The 13th year of war.
Twenty-two returned U.S. veterans commit suicide everyday. In the past year, that's 8,030 individuals.
A soldier returns home from war to find service benefits problematic to get, transition into civilian life difficult to make, and possibly the idea that the reason we went to war in Iraqi was based on information that turned out to not be true, leaving that individual disillusioned and lost. This is part of the legacy for making the decision to fight a preemptive war, an unnecessary one.
Admiral Michael Mullen, Fmr. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his interview with David Gregory, emphasized the mental health aspect in the challenges returned soldiers have adjusting and that there is a shortage of mental health professionals in the military. In fact, he went on to say that it's a national problem as well. The result of all this is another mass shooting incident at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
The all too obvious answer is that we're not doing enough. One thing that the government could do is making free mental health counseling part of the benefits of service - immediately upon return. When a soldier is finished with his or her service, they have the option to get mental health treatment if they want it. As a matter of fact, a military administrator would tell you that veterans have access to such service, but that not until the person has successfully jumped through all the bureaucratic hoops to get insurance - unacceptable.
For practical measures, Admiral Mullen said that there also needs to be better security military bases, but don't you also find it curious that he didn't advocate for soldiers walking around armed? The former leader of all of the nation's soldiers basically said that he doesn't think it's a good idea for soldiers to be carrying guns when they shouldn't need to. And when they're on base, they shouldn't.
What it says is that the leaders of the world's most powerful military do not think that ubiquitous possession of weapons by its soldiers at all times is a good idea; they feel adding more guns to the equation produces a whole separate set of problems, problems Admiral Mullen didn't specifically address. Yet, for the country's citizenry, it's advocated that everyone should be armed.
We guess all you can say to that is, "Welcome the the United States."
And, if you have enough money, you can get politicians to do what ever you want them to do. That was the case before the Supreme Court decided this week to ban caps on how many candidates you can contribute money to. This week's partisan 5 to 4 decision just further weakened campaign finance rules so that the richest have their more heavily weighted say at the policy table. Mr. Gregory asked both guests, "Could this lead to quid pro quo, a corrupt political system as Justice Steven Breyer suggested?" There's no need to even ask the question really. If there was no quid pro quo then why would oil refinery owners be giving millions of dollars to political candidates in the first place?
In another well done debate segment, Mr. Gregory moderated a discussion between the man who brought the case to the
court, Shaun McCutcheon, and president of Public Citizen Robert
Weissman. When you initially hear about a court decision like this, most just dismiss it as the rich just 'getting richer' as it were, but when you can put a face to it (Mr. McCutcheon's), you can at least try and see the other side of the argument. Now, one of the main premises of Mr. McCutcheon's argument is that money equals speech. One is entitled to that opinion, one which we would strongly disagree with. During the round table, columnist Kathleen Parker casually stated it as fact and then went further saying that 'lots of money is louder speech,' hence making the person with more money more important. In the overall scheme of American Constitutional philosophy, that shouldn't be the case, but the reality is that today, it is.
However, in a way, we kind of agree with Mr. McCutcheon in as much as there's so much money in U.S. politics already, what difference is this decision going to make anyway? Justice Clarence Thomas said that he didn't see a reason to have any campaign finance caps on money. We rarely, if ever in this column, cast direct dispersions on someone, but Justice Thomas is an idiot and if it were left solely to him to make legal decisions for this country, he'd tank the whole works. There, we said it.
Then again, what's the point of limits and laws and rules if everyone easily circumvents them? What we did find heartening is that everyone, from Mr. Weismann to Mr. McCutcheon to Senator Sununu, agreed that there should be transparency in terms of who donates what to whom. It would actually be better to have no limits but make it a firm law that full transparency is required than having faux limits with no transparency.
With full transparency, public opinion - whether it would accept or ostracize - would definitely make big donors think twice about where they're putting their money.
Round Table: Kathleen Parker, Washington Post Columnist; John E. Sununu, Fmr. New Hampshire Senator (R) and Boston Globe Contributor; Fmr. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN); and Steve Case, Fmr. Chairman & CEO of America Online.
A Last Note:
Harold Ford said the president shouldn't do a victory lap now that over seven million people have signed up for insurance through the exchanges. Mr. Ford is very much for the Affordable Care Act, but also has his concerns. We always find Mr. Ford's punditry frustrating because it seems as though he continual wants it both ways. Now, we realize that every issue has its nuance and every big law like the ACA is in need of fixing, but in terms wanting to have people listen to what you say, you have to sound as though you believe in something more solidly.
Pardoning that brief digression, at the end of this first marathon the president's run, where everyone and their mother has been sticking out a leg to try to trip you, he successfully crossed the finish. Take the lap.
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