The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Ronald Reagan's War

1.8.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 6)

Oh, the theater full (I'd estimate it at, at least 300+) and as we all made it out in silence, (not in the same type as say the silence after "The Passion") people pretty much were saying, "well that puts it all in perspective." Or "I don't like the war, but we can't pull troops out." Or my favorite, overheard in the ladies room, "I've got to get that movie and haul ass some people I know into see it. We did screw up Afghanistan once; we can't screw it up in either place now."

No, this was a "FEEL GOOD" since the real enemies were easily identified, and all the stuff about the fragile state of governance in Pakistan boiled down pretty concise -- strange that we saw it the same day Bhutto was assassinated.

The CIA "elitist" hacks were the "other group." They are still there in 2008, along with their State and Defense Departments cohorts, careerists that believe "status quo" is the ideal state.

My husband and I liked this movie, and for the record, completely agree with Congressman "Charlie" even if he was a Democrat.
-- S. Dent

OUR BOYS
Re: Ben Stein's Specifics:

My son served in Iraq for one year and is now back safe and sound. Ben Stein has sounded an important call for us all to remember that these brave soldiers must receive top rate medical care and other benefits.

God Bless Ben Stein.
-- J. Walker Sims

Good for you Ben, I can't wait for more. If these so called keepers of the national pride, treasure, etc., can promise college tuition to illegal aliens, then they should at least repay the families of those who served this country.
-- Tom Bullock
West Covina, California

I have always considered there something, to be polite, more than "twisted," in how the left disparages, ridicules and sneers at our nation's warriors, but have always felt a bit uncomfortable with some of the bureaucratic rules and regulations over veterans' benefits I have heard about when Republican administrations have had power. Ben Stein's moving recommendations should make their way to all the Republican candidates, not because they are good politics(their affect would probably be negligible), but because they are the minimally decent and humane actions a country can take to recognize the importance of our warriors and their families.
-- Paul Zisserson

Ben Stein is to be commended for his focus on Veterans. In truth, Veterans are political footballs, with endless lip service paid to their benefits, but no effective action ever taken. Veterans are among the least demanding of our citizens, and seem to expect the least for their service, which is the most demanding service provided to the nation by any group. What Ben proposes is just a start, as he says. I look forward to his forthcoming recommendations. Maybe some moderator can list Ben's points in a question to candidates in some up-coming debate. Democrats like to denigrate Veterans, particularly those of Vietnam and now Iraq, while Republicans seem to take Veteran service for granted. The worst abuses by politicians occur when they think there are political points to be scored on some Veteran issue. The policies are never appropriate or effective. Take the old Democrat initiative of defining drug addiction as a disability for Vietnam vets, hence those Vets with drug addiction were given a disability check. Drug rehab programs were funded, but the Vets who attended them never got off drugs, inasmuch as they would lose their disability checks if they became drug-free. So the Federal Government was paying Vets to remain addicted, while paying for ineffectual rehab programs. That's certainly one way to maintain a captive constituency for incumbents who claim to have Veteran interests at heart.

Most recently, Chet Edwards of Texas (17th District) crowed about the massive Veteran's bill he got through Congress, which Bush signed for political reasons, in the midst of the expose of poor conditions at Walter Reed and the extreme red tape to which wounded Iraq War Veterans are subjected, along with the semi-hysteria about post-traumatic brain injury common in Iraq War Vets, which unfortunately makes good care less available for Vets that need it, and continues to pour federal funds into a healthcare system that is highly dysfunctional. A better approach would be to simply have the Feds pay for private insurance policies for the Vets, and allow them to get the best care they can under private policies in their own communities, rather than keeping them corralled on the Veterans Health System reservation (where the poor care is only marginally better than that genocide-by-other-means system totally run by the Feds, the Indian Health Service), after the model of the GI Bill for education originated in the post-WWII era.

As an aside, regarding traumatic brain injury--one might cite the case of Earl Rudder, who led the assault on Point-du-hoc on D-Day. He was knocked unconscious by a shell that exploded close to him and killed one of his officers standing next to him. When he regained consciousness, he continued directing the assault. Of note is that he had been ordered by his commanding officer not to go ashore with the first wave, as he was too valuable to lose. Rudder defied the order, stating that without him, the assault would not succeed. He led from the front. He was one of the first up the ropes. He also took a bullet in the leg during the assault. The point: He almost certainly had traumatic brain injury from the concussion he suffered from the exploding shell. In those days, no such entity was considered, as it was long before CT and MRI scans. Nevertheless, he went on to become, Aggie jokes aside, the greatest president that Texas A & M has ever had, and built the University into what it is today. Our current military contains individuals of equal caliber. Even with traumatic brain injury, they are the best among us. Full support for them is long over-due. The abuse of Veterans by Congress of course goes back to the Revolutionary War and the Continental Congress, and is a long established American tradition, unfortunately.
-- Kent J. Lyon
College Station, Texas

Ben Stein says it all! Daily I listen to my democrat friends thanking God that the "stupid young people" go into the service and not their special little offspring.

The United States ought to have one and only one entitlement program: veterans who served in combat and their families should have everything they need. Not want, but need. That runs the gamut from job training to psychological care and housing.

I have a modest proposal for financing it as well. Let's do what John Edwards hints at. Let us "encourage" John and the Clintons, Streisand, Clooney and their ilk to give to the government their wealth over $25,000,000 and continue to do so each and every year for the benefit of those who give them license to spew their anti-American venom.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Education, Barack Obama, Islam, Hollywood, Law, Military, Iraq, Pakistan, NATO, Africa, Conservatism, Oil