The Pentagon is Against the Better GI Bill

I’ve already written about John McCain’s refusal to support a GI Bill that would update the current provisions so that veterans could actually afford to go to college with the funds provided. Sens. Webb and Hagel have a good GI Bill in play that is getting bipartisan support but would have been a done deal if McCain had signed on. Instead, he decided to join up with Sens. Graham and Burr on a version of the bill that does little for the 75% of Army and Marine veterans who “only” serve four years of active duty- passing the benefits on instead to career soldiers.

(If there are Republican veterans reading, this might be the year you want to cross party lines on election day. Senator McCain is a veteran and should be commended as such but that shouldn’t negate his purposeful political decisions that harm veterans. Funds need to be placed into the V.A. system, the veteran’s hospitals need to be improved and the Webb GI Bill needs to be passed. McCain doesn’t seem like the guy for those jobs.)

It turns out the Pentagon has a similar mindset (who’d have thunk it?):

[W]e are certainly concerned that this would be eligible to them after only two years of service. We think pegging it to a longer period of service — the number we have in mind, at this point, is six years of service — that the longer you stay in, the sweeter the benefits are to you. Six years would show a commitment to service. … The last thing we want to do is provide a benefit — or the last thing we want to do is create a situation in which we are losing our men and women who we have worked so hard to train.

First of all, I’m not sure where they’re getting that two year number. From my own post on the subject:

The Webb bill covers anyone (including active reservists and those in the National Guard) who has served at least 36 months of “qualified active duty” that began on or after September 11th.

I’m hoping the Pentagon can figure out how many years 36 months equals. Secondly, the standard contract signed when joining the military is eight years (four active duty). According to Jon Soltz of Vote Vets, there isn’t a large number of people breaking those contracts. The people who do serve less than their four years of active duty usually do so because they are wounded to the point that they cannot continue to serve. The Pentagon’s position implies that career soldiers should take precedence even over those who have literally given their limbs (or more) to the war. Not the best stance to take.

I understand that the Pentagon’s primary concern is keeping bodies in the war. But if you want to keep fighting a war, you shouldn’t turn your back on the warriors.

Tags: GI bill, John McCain, military, Pentagon