MADER'S 'BRANTS Presidential Debates and the VA Administration October 11, 2004 - I watched the second debate on Friday. Kudos to Bush’s people, for finally coaching the man so he didn’t make a complete fool out of himself. After the first debate I was concerned that the Republican Party had paid an outrageous amount of money to hijack a group of special ed kids off a short bus to run the Presidents battle strategy for the final month before the election. As for Kerry, as long as he can keep upchucking the fiction he has created so far, he should be set if he loses the election. I hear Hollywood is always looking for imaginative writers. He makes George Lucas look like an alcoholic loafer. One issue that neither party has touched and yet would seem a high priority, since we are at war, is the “VA Administration.” While the casualties from the war are actually very small regardless of what the media and Kerry would have you believe. There are a lot of soldiers that are getting injured with everything from sand mites to serious wounds from combat that will require long term medical care. One stat I found while doing research for this ‘brant was that a single Combat Army Surgical Hospital (CASH) outside of Baghdad has seen over thirty thousand cases in the last year. A lot of those are Iraqis injured while they commit “terrorist acts” against our troops and the civilian population. We, as humanitarians, treat them even though they are combatants. But there was a sizeable number of men and women in that 30,000 that are our own. Let’s be frank here. The VA doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked in decades. VA hospitals are little more than glorified waiting rooms where no one ever sees a doctor. One vet I talked to recently stated that when he asked for medical attention he was told it would be nine months before he could see a doctor. Another vet stated that even though he had been diagnosed with dementia, when he went to the local VA hospital on more than one occasion, he literally sat and waited for an entire day and never saw anyone. Now for you “politicos,” this is the perfect opportunity to say it’s just another example of Bush dropping the ball. You would be incorrect. This problem dates back to at least Nixon’s administration, when Viet Nam vets where treated as second class citizens. They where an embarrassment that our society hoped would quietly just die in a corner and fade away. Sadly, administration after administration, Republican and Democrat, did their best to make sure that happened. If it was just vets from one war it might be something people would over look. We, however, are a “Super Power.” As a result, we put our soldiers in harms way on a regular basis. Since 1974 I can count seven armed conflicts off the top of my head. This doesn’t include troops injured in just the day-to-day operations of maintaining an army during times of peace. My point being that if you choose to have men and women serve their country by putting on a uniform, you are obligated, not only to do your best to make sure they have the best equipment and by doing so reduce their odds of being injured. But you also have the duty to care of those that are. The solution? Simple. Eliminate all VA hospitals. They are relics. Reduce the VA to just an oversight body to administer the following: Every soldier with an honorable discharge gets their medical care covered by the Federal Government for life. They can go to any public hospital, present a special card, not unlike your insurance card you get at a normal job to get medical attention. When you compare what it would cost to do this to what we actually spend on fighting wars, the money would be a drop in the bucket. If either candidate really wants to ensure people will enlist in our “Volunteer Army,” one place to start is by promising them that they won’t be crapped on after they have served their country. Later, Mader