BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Not everyone has been a fan of Representative John Murtha (D-Pa.), but maybe it is past time for us to sit up and take notice.  In a recent speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Murtha explained again that Congress has given the Bush administration a no-limit credit card to charge up the costs of the present wars.

The Washington Post reported Murtha as saying:

“You can’t put a trillion-dollar war on a credit card and leave the bills for our children to pay,” he said. “The same Americans suffering in Iraq today will be paying for this borrowed war for the rest of their lives.”

In other words, he suggested, the same troops who are fighting now will end up paying for the cost of the war.

Senator Murtha has been portrayed as a soft-hearted, soft-minded liberal, his patriotism questioned occasionally by the media.  But, perhaps, John Murtha has a better understanding of what is going on in the world of war than others.  While John McCain is often depicted as the only living war hero on earth, particularly in his race to the White House, let us not forget John Murtha’s service.  Murtha earned the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts for his service in Viet Nam. 

John Murtha realizes and has expressed his views that not only is the war costing Americans $343 Million a day, it is accruing interest that will take generations to pay off… not just in terms of dollars.

Murtha’s advocacy for the men and women and their families who are serving is unquestionable.

Murtha is a strong advocate of the 24-year-old Defense Department Family Advocacy Program, which pays for counseling for service members dealing with several issues, from their children’s truancy to emotional or sexual abuse of spouses. He said that troops at U.S. military bases have told him about their families’ need for counseling.

As a result, Murtha last year added $147 million to the fiscal 2008 appropriations bill for the Family Advocacy Program, increasing the amount from the administration’s request of $253 million. In President Bush’s proposed fiscal 2009 budget, sent to Congress last week, funding for the program was cut to $244 million.

This is the “interest” that is accruing from our war debt.  When our war veterans come home, they need health care… and that includes mental health care.  Their families need counseling.  For those of us who lived through the Viet Nam era, and I know young people get tired of hearing about an “old war”, there are lessons we learned that can shed light on what is to come.  Let us not forget that 25% of the homeless in America is made up of war veterans.

Don’t be fooled by what you see on television.  The generals who are directing the war “on the ground” for the most part have never been in the battles that our soldiers are fighting.  They did their “fighting” on a make believe field with G.I. Joe and Ken carrying out their “war plans.”  These generals sit in safety and make decisions that affect the real men and women with guns.  For example, Tommy Franks led us into Iraq from Florida… Florida! 

Any man or woman who has fought in and survived a war comes home a different person.  To expect anything less is ridiculous.  A year in a war zone, always being on guard for your life and the lives of your fellow humans, has to change a person. 

I watch the television or read in the news that celebrities, one after another, become addicted to drugs or alcohol, fold under the pressure of their demanding schedules, check in and out of rehab facilities as if they are going to summer camp.  And, we as American viewers applaud when one of them recognizes the need for help and seeks it.  But, at the same time, it is expected that a service person return home after a year of real stress and hell and reintegrate into society without any assistance. 

Representative Murtha has been on the ground, has seen the ravages of war first hand.  He understands the stress, the PTSD, and the fallout that comes from war.  More importantly, Murtha understands that when we break it, we buy it.  This war is breaking our men and women in service in ways that can’t be cured with a cast or stitches.  It is breaking families.  The spouse left behind to tend to the family suddenly becomes a single parent family.  But, not only do they have the day to day stress of taking care of business.  They have the constant fear of the phone ringing to announce an injury that is permanently debilitating or the sudden appearance of men in uniforms at the front door.

With the cost of war being estimated at $343 Million a day, the proposed Bush budget cut funding for the Family Advocacy Program for the military to $244 Million for the year.  That is just another example of an administration who will pay whatever it takes to play the game, but is willing to throw G.I. Joe and Ken (and Barbie) in the trash if they break during the game.  Does anyone see the disparity and the disgrace?

Our country has been plunged into debt.  The interest is compounding in dollars, the cost of human lives, and breaking another generation of American citizens.  We may not realize the effect yet, but it will hit us hard within the next few years.  

When Bush signs the stimulus package, I suggest that the best economic stimulus this country could get would be to end the war.  Congress should not fund one more dollar for war, but should force the administration to begin putting back together the lives and the families it has destroyed, not in Iraq, but here at home.  Our veterans and their families deserve better. 

War is not a game.  Our veterans aren’t disposable.