Saturday finds us once again marking Armed Forces Day, a day of respect and thanks for those who serve. This day first celebrated our service members in 1950 when separate Army, Navy and Air Force Days were combined.
Though ideally this should be an apolitical day for thanks, recent events require a political reckoning.
Since 2014 the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been caught in political disarray when it came out that veterans were dying as they waited for care. After the Obama administration failed miserably to solve the problems, President Donald J. Trump has been trying to get someone in charge who will boldly address the issues.
To do so he nominated Dr. Ronny Jackson. But Jackson was recently chased out of the confirmation process to be VA secretary for the nebulous accusation of prescribing sleeping pills to officials traveling overseas and for other unsubstantiated allegations. The real reason Democrats worked to undermine his possible Senate confirmation was that he supported bringing in private care to help those on VA waiting lists.
“I’m flabbergasted by this sleeping pill accusation,” says Greg Stube, author of “Conquer Anything—A Green Beret’s Guide to Building Your A-Team,” “as a career Green Beret I found that having a health care professional prescribe something to help us sleep as we flew to complete dangerous missions overseas was normal. It’s also common for U.S. officials to take something to sleep so they can be sharp when they land in a foreign country for diplomatic talks or other official functions.
“Clearly the left didn’t want Admiral Jackson confirmed to a significant post, as they’re having a hard enough time with the wisdom and practicality of other career service members in the Trump administration,” says Stube.
When we thank a soldier on this Armed Forces Day we’ll be thanking them not just for what they might have done overseas, but also for what they represent for us at home. They are citizen soldiers. Volunteers. They are complex individuals doing many different jobs.
On Friday, President Donald J. Trump came right back at the bureaucracy by announcing he is nominating Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, to head the massive and troubled agency.
As the political fight over the future of the…
