ON Page 16 (PDN, April 13) a story reads, “White House: Full benefits to Filipino veterans too costly.” If there is anyone who knows how to “STAB” someone in their heart, it is the Bush administration.
Some of these veterans have been waiting for years upon years but this is of little concern to Republicans. If you don’t want to do something, at least have the decency to come out and say no instead of leading people on like the local Republican did — and are doing — to the COLA class. And if you are going to deceive, make it a “good one,” not something like COST.
According to the White House, even a portion of funding the bill would cost $4 billion over a decade. The United States, in case conservatives (if they are still around and paying attention), spends that same amount in one month in Iraq. And for what?
Conservatives who support the war effect in Iraq like also to point out that “Dems like to leave our allies in the lurch.” You know, ‘out and run.’ But it is the conservatives who have abandoned the troops coming home by not providing for their care until whistle-blowers speak up.
It is the Republicans who left town last year without approving spending for the war and left the Pentagon scrambling to shuffle money between accounts. And it is the neo-cons like GW Bush and Dick Cheney (who received 19 deferments) who never served in actual combat (unlike Guardsmen now, once again to the ‘commander-in-thief’) who recklessly send U.S. troops to their untimely and unnecessary deaths.
So the next time a Republican or a Democrat (local) stands out and speaks in favor of supporting veterans like Sen. Espaldon did — and others do all the time — tell them it is their constitutional duty to SPEAK OUT against this national tyranny. If they are unwilling to do so, tell them to SHUT UP! (We don’t need elected officials, media personalities and business leaders crying crocodile tears at soldiers’ funerals anymore.)

MATT PHILLIPS
Mangilao, Guam