Bush doesn't care about "the troops"

It appears that when their use of the military as a patriotism bludgeon with which this administration can attack their political foes has ended, "the troops" are just another poor minority group that Bush can rob to maintain his tax cuts weighted heavily for the rich.

At least tens of thousands of veterans with non-critical medical issues could suffer delayed or even denied care in coming years to enable President Bush to meet his promise of cutting the deficit in half — if the White House is serious about its proposed budget.

The article presents this as budget chicanery by the Bush administration to make it's proclamations to half the deficit appear real, but this is not an area where stuff like that should be pulled.

And just one more thought. None of the current VA budget projections takes into account a recurrence of Gulf War Illness among the 600,000 or so troops who have rotated through theater. If this condition is indeed caused by exposure to expended depleted uranium, this group of veterans could suffer at an even higher rate despite better "safe practices" because of the substantial increase in the number of DU munitions used in this war and longer term of exposure. Roughly 50% of Gulf War I veterans have claimed medical care since that "casualty free" war ended.

American soldiers who served in Iraq may be living with the results of this war long after the "war patriotism" has gone away.

Support Veterans Programs, especially medical care. They held up their end of the bargain, we need to hold up ours.