCOs and make them even less popular.

The New York Times, the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party, tried to lie about the Administration this weekend, but the Administration shot back (Washington Times link);

“This editorial could not be farther from the truth about the President’s record of leadership on this issue,” the White House said, adding that Mr. Bush asked Congress to address allowing service members to transfer their GI Bill benefits to their spouses and children, and to expand service members’ access to child care, among other benefits.

“The President specifically supports the GI Bill legislation expansion proposed by Senators [Lindsey] Graham, [Richard M.] Burr, and [John] McCain because it allows for the transferability of education benefits and calibrates an increase in education benefits to time in the service,” the White House said. “Though readers of the New York Times editorial page wouldn’t know it, President Bush looks forward to signing a GI bill that supports our troops and their families.”

The New York Times did not respond to a request for a response to the White House’s criticism.

Of course they didn’t respond – they have nothing to say. The New York Times hopes the controversy disappears. The troops know that when Democrats do something for them, there’s a political angle, a political benefit for the Democrats. Democrats don’t do things solely for the troops anymore.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Media, Politics