This ISN’T about the organization Wounded Warriors, except they shouldn’t have to exist; 
or any other organization that serves our soldiers when government should be serving them. Wars are something we decide via who we vote for, who we support, or who we allow to fool us into them.
Society is responsible.
Whether any war or conflict is right or wrong is beyond my point here. What party initiates action is beyond my point. The point is we should be responsible what we have done. Our representatives and those who fill their pockets should be even more responsible. Soldiers with no legs, with terminal conditions, with mental issues, who have a hard time fitting in because they saw so much, or were trained to be killers, shouldn’t be thrown to the begging for alms groups. No one should get rich off of this, or get any huge salary. Especially since corporations supposedly are “people.” Especially when they are allowed to use what the Court foolishly considers “speech” (money) to buy political votes, to advocate for putting our soldiers in harm’s way. Companies that profit off of war should be contributing via higher taxes to their care. Since as a business, as a charity, we can’t vote them out, they should owe more than those of us who may have never supported the war. Their bar of responsibility needs to be raised way above where it is right now: no responsibility at all.
I make no specific accusations here, especially not aimed at any charity. As far as I know those who run organizations like Wounded Warrior have halos and help Saint Peter, but again…not the point. This market model shouldn’t exist in any just, responsible, society. It only exists in a society that uses up those who serve then throws them out in the cold, or even to the wolves.
And what this is all about is even bigger than all of this. It’s about us NOT finding out what the wages of war are, the costs of the carnage. After all, no matter what party, the next president who wants to send troops to war wants as little blow back as possible. Once we learned from Vietnam that when the public sees the cost they may not support every militaristic adventure both parties went silent, and the cover up of everything that might make war politically inconvenient, or ‘conflict’ if you prefer the all too convenient oxymoron, became all too politically convenient.
This is bipartisan. You think Hillary would have been in 40 wars by now? This would have enabled that. You think Cheney and Bush are war criminals? This enabled that. We SHOULD see the coffins when they come home. We should be seeing the gore of war. And we should be seeing, understanding, what war does to our soldiers and taking care of them. The cost should be out in the open. As they used to say, “Let it ALL hang out:” a rather gory cliche’ in this case. If care is insufficient then we should see just how insufficient it is: no corporation’s sensibilities should be spared. With the way it is now there’s a convenient buffer between all that and those who should be held responsible.
Organizations like Wounded Warrior shouldn’t have to go on TV and beg for money like pet groups do for puppies or kittens who have been abandoned, abused, beaten all too close to death’s ever open door. There should be no need for such organizations.
And we should be willing to pay the extra taxes to do what needs to be done.
Problem is pols and the war-related industries know this might crush their power and profit driven wet dreams. Our insistence on dumping our wounded soldiers like yesterday’s garbage onto the private sector hurts them and wounds society.
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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