|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Military.com Forums Hot Topics & Current Events Point-Counterpoint Stop Bush, the Pentagon and McCain from Robbing Our Troops|
Go
|
New
|
Find
|
Notify
|
Tools
|
Reply
|
|
Basic Training |
Frank Schaeffer has given me permission to post his message. Please READ & HEED!:
As the proud father of a former US Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq I'm asking you for a favor: Please tell Congress to stop President Bush, the Pentagon's brass and Senator McCain from sticking it to our troops. Senator Webb has introduced legislation to increase benefits in a new GI Bill. The Webb bill would cover the full tuition at a state school in the state in which the veteran would be enrolled and has other generous provisions. The House of Representatives is set to vote on a World War II-style GI Bill for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The 21st Century GI Bill (S.22/H.R.5740) was introduced in Congress by some of the Senate's combat veterans, including Senators Webb and Chuck Hagel. This bill has bipartisan support of 57 Senators and 278 Representatives (including the backing of Senators Obama and Clinton) and the endorsement of the American Legion to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Bush administration opposes the new GI bill because the President says it's too generous and would "undermine retention" of troops, who Bush is counting on to fight on and on in Iraq as the war goes into its sixth year. Senator McCain says he will follow the Pentagon's lead. The Pentagon--the same people that sent men and women (including my son) into battle underequipped and without enough body armor--wants to limit soldier's benefits in order to help "retain" troops. In other words the Pentagon, the President and John McCain want to keep our men and women in uniform with fewer options (such as college) so they'll stay in the military and "re-up." Senator McCain's office says that McCain is only "following the Pentagon's lead." Is that leadership? McCain is actively trying to undermine the generous bill. He has offered legislation with much lower benefits and almost no cosponsors. As the father of a Marine who served with honor in Bush's wars I am a grateful and loyal supporter of our men and women in uniform--something anyone who has read my books "Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps," and "Faith Of Our Sons-A Father's Wartime Diary," and my novel about the USMC "Baby Jack," will know. It is because of my gratitude to our troops and my respect for them that I'm so disgusted by the Bush administration's "thank you" to our troops that amounts to a slap in the face. I am also disgusted by the cynical leaders in the Pentagon who don't want to make benefits "too attractive" lest some young men or women forgo a fourth or fifth or sixth tour in Iraq and decide to go to college instead. (Speaking as military parent I can tell you that Bush, McCain and the Pentagon brass have it wrong. A good educational benefits incentive would be a great recruiting tool. It also is the right moral thing to do for our troops.) When compared to the GI Bill that was offered to returning vets from World War Two the funding for education offered to our troops today is a joke. The GI Bill of Rights made law by Roosevelt, paid the full tuition of any veteran's education. It was a great investment that also rebuilt the nation. It's time for a new real GI Bill. Where is McCain's actual commitment to our men and women where it counts? Where is Bush when more than a photo-op is needed? Where is the solidarity that the generals in charge of recruiting should have with their enlisted men and women? Shame on Senator McCain. Shame on President Bush. Shame on the college-educated military officers in charge of recruiting who want to keep their enlisted men and women down in order to "retain" them for an endless war. Our honor as Americans is on the line. Our president, McCain and our military leaders can't be allowed to betray our soldiers. Semper Fi. |
||
|
Super Member |
helps if the dems dont pork it out or add add-ons and time tbles for withdraw dates.... you are completely forgetting the pork adding democrats.... but then again everyone does... its always bush or no pork mccains fault
 |
|||
|
You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me. |
Because the Democrats are the only party that adds "pork" to a bill.  Oink, oink. Oink, oink. I could do this all day. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson |
|||
|
Member |
Yeah dude. Check the pork content, and as far as body armor? Thanks to one frikkin' crybaby we are weighed down with so much body armor ALL THE TIME it's damn difficult to do our jobs.
I'm a scout. Ever try sneaking around in an IBA? It's ridiculous and almost impossible to effectively move and engage in the prone. |
|||
|
|
Super Member |
|
|||
|
|
You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me. |
Did you happen to check the years when the Republicans controlled the house and senate? Again - Its not just the democrats.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson |
|||
|
|
Super Member |
yea its not but this year it is... also mccain is a no pork kind of guy.... |
|||
|
|
Basic Training |
Hey Folks - yes, you're right follow the money...but don't just dismiss the issue as "pork" and "add-ons" - get educated on the issue, read the press and write your representative on the Hill. Republican John Warner is a co-sponsor! See below...
