Own up to the damage caused, and why it was caused.
EG, The government damaged these people, and did so for purely political reasons.
The government should take responsibility for the consequences they have forced on those people, and should be accountable for their treatment/care.
Additionally, the government should be forced to admit the statistics of how often people are damaged this way when they serve in the armed forces, and display it clearly and in large text on their recruitment adverts.
Yeah, good luck with that.
I agree that the gov't should be on the hook for disabled returning soldiers. And they are...sort of. They get SS disability payments, which is a pittance. You could argue they should just continue to get their military salary for the remainder of their life, but frankly that's not that much for enlisted personnel with short time.
An E-3 (Pvt. 1st Class) with 4 years in gets paid $24,418.80 a year. That's a pretty shitty salary. Now, while they're in uniform, they also have housing provided (or an allotment for off-base housing), and cheaper food and goods through the commissary. But once they muster out, they lose those benefits.
I agree with all the manlove for vets (I get to see firsthand the shitty VA service due to my half-brother's travails), but here's the problem -- what do you do for a guy that's spent 4-8 years straight out of high school being trained primarily to be a killboy, with very little technical skills adaptable to civilian life? Where do you employ him?
Didn't we (somewhat) face that problem after WWII and Vietnam?
As far as the math stuff, perhaps we need to study what works and what doesn't work elsewhere in the world? Yes, the cultures would be different, but the brains aren't.
Ironically, there weren't as many crippled veterans of WWII because if you had those kind of injuries you probably didn't survive. We have much lower KIA rates now compared to previous wars, but far higher seriously wounded vets coming home. And Vietnam was a good example of the VA failing returning vets with mental damage. We're seeing a lot of vets now with mental and physical damage.
Rubio: We can't fix global warming, so why bother?