The G. I. Bill Fight

So now we have a battle between our presidential candidates about how the GI Bill is not providing enough money to veterans for their college degrees.

Well, duh...

You must consider the attitudes of the Washington elite, the business elite and the very rich, the very powerful and the privileged in this country in order to figure out why.

Soldiers are not called "grunts" and "cannon fodder" by these people for no reason. They call them that because they believe them to be exactly that... slow-thinking and dim-witted hinterland offspring that can't find work anywhere but in the army, and generally too stupid to figure out that all those Army ads about "an army of one" and "be the best you can be" is nothing more than total hype and bullsh*t.

The children of the elite who may think of the military as a good thing, or as a requirement for political careers, go to places like Annapolis or West Point - incredibly elite(and taxpayer supported) universities unto themselves - and then spend their "active" duty someplace as safe as their baby nursery was. Then they become generals infesting the Pentagon and ultimately... thieving beltline lobbiests and politicians that infest Washington.

Sending the likes of the average foot soldier to college is - they believe - a waste of time and money, so Congress has quietly been not funding what the military has been promising all those country boys, but somebody finally noticed, and now the ruckus.

Don't expect any changes on this. The military will continue to promise enlistment and re-enlistment bonus's and then not pay them. They will continue to promise a college education and not deliver. They will also - we are told - help you finance your home ... if you will be satisfied with something no larger than the average tool shed.

Don't believe any of it for a second. The typical soldier of today will always be considered as a grunt and nothing more than cannon fodder, another expendable asset to further the ambitions of the rich and powerful.

Many World War II veterans did get a higher education using the GI bill. But that was a half-century ago, colleges were affordable then, and our politicians believed in something besides themselves and their fortunes.

But even then - as some of you may recall - enlisted men were not allowed to "fraternize" with those female nurses. They were playtoys and targets for the officers only.