"Our military deserves leadership that matches their service and patriotism. Getting our troops the pay raise they deserve is the very least we can do to show how much we value everything they do for us." John F. Kerry

Have you ever noticed how many “no brainers” there are when Washington debates an issue? Answers that are so obvious that toddlers could use their doodle pads to write them out? Yet the people we hire to do a job for us (aka politicians) can't seem to grasp that, sometimes, the answers really are as simple as common sense is supposed to be.

An excellent example is the current trouble the military has with recruiting. They're bending all over themselves trying to entice men and women into joining with all kinds of extras, most of which really are needed and should have been offered long ago anyway. However, perhaps because they're afraid it will cut into their own lucrative salaries, our hired help, who should be savvy to such things, completely miss the point that what those men and women need, and should be receiving, are liveable incomes. Either that or quit making them pay for all the things they're required to have, such as uniforms, housing, and even insurance. When my father served during the Vietnam and Cold War eras, his benefits were truly benefits befitting a so-called volunteer military. He was given an allowance for certain requirements. Today recruits are required to buy their own regulation boot camp footwear from the military service itself and from what I understand, it sucks big green weenies (no doubt it came from China by way of Walmart). As soon as most of them can, they make a desperate trip to the base exchange (PX to many) and pay a lot more money for boots, money they can ill afford to spend, that are actually wearable. Money they shouldn't have to spend in the first place.

Washington should be mortified at their cavalier treatment of those men and women who enlist, knowing full well they may be called to pay the ultimate price for their loyalty to this country. It's bad enough that the VA is so shabbily managed with the barest minimum of funds allotted by the government, when, in my opinion, veterans should be receiving care on par with somewhere like, say, the Mayo Clinic. But that's considered too expensive for those who actually give our hired help the protections needed to supposedly do their jobs, while said hired help are perfectly content to go at their leisure. And no doubt pay cash for the privilege.

Yes, I'm outraged. Everyone should be, not just those of us who served or who grew up in the military. We owe our service members compensation worthy of their willingness to serve and even sacrifice. Maybe if more veterans were to serve in the government this would be more likely to happen. But politics these days can only be bought, not earned, and precious few are wealthy enough to enter the market no matter how strong their character or impressive their credentials.

If it's true you get what you pay for, then maybe those holding the nation's checkbook should consider what grossly underpaying our military is doing for our national security. Not nearly enough.

c. 2022