Presidents Trump's speech the other night gave reference to the fact that he wants 50,000 more military troops. Although the cost for this is staggering, the real cost isn't even talked about. Each of these recruits, after serving for the agreed amount of time, is eligible for health care at a VA Center for life. The controversy surrounding VA centers, not being able to serve the veterans we do have, is ongoing. Yet we want to make more recipients.
At a time when most employers in this country are phasing out defined benefit retirement plans, because they are unsustainable, the military has no plans to do this. For those who stay in long enough to earn a pension, that they can start drawing on in their 40s, not normal retirement age, the costs over their lifetime is a whole lot of money. Money we don't have, $20 trillion worth the money that we already owe and have no way of paying back.
We already spend more money on the military then the next six countries. The last war we won outright was in 1945. We have troops in Korea 60 some years after a cease fire and still no settlement. We have been in Afghanistan for 15 years and are no closer to peace then we were when it started. We went into Iraq, destroyed the country, left came back and we will be there for a long time to come.
This isn't a slap at our veterans. You did what you were asked to do and you deserve what the government promised they would do for you. We just can't afford to keep on supporting a military to the tune of $600 billion a year, let alone make it bigger.
Mike Holst
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Crosslake
