Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The Emerging Cabinet

Something not to be forgotten in observing the unfolding political circus is that the truth is seldom what we find in the “common knowledge” which we acquire from the well crafted spin-meisters of the nearly bankrupt mainstream media. Take for example the oft-repeated classic that Army general, chief-of-staff, Eric Shinseki was cashiered for challenging SecDef Rumsfeld and obstructing President Bush’s headlong rush into an ill-founded war in Iraq. Remember the assertions? Shinseki was fired because he had the temerity to offer his professional estimation that we’d need several hundred thousand more troops to conclude hostilities in Iraq after overthrow of the Sadaam regime.

This week the Man Who Would be King from the “Office of the President-Elect” (which is located wherever there is a podium with a picture hook on the front), announced that former General Shinseki was to be the Director of the Veteran’s Administration. As a military retiree, I’m a veteran, so I’ve got an interest. Here’s this from the National Review:

Compliant Generalship or Political Expedience

That’s a new perspective, isn’t it? It certainly revises the question of summary dismissal and puts it to bed with facts. It also overturns the common assertion that Shinseki said something in conflict with Bush/Rumsfeld as the cause of the non-firing. “Right but for the wrong reasons” is an entirely different story. And, the quite true conclusion that Shinseki was allowed to leave at the completion of his term is coupled with the acknowledgment that he was one (of many) in the Pentagon who failed to understand or reorganize the military to the growing emphasis on special operations and true counter-insurgency warfare. Many of us who were shaped by the Cold War for thirty years or more suffered from the same malady.

It should be further noted that some of the most vocal former flag officers who kowtowed to the Messiah along the campaign trail (and wound up under the bus at appropriate moments along the way) such as Wes Clark and Tony McPeake are totally missing from the coterie as it emerges. The lesson to be learned is that a uniform is a nice adjunct, but a total suck-up might not be successful, even in this administration.

Will Shinseki be good for the VA? Well, let’s first note that the VA deals with vets and not with military retirees. It does some great medical and rehab work for guys wounded in action and going through therapy to return to civilian life. It doesn’t do that much for the veteran-at-large unless that veteran is “welfare-grade.” The disability claims process is bureaucratic and arbitrary. The medical facilities are means-tested for eligibility and require full disclosure of all of your financial information before access. I won’t go that far. The hospitals and clinics range from the exceptional to the abominable. And the history of justifying their existence through fostering of questionable claims against the government such as PTSD, Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome is a dark chapter which doesn’t make for easy reading.

The question to be answered is will the new administration be aimed at improving resources for all veterans or will it be focused on welfare distribution to that segment of the vet population which would never have made it in civilian society but which now credits their drug addiction, alcoholism and welfare dependence to their military experience.

Will you need a beard, dirty pants, and a patch festooned field jacket to get benefits?

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