Betraying Our Own

by Michael Connelly 

They are extraordinary Americans. It is said that they sign a blank check to their country and their countrymen pledging that they will give their all, up to and including their lives, to defend the American way of life and their fellow Americans. They are the men and women who are currently serving or have previously served in the armed forces of the United States. They take an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic,” and they always live by that oath.
This blank check is readily accepted by our government and by other Americans who send these selfless individuals off to fight and die for our nation and its freedoms. Many of them have made the ultimate sacrifice and died in battle, while many others have returned home with shattered bodies and emotional scars. Unfortunately, they have often returned home to betrayal by some of their fellow Americans and particularly by their own government.
The Americans who fought in World War II returned home as heroes and rightfully so; yet just a few years later, when members of the military fought in Korea and over 50,000 died, the survivors were virtually ignored when they came home to the point that Korea is often referred to as the forgotten war.

As for the Americans who served in Vietnam, they often were insulted, spat on, and physically attacked by people in their own country who supposedly believed in peace. To make it worse, many in the mainstream media actively supported the enemy and lied about what was really happening in Vietnam. To this day, children are taught in school that the U.S. military lost the war in Vietnam.
That is a blatant lie; American soldiers never lost a battle during that war. The victory was given to the enemy by a vote of the U.S. Congress that cut off military support to the South Vietnamese army and allowed the communists to launch a new and successful invasion.
Fortunately, the American people as a whole are much more grateful to the men and women who are fighting the war on terrorism; but the same cannot be said about the mainstream news media and the government. The media ignores the sacrifices and victories of our soldiers and often seems to support our enemies with insane reporting in the name of political correctness.

As for our government, we have a President of the United States, an administration, and a Congress that seems intent on breaking the morale of our soldiers and destroying their capability of protecting our nation. Their actions support the fact that there is an all-out assault on both our active duty military and our veterans. The elements of this assault consist of:

1.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a bulletin to all police agencies in 2009 naming all military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as potential domestic terrorists.
2.  Senator Dianne Feinstein declares that all veterans have PTSD and are therefore mentally ill and should not be allowed to own firearms.
3.  The Veterans Administration in 2009 begins declaring veterans with physical disabilities, minor PTSD, past depression, or who even allow their spouses to pay the family bills as mental defectives incompetent to handle their own financial affairs and forbidding them from owning, purchasing, or possessing firearms. This process is accelerating.
4.  Obama unilaterally cuts billions of dollars from our military budget without approval of Congress.
5.  Congress passes legislation authorizing sequestration leading to massive cuts in the military readiness of the United States, and putting us in a position of being incapable of defending our national interests around the world.
6.  Our military capabilities are being cut in half, and we have lost respect around the world. The ridiculous politically correct rules of engagement imposed on our fighting men and women in combat have cost countless American lives.
7.   High ranking officers in the military who disagree with these policies of the Administration are being purged, and enlisted personnel who utilize their right to free speech to express their concerns are being court martialed and dishonorably discharged.
8.  The Obama administration has also launched an attack on the very foundation of the success of our military, the profound religious beliefs of most of our troops.  Members of the military are being prohibited from practicing their religion even to the point of being denied the right to have bibles in their workplace, mentioning Christmas, or expressing their opposition to radical Islam. Chaplains are having their sermons and even prayers censored to make sure they are politically correct.
9.  The Veterans Administration that is supposed to represent the interests of our military heroes has slowed down the process of filing claims for benefits to the point where veterans are waiting for months and even years to have their claims processed. In addition, when veterans go to the VA, they are being asked if they own firearms, if they have ever been depressed, and if their spouses handle the family finances. Then this information is being used to declare them incompetent and deny them their Constitutional rights under the 5^th and 2^nd Amendments.
10.  During both the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, the Obama administration through the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, actively encouraged Secretaries of State around the country to violate Federal law by failing to timely mail out absentee ballots to active duty military personnel. As a result, hundreds of thousands of military votes were never counted, denying our heroes a basic American right.
11.  While civilian employees of the Obama administration get pay raises, members of the military and veterans are seeing their pay and benefits cut with the Secretary of Defense promising more cuts to come.
12.  Military families are also being affected in other ways. Chuck Hagel wants to close commissaries at U. S. bases, forcing military families to purchase their groceries from civilian stores where they will pay up to 30% more. In addition, thousands of military spouses work at these commissaries to supplement the family income. They will be losing their jobs.  
13. I could go on with this list because it just scratches the surface. Our military members and our veterans are being hammered by the government they have fought for. They are being denied the medical care they were promised, the respect they are due, and ultimately the constitutional rights they have been defending. Enough is enough; if we allow our military and veterans to be treated this way, how can we expect the government not to turn on all of us?