My half-brother, a veteran, is homeless today, Senator McCain.
He couldn't reenlist because of asthma he developed in Afghanistan after being ordered to stand watch over burning piles of trash.
He has no college education, and cannot afford one, Senator McCain.
Now, he lives in a shelter in Topeka, Kan., with a big neon cross on the roof.
Today, you failed to support a boost in benefits for my brother and thousands of other brave Americans who fought and suffered in the wars that you pushed in Iraq and Afghanistan. That legislation, rejected by you, could give my brother a badly needed shot at a brighter future, a future his service to our nation has unfortunately dimmed.
You thereby have dishonored yourself, Sen. McCain. MORE...
Sen. McCain, it is utterly contemptible that you disparage Senators Webb and Obama for wanting to give my brother and his fellow veterans an increase in benefits, like a defrayed cost of education.
Meantime, you offer a sleazy alternative, based upon a false assumption.
You advocate a bill that gives less to those who serve one enlistment than those who soldier on through multiple deployments, saying...
Our bill has a sliding scale that offers generous benefits to all veterans, but increases those benefits according to the veteran's length of service. I think it is important to do that because, otherwise, we will encourage more people to leave the military after they have completed one enlistment.
But thereby you ignorantly assume that those who leave after one tour of duty are somehow lazy, or not patriotic enough to deserve full benefits.
Senator McCain, I ask you: What about those who served and suffered in their health, their psychology, or their family or financial lives -- so egregiously that signing up for another enlistment wasn't an option?
Are these American veterans, volunteers who answered the call to duty sounded by that asinine president that you coddle and hug, not deserving of our nation's gratitude and support?
Because they served one enlistment, and were so traumatized or alienated, that they were unable to serve another, are they not entitled to the kinds benefits that came to those who saw "just" one tour in WWII?
In your contemptuous opinion, obviously they are not so deserving. For these Americans are mere fodder for a bloody war for profit that you advocated, cheered and repeatedly oversold as winnable – when it was not.
And yet you dare say that Senator Obama has failed to "take the time and trouble to understand this issue"?
Did you really say that, Senator McCain? As you sit on your bus full of lobbyists and salesmen for war.
Did you also say of Obama, who actually is trying to help my half-brother and his fellow veterans, "If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election."
Let me tell you something, McCain: Like millions of other Americans, I heartily look forward to Sen. Obama’s inauguration as our next president, and pray that the damage done by you and your despicable ilk is kept to a minimum between now and that bright, hopeful day.
Rather, Sen. McCain, it is your elevation to higher office that would inspire this nation’s profound, rapid and everlasting regret.