In a recent diary, angelajean discusses the impact that the budget deal will have on military pensions. For those under the age of 62, military pensions will have their cost-of-living adjustments reduced by 1 percentage point annually. I made a comment on her diary, and she replied by asking me if I would put that comment in the form of a diary of my own. I am happy to comply.
Civilians wave the flag, throw confetti when the troops march in the streets victoriously, and pin medals on the heroes. And they do this willingly, because it feels good without costing anything. But when it comes time to pay the veterans what they are due, then patriotism isn’t so much fun anymore. Besides, the war is over.
I say this as a draft-dodger who is almost a pacifist. I say “almost,” because I will allow exceptions. I think a good time to go to war is when an army crosses your border. Other than that, I have grave doubts. Consequently, not having served in the military myself, my objection to cutting the military pensions does not arise from any direct self-interest.
I oppose cutting the military pensions for two reasons. First, the government should keep its promises. During the Vietnam War, a lot of protestors allowed their opposition to the war to spill out into anything associated with it. Being hostile to the government that prosecuted the war, they became hostile to their country, which they expressed by burning the flag. And their hatred of the war led them to hate the troops, which they expressed by spitting and booing. While a lot of us who opposed the war knew this was wrong, that logically we should distinguish between the government and the country, between the war and those who fought it, we also knew that as a practical matter you cannot wave the flag and cheer the troops without appearing to support the war. We said we supported the troops, but not the war, but there was no good way to show it. For the most part, we just did nothing.
Perhaps now, there is something we can do. No matter what we may think of the wars we fight, or the way in which we fight them, we should support the troops by opposing this budget deal. A lot of Republican senators are opposed to it, in part because of the cut to military pensions, but I fear that the Democratic senators are going to vote for it for the same reason that flags were once burnt and troops were once spit upon: their opposition to militarism makes them contemptuous of the military.
In writing History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides recorded many of the speeches made by ambassadors trying to persuade one another to take some particular action, speeches no doubt embellished by Thucydides himself. In every case, the speaker begins by talking about what is the right thing to do. In an ideal world, doing what is right should be sufficient motivation. Being realistic, however, the speaker would then go on to point out how doing the right thing would also be advantageous.
Being equally realistic, I will now turn to my second reason for opposing this budget deal: doing the right thing, supporting our troops by opposing the budget deal, would also be advantageous. If we allow the COLA for military pensions to be cut, this will set a precedent for cutting the COLA for Social Security. I can just hear them now: “Why should the greedy geezers get a full cost-of-living adjustment to their Social Security, when our veterans, who have fought and suffered for our rights and freedoms, have accepted a cut in their COLA?” They will be more than willing to wave the flag again, if it means justifying cuts to the entitlements.
Divide-and-conquer is a favorite strategy of those who wish to cut the entitlements. We have all heard of those plans in which those over 55 will be unaffected, but those below the age of 55 will have their benefit cut, by one means or another. The idea is to make the supposedly selfish elderly indifferent to the impoverishment of those who are younger. Then, once the younger workers have been squeezed, the politicians can turn on the elderly, and cut their benefit too, because the younger workers will hardly be inclined to rise to their defense. Now we have another form of divide-and-conquer: cut the COLA for the military now; cut the COLA for the elderly later. Therefore, opposing this budget deal is to our advantage, even if we have never worn the uniform.
It is also the right thing to do.