REALLY? AMERICA AT WAR FOREVER?

WAR is the most complicated act this nation designed for itself to do. That we are so easily and so often drawn into them, ... should be a deep and genuine concern for Constitutional Scholars, and those of us who fight them and pay for them. It should be an even deeper concern for our Presidents and Congressional Leaders. It is the deepest concern for every mother and father in these times when WAR has become the...great American Pasttime.


I have never been drafted, nor even received a reply when I had asked to serve in the reserves of the armed services of our nation in a Medi-Vac Unit. Many in my family have. I've read accounts of their services and awards, commissions and pensions. They date from before the Revolution through the Civil War, and right up through World War II. So many.

There was not always a declared war, or the need for one to be declared. We were not in a constant state of war as we are now, ... Presidents requested the action, ... Congress declared a War, ... and we were in it, together. Men went off, ... women kept the homefront. (We've seen that Women are great fighters as well, ... great pilots, and can fill every comabt role). Costs were assessed in everyone's life, not just the few who had a soldier deployed. Every war differed, but some had repayments for clothes, a rifle and a horse. A plot of ground in a far off state. Others demanded rationing of essentials. Some asked a 2 cent stamp attached to a photo taken and then sent with a Yankee to war.

War was a declaration of national purpose. We were all in, by definition. Teachers, Like John Carey, signed up. Farmers like Henry Dillman, were drafted. Brothers like Charles Fox, and William Carey, ... died and were buried in some far off battlefield or nearby, often in a plot never marked. Stories were fashioned and written, and spoken before veteran groups to explain the cisrcumstances, but they have often been found to be fiction, to describe the circumstances of the death in a way that might comfort the family and the townfolk. While I did not serve, I worked in hospitals. Death, is death. It is not easy, but it is gentle. Our Maker provides for what medicine and the military can not.

To our Congress, and Our President, the ones we have now, and the ones we will have next, I suggest they address the constant war(s) we seem to find for ourselves. War is not sport. The effects of Hundreds of Thousands of injured, disfigured, disabled and diseased veterans is something this nation has known for 150 years and more.

There seem only three ways to solve the issues that affect and afflict our veterans, ...

FIRST, ... We commit to care for our veterans, from every war and from every service, in a way that will make them whole, and that will address the health effects of their service, no matter how arcane or obscure the DOD might believe their claim to be. What we do not see in civilian care, but see rotuinely in our veterans, ... is from their service! The VA needs to cut the crap and start the care.

SECOND, ... If our national leaders want to avoid the cost of caring for veterans, it must desist from declaring WAR every time the suggestion is raised. And it must desist from pretending an action declared by any president, and not sanctioned by Congress as a declaration of WAR, is a state of WAR at all. And if that does not cease the action, then the Congress must deny such activities the funding necessary to continue the war.

THIRD, and this is critical, ... Our NATIONAL GUARD was always intended to be a state-based means of repelling national and regional assaults, from within our nation, or from nature. It was not intended to be some sort of auxiliary resource for Presidents and Congress to fight undeclared wars, for constant re-deployment to theaters of action in wars that were never formally declared. The use of the NATIONAL GUARD for actions other than declared states of War should be, and very likely is, ... Unconstitutional.

WAR is something America must do , always, as an exception. Our founders knew that from the inception of this Republic. It is the responsibility of the President and the Congress to ASSURE the Constitution is adhered to in this regard.

When Our Armed Services are sent under arms for any reasons, and to any place, we owe them the full measure of care, support and recovery for their commitment and their experince under the command of the Commander in Chief during the confliuct in which HE/SHE ordered them to serve. And if it is an UNDECLARED War, then it must be called out. Pretty simple, really.