GI Bill--Yea! More War Funding--Nay!

Peace Groups Write to Congress
What to do?  Get active!
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 68% of people in this country who want to
bring our troops safely home in 2008
(1), we thank you for voting against $163 billion more for
Iraq occupation funding on May 15
(2). Unfortunately the Senate did not follow your lead and
you will have to vote again on Iraq occupation funds in June.
This time your vote may include the popular GI education
"bill" and other domestic funds.
We urge you to stand firm in your opposition and vote against
the Senate bill for the following reasons:
1. The GI bill passed with overwhelming majorities in the
House (3) and Senate (4) and would easily pass as a
standalone bill, which we support. You should demonstrate
your honest support for our troops by fighting to pass the
bill without requiring an additional year of war.
That bill could include all the other domestic funds.
2. By far the best way to show your support for our troops
is to bring them safely home as soon as possible.
We consider it morally disgraceful that necessary
expenditures to meet human needs are being tied to
$165 billion to pay for another year of war. Under the
guise of helping veterans, a 'yes' vote on a bill that
includes funding for Iraq guarantees that hundreds of our
soldiers will die, thousands will endure physical and mental
injury and that the carnage in Iraq will continue.
We recognize that defeating the Senate bill would force
Congress to pass a stop-gap bill to fund short-term
operations in Iraq. We support a narrow bill modeled after
the Lee Amendment that fully funds a safe withdrawal of our
troops from Iraq.  This is the position that 68% of people
in the United States support(1).
Sincerely,
Democrats.com
United for Peace and Justice
AfterDowningStreet.org
Code Pink
Gold Star Families for Peace
Progressive Democrats of America
US Labor Against the War
Voters for Peace
(1) 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home
within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone
poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR.
http://www.democrats.com/iraq-poll-2
(2) House Roll Call 328
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll328.xml
(3) House Roll Call 330
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2008&rollnumber=330
(4) Senate Roll Call 137
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110& amp;session=2&vote=00137

Support the GI Bill

Wesley Clark, along with Brave New Films and VoteVets has put this issue right where it belongs, front and center. Unfortunately, our mis-leaderer doesn't support the troops. If we don't keep up the pressure, Mr. MIA will crush it. Please take a moment to sign the petition and pass it on.

Last week, the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of Senator Jim Webb's New GI Bill by a 75 to 22 vote. The New GI Bill would help veterans keep up with skyrocketing tuition costs and pay for a quality education after they return from service.
President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and we are going to need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override his veto.
Click here to help us build on our momentum. Email your Senators, and tell them to override the President's veto against the New GI Bill now!
Tell Your Senators To Support The GI Bill
Senator Jim Webb's New GI Bill, which would give our returning soldiers the education benefits they need, recently passed in the Senate. But President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and we need a 2/3 majority in the Senate to override his veto.
Join 13,991 other Americans and email your Senators, demanding that they provide our troops with the education they deserve today!
http://ga4.org/campaign/gibill?rk=7pNzN24qxGwwE

The "Greatest Generation" Doesn't Give A Shit About Their Grandchildren

Although this "Op Ed" is a thinly veiled promo for private enterprise to pick up the slack, the bigger picture might be the unbelievably callous attitude of former vets who took the goodies and turned their backs on Vietman, Gulf War and Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans. What every happened to "leave no man behind?"
Give vets their due: a college education
By Finn M. W. Caspersen, January 27, 2008
After serving in the Navy in World War II, Marylander Charles Schelberg was able to attend Washington College in Chestertown thanks to the GI Bill, which covered all his costs. Mr. Schelberg, who hailed from a working-class family of Chesapeake Bay watermen, was the first in his family to attend college and earned an economics degree that led to a successful career in community banking.
[...] When today's military veterans return home from their nightmarish tours of combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, many nurture dreams of earning a college degree, just as many of their grandparents did after serving in World War II.
Unfortunately, the nation is not responding to their service as it did in Charles Schelberg's day.
[...] Today's combat veterans encounter a GI Bill whose stinginess would have been unimaginable to their grandparents. It is sad to chart how far it has fallen and how inadequate are its current benefits. Gone are the glory days of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (the formal name of the GI Bill), which enabled millions of servicemen back from World War II to enter the hitherto largely inaccessible world of higher education. The GI Bill helped make the "Greatest Generation" great, paving the way for prosperity and the postwar boom years and permanently lowering the barriers to American higher education. Nearly 8 million veterans filled the nation's classrooms thanks to its benefits.
Yes, the GI Bill still exists, although in a different form now known as the "Montgomery GI Bill," and it still offers education benefits. But today's version makes education benefits a voluntary, contributory program; to receive any tuition benefits from Uncle Sam, you must have agreed in advance to a monthly deduction from your meager paycheck. Worse yet, the benefit is just a fraction of what is needed to meet today's tuition costs. Reservists who have returned from the battlefield earn even less than enlisted soldiers.
By contrast, the grandparents of today's veterans attended college free of tuition payments and free of the burdensome tuition-generated debt that most of today's veterans will shoulder. [...] http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.gibill27jan27,0,4866005.story