Stars and Stripes letters (thumbs up Kerry, thumbs down Bush)

[lebkuchen]

One of their own

Are members of the American military going to sit quietly and passively while President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their attack machine attack a fellow veteran of foreign wars? Frankly, I can’t imagine how anyone who has fought or is fighting for our country on foreign soil can sit by while Sen. John Kerry’s patriotism and honor on the battlefield are ridiculed and belittled. Kerry laid to rest any questions about his courage when he signed up for two tours of Vietnam.

Kerry earned his three Purple Hearts by showing uncommon courage under fire and by saving fellow soldiers’ lives. It’s obscene for men who didn’t have the courage to go overseas when their country needed them to now be questioning even one minute of John Kerry’s service on a foreign battlefield.

I hope soldiers and veterans will put aside their partisanship and stand up for Kerry. He’s a proven hero and someone who has already demonstrated that he can remain calm, steady and true in the direst of circumstances. I hope all of our military will stand up and speak loudly in support of one of their own and reject such cowardly behavior by Bush, who has the nerve to call himself “the war president.”

Patrice Parker
Anchorage, Alaska

Not factual

This is regarding the letter “Stick to the facts” (April 27). I agree with the title. But if we want to stick to the facts, we’d realize that the Bush administration’s opposition to Concurrent Receipt (CR) is not fiction, but a cold, hard fact. Although President Bush signed the 2004 Defense Authorization Act, which eliminated the pension reduction for disabled retirees rated at 50 percent or greater, his administration fought long and hard against such a measure. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David Chu made numerous public arguments against Concurrent Receipt.

When Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.) introduced HR 303, calling for an end to the pension offset, most members of the House signed up as co-sponsors. But House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), under direction from the White House, steadfastly refused to allow the bill to come to the House floor for a vote, effectively killing the bill.

After Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) sponsored a discharge petition to move the bill to the House floor for a vote, the Bush administration still fought the measure. Only after several Republicans such as Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), and Rep. Thomas Tancredo (R-Colo.) broke ranks with the Republican leadership and signed the petition did the White House relent.

This pressure, along with Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) S.392 calling for Concurrent Receipt, made the president realize that he was fighting a losing battle. So the president signed the measure into law, but not before the White House tried to strike a last-minute deal which would have made it almost impossible for current and future disabled retirees to qualify for CR. Fortunately, Congress refused to accept that slap in the face to disabled retirees.

Even this is a partial victory. This legislation only covers retirees with disability ratings of 50 percent or higher, and although front-loaded, it will take 10 years to be fully implemented. As for the Veterans Affairs health care system, the Bush administration increased the budget, but not as much as Congress had asked for. This resulted in a funding shortfall. The Bush administration proposed drastic increases in prescription drug costs to disabled retirees, only to back down in a maelstrom of opposition from the disabled veterans community and Congress.

One can argue that the Democrats’ move for CR was undertaken partially to embarrass the Bush administration, although the fight for CR was bipartisan. One can also argue that no move to repeal CR happened under Bill Clinton’s administration. One can also argue that if Sen. John Kerry becomes president, his administration would not be any more supportive of disabled veterans than the Bush administration has been. I’m not defending Sen. Kerry’s stance on disabled veterans, which he hasn’t yet articulated. But saying that President Bush supported Concurrent Receipt or disabled veterans in general is just not factual.

Douglas B. Kelsey
Virginia Beach, Va.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=22074