I agree with you. I was being flip. My larger point is that those in power see the military as pawns and their claims to the contrary are pretense. If they or their benefactors benefit from it they simply don't care how many young men come home maimed or in a flag-draped coffin.The Annoyed Man wrote:I share and understand the sentiment, but I am philosophically opposed to requiring any citizen to perform work for another citizen, by law, and without compensation. In that light, if it is a public healthcare facility, then yeah..... straight to the head of the line, no payment required.VMI77 wrote:Should be, never will be. The oligarchs who own the country and their political puppets couldn't care less about veterans, and it's been a very long time since they did, if they ever have. They love to pay it lip service but they never actually back any of their rhetoric up with action. This has become easier since WW2. The scale of the war and the number of veterans and their families made them hard to ignore back then, though they did a pretty good job of hosing the veterans of WW1. The most you'll get from the current crop of traitors in the White House and Congress is some flag pins on the lapels of their tailored Italian suits and some speeches.ScooterSissy wrote:You nailed it on that one. I've never seen it said better.Blindref757 wrote:...Our veterans should be able to walk into any doctor in America, go to the front of the line, and not pay one cent for the best healthcare...
But if it is a private doctor in a private practice, that doctor has overhead that comes out of his own pocket, AND he himself may be a veteran too; so I don't think it is right to force that doctor to give free healthcare to anybody - even a veteran. If a private practice doctor wants to do it as a kindness, or even out of gratitude, that's fine. But it shouldn't be an entitlement UNLESS the taxpayer is on the hook for it. And I'm pretty sure I know how we all feel about entitlements around here.
I realize that this may not be a popular sentiment, but I hope you guys can understand where I'm coming from. I'm just trying to be consistent in my standards.
I couldn't wait to get into the military. I wasn't drafted, it was my choice. Even the military is subject to market forces, though the concepts associated with patriotism give the State a market advantage. Still, the military is voluntary.....so if the deal is bad enough that they can't attract enough volunteers they either have to sweeten the deal or resort to a draft. A draft would drastically change the political dynamics to disfavor TPTB so it isn't going to happen. Apparently the deal is good enough to attract who they need.