Webb urges McCain to sign onto GI bill Contributed by Roxana Tiron 03/19/08 01:06 PM [ET] Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) is calling on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) to sign on as a cosponsor to his GI bill, which would improve educational benefits to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "McCain needs to get on the bill," Webb told reporters after a Christian Science Monitor breakfast meeting on Wednesday. He said legislation mirroring the post-World War II GI bill should not be considered a "political issue." Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Il.), the Democratic presidential candidates, both have signed on to the bill. In a major coup for Webb, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, signed on as a co-sponsor earlier this month. Warner is a close ally of McCain, who is the ranking member on Armed Services. Warner has often been the committee's top Republican with McCain busy on the campaign trail. Webb's bill has 51 co-sponsors, including nine Republicans. Webb, a former secretary of the Navy, said he may have to get 60 co-sponsors to ensure Senate passage, but then added that many more Republicans could vote for the bill if McCain endorsed it. The Bush administration so far has resisted Webb's measure, and has said the new benefits may prompt active members of the military to leave for civilian life. The Pentagon is already struggling with re-enlistment, and some officials worry expanded educational benefits could whittle down the force. The cost of Webb's bill is projected to be about $2.5 billion a year, but Webb said he is still waiting for an official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office - something he said he asked for 15 months ago when he first introduced the bill. Webb said his measure may be attached to the next supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. |
|||
|
|
Member |
George W Bush needs every last cent to spend in Iraq on oil pipelines and M16's on Iraqi Deserters, and he is ordering the Pentagon to do just that while it appears John McCain is lock in step with this policy....
They would rather have Veterans like me drown in debt(gee, wonder who benefits from that) to simply get a decent education than to take one cent away from the oh so successful and important Iraq advanture.... Its that simple. They(George W Bush, Republicans, John McCAIN) simply couldn't careless about the education of Veterans, and why would they both of them were Officers so its not like they worked hard to get their commissions.... M16's for Iraqis who join the enemy? No problem GI-Bill worthy of our service? Are you stupid? |
|||
|
|
|
If this bill is just for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and it excludes the rest of our servicemen and women, I'd be against it to. The G.I. Bill is supposed to be for all veterans.
|
|||
|
Experienced Member |
I agree. |
|||
|
|
Bravery isn't the absence of fear but the conquest of it. |
As one who benefited from the GI Bill after Nam, I'm all for giving these troops whatever they need to succeed once they muster out. To deny them this so as to keep them in uniform is wrong. Makes you wonder just what Support The Troops means?
WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR OURSELVES ALONE DIES WITH US;WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR OTHERS AND THE WORLD IS AND REMAINS IMMORTAL |
|||
|
Highly Experienced Member |
The troops today are not denied any thing the rest of us got when we got out.
Oh, and this isn't Bush's war--it America's war. Geez, so many sound like suuch crybabies.  |
|||
|
|
Highly Experienced Member |
ranger--What were you denied as far as education when you got out? Are you telling us that you didn't have the current GI Bill and are you telling us you could not afford to go to school? Funny, my son spent the last two years attending the fire college and tok a couple of semesters of regular college towards the two years he had before he went in.
And yes, he worked a regular job in the meantime! |
|||
|
|
Peace through air and space Power.... USAF Lifer, retired  |
|
|||
|
|
Member |
Master Guns--- Sir, If I want to attend say Stanford I would be drowning in debt after my educatin was done. Sure I would have quite a nice diploma and career but I would forever be in debt.... WWII Veterans did not have that problem, they had ALL of their expenses paid for, and we put a man on the Moon as a result.... 1100 a Month is laughable if you're talking about a great university. Again it goes back to the haves and have nots.. Then again if my Dad was an Admiral things would be alot easier... |
|||
|
Member |
Interesting discussion about how the original GI bill transformed America.
REMEMBERING THE GI BILL We need to make every effort to see that ALL of our military have the opportunity to better themselves as our fathers and grandfathers did. What’s with the 12 year requirement anyway? Explain how that is going to encourage anyone to enlist in the first place. Four, six, eight years and out and then have a decent chance of going to college would be a great motivator. It’s hard for someone to devote 10-12 years to the military and then try to start all over again. It’s a roadblock that even the dumbest recruit will look at before signing on the dotted line. Just my opinion and .02. |
|||
|
|
Member |
The whole Recruitment and Retention crap is just that, crap. We already have Contractors stealing the best and brightest from the Military so really, who honestly buys that excuse? The real reason is they do not want veterans to get a good education. They do however want Colt to make billions by making M16 for iraqis who later use them on our troops.... They do not one cent to be diverted from Defense Contractors, even if that money is meant for honorable veterans to get an education.. |
|||
|
|
Highly Experienced Member |
ranger---
My dad worked two sometimes three jobs while going to school on the WWII GI Bill while raising a family of three--damn--he got two degrees---wonder how he did that? |
|||
|
|
Member |
Aco275,If you are drowning in debt,it was you signing your name on the dotted line.Not Bush.
|
|||
|
|
Experienced Member |
So you expect Uncle Sam to fool the bill so u can attend what ever collage you want, to in clued an IVY Leage school??? Now I think that is a bit much. |
|||
|
