The American Legion's Web site home page is very telling for what it doesn't say.
The most prominent thing on the Web site is a statement castigating Democratic House leaders for expressing disapproval of Bush's new "surge" plan for Iraq. And I quote:
“Congress can talk all it wants to about how it supports the troops. But its actions set the table. The message they sent today to the frontline is that America is preparing to cut and run. We essentially told our fighting men and women that ‘we have taken step one in the plan to cut reinforcements, to cut armaments, and to withdraw any support you need to complete your mission.’"Tough talk about supporting the troops. So you'd expect the American Legion to have something to say about the fact that 600,000 veteran disability claims are backlogged and going nowhere at Walter Reed. And about the fact that our troops are routinely treated like dogs while living at Walter Reed and after they're discharged. Or about the fact that the top guy at Walter Reed in charge of helping funnel private donations to help our troops is now being investigated for wrongdoing. You'd really expect that the American Legion home page might have something to say about this gross injustice to America's war veterans.
But you'd be wrong.
Here's the American Legion home page:
And here's the American Legion's bitter statement about the surge vote in the Congress. It even throws some anti-Bill Clinton jabs in there. But not a word about the mistreatment of our troops. Well, that's not totally true. In addition to claiming that Democrats are the ones abusing our troops, the American Legion closes with this rather self-referential statement:
“The American Legion and the American people find this to be totally unacceptable and we will do everything within our power to ensure that our troops are not used as political pawns by a Congress that lacks the will to win.”Nor should they be used by an American Legion that somehow appears to lose its tongue when Republicans are the ones harming our vets.
