Because Republicans control the government. Therefore nothing is a big deal to them anymore. Republicans over Benghazi: the biggest scandal since Watergate Republicans over Niger: *crickets* These people are absolutely shameless and have zero integrity.
Many, many people are saying that the reason the White House has not spoken to the media about Niger is that they are deathly afraid of the prospect of the Dotard-in-Chief attempting to read the word "Niger" from a teleprompter. TRUTH
Again, a self-inflicted wound created from his obsession to defend himself and attack Obama... The Memo: Gold Star controversy consumes White House http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/356138-gold-star-controversy-consumes-white-house
Sorry but there are no presidents who respect vets. Trump respects them less. The bigger issue is: If the threats to the US are so dire that humanity-threatening wars, weapons and tactics must be used, minds destroyed with PTSD, families shredded apart, blood spilled in the millions all over the world with women and children considered acceptable collateral damage... then how is the free market not rewarding those people who are protecting the most valuable resource (human, american life)? It's bullshit. There have been less than a handful of serious actions rewarding vets in close to 70 years now. Anyone on this board who has served can name them on one hand. And that's how they get you guys. By replacing the word "reward" with "respect". **** respect. You can't cash in respect. Pay these people, clothe them, feed them, give them free education, free healthcare and top of the line mental health support. A decade of elite mental health support can not give these people back what they lost to protect you. They are damaged for life. At least get to the bottom of why the free market has them struggling in life while plastic surgeons live in mansions.
I personally think we do take care of them relatively well minus the part of putting them in unesessary wars. For example, not only does the GI Bill pay for my tuition but while in semester, every month I receive a housing allowance check that is rated for my school's zip code with an E-5 housing allowance stipend which is $2800 for me and then you include my disability check for my wounds and that totals to $4000 dollars a month just for attending school. No reason to work at all and thank goodness because I'm pretty sure I couldn't survive mechanical engineering while working full time.
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUUUUUUUUUUUUUM When I went to school I worked two jobs around a 2 class a day schedule so I could afford to pay rent and eat and still managed to save not a dang penny. I could have done wonders on $4000 a month. The thing is there's never "enough" you can do for soldiers who fight and get hurt (or die) for your country. There's no "fair deal" when that happens. You can't do anything for a wife and a child who lose their husband/father in a war that will make that better. A soldier who lost his legs isn't made whole by $4000 a month. So you do as much as you can and it will never be enough. It's cheap politically though to constantly use soldiers and their sacrifice as a political hammer.
This right here. I totally buy that he said it to the widow but I also totally buy that he was in no way trying to being a jerk. He isn't a good communicator. The bigger problem isn't that he says awkward things (constantly) it's that when someone calls him out on it he goes operation scorched earth. I thought George W Bush was a total pro at this. I remember his acceptance speech for his second nomination when he talked about people making fun of the way he talked and walked. He just played it off so charmingly and played to his Texas roots. For all the heat he took for his communication skills, he was likeable and self deprecating. He had a disarming charm to him. Trump is the total opposite. He's boorish and prone to awkward, borderline offensive statements but god help the person who calls him out for it because he wants to rip your heart out of your chest and serve it to your children. Extremely sensitive and defensive.
I don’t know why Trump is constantly lashing out when he is being criticized. He knew what he signed up for.
Trump has no sense of empathy and can only really express himself through bragging, bombast and outrage. It's the same problem with what we saw with PR and his other self-congratulatory statements he made following other disasters. Note in all of those he always talks about how great of a job he is doing and then when anyone criticizes him even mildly he goes off. It's impossible for him to understand or consider anything else other than how it makes him look good or bad.
Bro, for what you've done, you should own a house 100% paid in your name, free water/electricity/internet for life, free boss/modern healthcare, free education/training at any non-private college and free private therapy sessions to reintegrate into normal society. That would cost maybe a quarter million per person if everything is procured at cost. THAT is a number that when you hear makes sense. The country is spending more on military than anyone in the world, in history. In fact, the military wastes/loses more money than almost any other military in the world spends. If the threat requires that kind of resource appropriation from the public, then consider how important this job must be. The GI Bill is good and that's why I said there are a handful of notable rewards in 70 years. It's still unacceptable, and if I know of all the issues with alcoholism, pharmaceutical drug abuse, ptsd, suicide, homelessness, general mental health .. then I'm sure you know of dozens if not hundreds of real world cases of these things. And for every vet who pissed away his/her opportunities on drugs/alcohol - you have to ask yourself why it is so rampant. And the answer is because OF COURSE. OF COURSE those people are going to have issues. We know it before they even go. We know it right now about the next bunch of kids. "Relative". If you're thinking about whether it's relatively good, then why is it not BY FAR the best in history to match the budget? It's not that way because money going to vets can't be stolen. That's citizen dollars going to citizens, which defeats the business plan. The whole point of war is it is the only way to financially engineer historic amounts of money out of the pockets of every American, into the pockets of contractors foreign and domestic, who then turn around and give lifelong board positions, speaking jobs and business deals to those who push war.
There is a market-based price. Salaries for mercenaries that are hired by people like Blackwater (now Academi) are a reasonable proxy, and they make 100-250k and good benefits. The best paid enlisted Navy SEAL can touch the bottom of that pay range. That tells me that over 50% of the enlisted man's compensation is paid in flag-waving. And, since the government has hired these mercenary companies in the past, probably still do today, and pay not only these levels of salary but also a hefty margin to the companies, it seems like the willingness to pay is also there, at least sometimes. Maybe it's better that soldiers be underpaid. Underpayment means you get more people doing it for intrinsic motivations like serving their country. But as more of the hidden cost of service has become understood, the more the romance of service has dulled with our ethically-conflicted engagements, the fewer the people who are willing to sign up at that price. It feels like we are trying to compensate for the lack of pay, the lack of support, and the lack of healthcare and services for soldiers and veterans with respect. But, you can't fake respect and you can't force respect. At some point, you need your respect to bear fruit as tangible reward.
