As we all know, the current administration has used, abused and discarded the National Guard and Reserve in their "disposable resources" approach to the military. It is time for the State Level organizations in this country to do right by their citizens. I have tried to get some traction for this in Colorado but feel it should be an initiative in every state. If we can't depend on the federal government to take care of our vets, then we have to do it at the the state and local level. What is the proposal?
That every state enact legislation to provide supplemental benefits - either through the state or through private insurance (I have my preference but I'm not going to stand on that principle to get the right thing done) - at least equal to those health care, disability and life insurance coverages afforded to regular service vets for any national guard or reserve troop who has served in a combat theater. There are three benefits to this:
First, the troops that we are sending over there are, in essence, told by their fellow citizens that we value their service as much as we value the service of regular troops. In many cases, these are people who signed on in the fervor - whipped up by the American populace (with Bush in his familiar and trained role as a cheerleader) - to help America. They are now trapped in some else's civil war and we, the people, have not been willing or effective in getting them home. They deserve those benefits for the hell they are going through.
Second, if Democratic and/or Republican state legislatures pass reserve and national guard benefit packages, then the people have a right to know why their federal level representatives don't have the guts to stand up to this neo-con administration and its henchlings on matters of importance.
Three, I believe these guard and reservists are doing their best over in these combat zones. But knowledge that a casualty can destroy their families financial future has to weigh on them. And a troop worried about a casualty and its effects on their family is distracted. And the regular troops they are serving beside deserve to have their support staff undistracted from the jobs they are doing. I am not impugning their courage or their dedication - but if just one reservist hesitates in a critical situation from this fear it is one too many. It is a problem we can and should solve. Why haven't we solved it yet?
These troops deserve our support - the support they have gotten only in lip service but never in reality from the Bushies. It's time to show that real progressives of every persuasion believe that these promises need to be kept.