So this is How We Treat Heroes, Huh?

In today's political climate it would be an act of political suicide to suggest that the men and women of our armed forces are anything other than heroes. Whether or not they are or not is irrelevant, the political climate says they are so the politicians tow the line. (There is a rant in there somewhere.) Right or wrong, this is the world in which we live at the moment.

My question is this: If they are such heroes, why does the very government that proclaims to hold them in such high esteem do it's best to screw them over.

Case in point: A friend of mine is serving his country in the service and has been for some time now. He has been overseas during his service and has been put in harms way as a result of it. So far so good, that's what you have to expect when you sign up. However, at some point he suffered a massive injury and as a result he became permanently disabled and in constant massive pain ever since. Also ever since, the service has been doing it's best to get rid of him as well as keep from doing the very things that it had promised him at the moment he signed the enlistment papers. He has had many surgeries and seen many doctors in an effort to repair some of the damage done to him, through no fault of his own, and the service has fought him every step of the way up to and including having doctors lie to him. Is this how we treat heroes?

If this was just an isolated case I could just chalk it up to bad luck and running into a pack of assholes. Unfortunately, this has been the case of everyone that I have met who has been injured in the line of duty. Now maybe that means that I am bad luck but my raging ego refuses to consider that possibility. So what does that leave?

When you enlist in the armed forces you make an oath but you are not the only one. The service also makes an oath to you. If you break your oath, it is a crime. If the service breaks it's, it is business as usual.

I am not against the armed forces. I believe in the importance and even nobility of the idea of all forms of public service. What I am against is the bloated self-important bureaucracy that is more worried about the financial bottom line than the wellbeing of the people that have pledged their very lives to it's stated cause. They espouse noble ideals then cast them aside when they become inconvenient.

That, also, seems to be the way of the world in which we live.



Rant Over... for now