The first-year anniversary with the Obama administration is nearly here. When President Obama took office it was my profound hope that he would help bring the nation together, end the bitter partisan politics and bring more transparency. Nothing could be further from the truth.
During these past 12 months, his administration has seemingly targeted military veterans and our military. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.
March 2009: The administration floated a trial balloon for veterans to pay for their own service-connected health care with their own private insurance. This was quickly removed from the table when the veteran community became outraged. (Ref.)
April 2009: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report on “Right Wing Extremism” that strongly suggested that military veterans – particularly those returning from Iraq & Afghanistan – were potential converts to right-wing extremist recruiters. Instead of focusing on terrorist fanatics, DHS, headed by Janet Napolitano, seemed more concerned about veterans who had served our country with honor. (Ref.)
June 2009: Two Army recruiters were shot and one killed near Little Rock, Ark., and the President had very little to say about our military being a domestic target by a Yemeni-trained Muslim. The entire issue was virtually ignored by the White House. (Ref.)
Afghanistan: The President while campaigning said he had a plan for Afghanistan. In March 2009 his administration announced his new strategy. (Ref.) Yet when the war started going south in the summer of 2009, it took the President a prolonged period of time, much hand-wringing, and multiple ‘reviews’ to form another new strategy at the request of his hand-picked Gen. McChrystal. It was not until December 1st that the White House announced a troop increase. (Ref.)
Fort Hood Shootings: On November 5, 2009 thirteen people were gunned down at Ft. Hood by the alleged suspect, Maj. Hasan, who allegedly has ties with a Muslim Cleric in Yemen. Following this domestic act of terrorism the President called it a “‘horrific outburst of violence.” (Ref.) Newsweek attempted to paint Maj. Hasan as a soldier suffering from PTSD. (Ref.) At the Ft. Hood memorial service Gen. Casey made every effort to avoid any link to terrorism or Islam.
On November 14th, the President asked that Congress hold off any hearings on the Ft. Hood shooting (Ref.) On November 16th the Senate agreed to postpone committee hearings. (Ref.)
On December 9th, Republicans accused the White House of sitting on the review. (Ref.) On January 15, 2010, the DoD issued its initial report. (Ref.) (You can view a PDF version of the report here.) Also on January 15th it was reported that “as many as eight Army officers may be punished for failing to heed warning signs and take action against suspected Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. official said Thursday.” (Ref.)
With all the avoidance by the White House and leaders at the Pentagon to avoid any connection with terrorism, is it any wonder that soldiers who knew Maj. Hasan were reluctant to file any complaints? With the modern PC world afraid to offend anyone, especially the Muslim community, to have filed any official complaint would more than likely have been a career-ending move. But now we want to hold these officers responsible for policy which gave Maj. Hasan a green light?
I hold the White House and Pentagon leadership responsible for not setting clear-cut policies which would have focused on Maj. Hasan. The same policies that again later allowed another alleged terrorist, who attempted to bring down a commercial airliner on Christmas, a free pass by not having him on the no-fly list. This suspect will be tried in the civilian courts and reportedly also had ties with the same Muslim Cleric in Yemen as Maj. Hasan.
In closing, with just a year in office I believe it is clear that President Obama is not a friend of military veterans, or the brave men and women serving in our military today. Each decision he makes appears to require painstaking reviews often preceded by denials of the obvious. America is at war, and until the President and his advisers realize that, it endangers every American and those who serve in our military.
Roger Young – Northwest Veterans Newsletter
Related articles:
New restrictions for retroactive stop-loss pay – ArmyTimes – 24 Dec 09
Some Losing Stop-Loss Payments – Military.com – 6 Jan 10
Troops, kin face cuts in base services – USA Today – 8 Jan 10
It was brought to my attention by a fellow military veteran that I forgot to mention the lack of a COLA increase for 2010. Supposedly there was no inflation in 2009 therefore no increase in benefits for disabled veterans or those on social security.
I don’t know about you, but with the increase in food, property taxes, local taxes, utility bills, fuel and heating oil alone, there certainly seems to be inflation during these economic times.
Of course Congress got a increase in their pay! But I know they are out of touch with the average citizen.