VFW Lies for the GOP, Attempts to Kill Health Care

When I did this post earlier today, Officials Reassure Troops On TRICARE
I didn't think the answer would come so fast as to who is behind the lies being told. I'm heartsick. The VFW does great work for our veterans. The members of the VFW, at posts across the nation are dedicated. They are Republicans. They are Democrats. But above all, they are our American veterans of foreign wars. The political action committee however must be answering to an agenda that is not about veterans or taking care of them. Had this been the case, when the Bush Administration had two wars going on, producing more and more wounded, they would have been shouting as loudly as possible that the troops were not being taken care of.

Most of the members of the VFW were not told the truth about this. Most of the members of other service organizations had no clue the Gulf War had more doctors and nurses employed than were employed with Iraq and Afghanistan returning wounded at a higher rate than during any other war. We look at the fatalities, but while those numbers are lower than other wars, the casualties are higher. Battlefield medical advances have saved the lives of soldiers that would have died of their wounds before. This meant there would be a greater need for doctors and nurses working for the VA along with case workers, claims processors and mental health professionals. No one put the needs of the troops we sent into combat before paying contractors.

The lines grew and the claims piled up higher and higher as wounded, disabled veterans were forced to suffer while waiting. For the most part the PAC of the VFW was silent. When some in congress began to scream about the failings of the VA, others in congress were complaining there were two wars to pay for and they couldn't afford to increase funding for the VA. You'd think the VFW PAC would have been screaming about this, but the ones calling for increasing the VA budget were Democrats and the Republicans were saying there wasn't enough money to do it. It's doubtful the VFW PAC watched CSPAN.

While the members of the VFW expect to be told the truth their leadership has let them down. Having legitimate disagreements about what politicians do is part of what makes America work but when politics come before the truth, the veterans are the losers in the end. Once they discover their leadership has lied to them, they leave the VFW and other organizations. That's the greatest loss of all because these members are more interested in the troops and other veterans than anyone else in the country.

Posts have been taking the lead on helping combat veterans heal from PTSD and find the support they need. They have been doing great work but if they keep allowing some in their organization to betray the members with political games, the veterans they have been trying to help will lose.

I go to a lot of veterans functions and hear them talk about what they heard here and there or read in some kind of viral email. What they say is just repeating what they heard instead of knowing the facts. Their hearts are deeply committed to caring for the troops and other veterans but when they are mislead, when they are not told the truth, they feel betrayed by the people they trusted. All organizations need to be aware of what the truth is and what the spin is.

VFW Lies for the GOP, Attempts to Kill Health Care
Richard Allen Smith
Editor of the VoteVets.org blog VetVoice
Posted: March 21, 2010 04:41 PM
Among all of the Congressional elections in 2006, there were two that were particularly interesting. In Virginia, an incumbent Republican Senator who received a deferment from service in Vietnam was endorsed by the VFW's political action committee over a former Navy Secretary who was awarded the Navy Cross while serving as a Marine Officer in the conflict. Also, in a House race that same PAC endorsed a Republican candidate with no service record over an Iraq Veteran who left two legs on the battlefield.

Surprising? Shouldn't be. VFW PAC operates as little more than a subsidiary of the Republican Party, as does the leadership of their parent organization.

Today, that organization issued a statement toeing the GOP line on the health care vote. Of course, in order toe to that line, the VFW had to make things up:

"The president and the Democratic leadership are betraying America's veterans," said Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran from Sussex, Wis., who leads the 2.1 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.
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