The GI Bill

Vietnam veteran Senator James Webb of Virginia is currently ushering a new GI Bill through Congress.

Under his bill, which has attracted three dozen other sponsors, the government would resume paying full college tuition for these veterans for a period linked to their times in uniform, but for no more than 36 months or four academic years. Every eligible college veteran also would receive a check for $1,000 a month to help cover living expenses.

This would cost the government about $2 billion a year, which is about what we're presently spending every 36 hours in Iraq.

The Bush administration opposes the bill, because of course, the Bush administration only supports the troops during photo ops -- not when it involves actually protecting their lives, or supporting them during or after their service. It's not really a surprise that Bush opposes giving the men and women who fight for this country a break after they come home (which is, btw, a group that has not included a member of the Bush family since Poppy).

The pentagon also opposes the bill, because -- and I'm not making this up -- because "too many troops might decide to leave at the end of their enlistments and take advantage of it. And that, they say, would only make it even harder to find and enlist enough recruits to man our wars." Seriously? Maybe if they hadn't screwed up the conception, execution, and prosecution of this stupid war, they wouldn't have to worry about stop-lossing soldiers on their third, forth or fifth tours.

But here comes the real shocker. John "Bush's BFF" McCain -- GI Joe himself -- doesn't support the GI Bill, but I'm not sure why. Until I hear a reasonable explanation, though, here's some straight talk:

John McCain is a lousy prick for not getting on this bill on day one.

Here's some more straight talk: In everything they do -- from brushing off the deaths of our soldiers, to failing to provide them with basic equipment in battle zones, to trying to fight this stupid war on the cheap, to outsourcing support services in no-bid contracts to corrupt off-shore asshole (or worse) friends of Cheney, to underfunding military hospitals -- Republicans repeatedly demonstrate their now-undeniable attitude towards our GIs: they volunteered, so we can abuse them all we want. The rhetoric and photo ops don't matter, folks -- actions count, and time and time again, Republicans treat our soldiers like disposable people -- if they make it back here alive the Republicans in Washington have far too often left them to feign for themselves, or even worse, sent them back to Iraq yet again. And if you're a Republican, you should be ashamed, because no matter how many magnets you've stuck on your SUV, the people you vote for do not, in reality, support the troops.