Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

Abdication of Duties

The media missed one of the bigger stories behind the nomination and withdrawal of Dr. Ronny Jackson to lead the Veterans Administration. The story wasn’t the gossip from coworkers or his inexperience leading a large bureaucracy. It wasn’t even the disarray and corruption within the department itself. The story we don’t want to read is the one about us, the civilians who don’t truly care.

The VA isn’t equipped to deal with endless wars like Afghanistan and Iraq. And we civilians aren’t prepared to truly care about ending those wars or avoiding more conflicts in the future. We have abdicated our responsibilities to our armed forces. And service members are bearing the burden of our indifference.

We care about veterans when they return. We erect monuments and support charities to help care for the wounded, but we do not do anything to prevent further casualties. In fact, we seem to be gearing up for more war, whether on the Korean Peninsula, or in the Middle East.

Much is being made in the media now of former service members running for political office, on both sides of the aisle. And while this may be good for debates around using military force, we civilians cannot continue to ignore our responsibilities in sending people to fight and die for our country. Military studies of past conflicts place a great deal of focus on “lessons learned.” It is far past time for those of us who don’t serve to learn these lessons also.

The problems at the VA extend beyond patient wait time and dirty exam rooms. The problems stem in large part from our endless wars and our inability to hold our government to account.

 

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