US Funds Wars Abroad, Can't Fund VA Hospitals at Home
While politicians tirelessly champion sending billions in military aid abroad—like the $14.3 billion recently approved for Israel in HR 815, according to OpenSecrets data on AIPAC contributions—the services meant for those who fought for this nation languish. These are the same veterans who often return home to underfunded healthcare, inadequate mental health services, and bureaucratic nightmares.
We're excellent at deploying them, less so at caring for them once they're no longer 'useful.' One might wonder if the American political class values proxy wars and global muscle-flexing more than the very lives broken by its own foreign policy. How many more veterans must die in the institutions built to heal them before we acknowledge the systemic neglect? The 'support our troops' bumper
sticker looks pretty thin next to a VA hospital's budget sheet.