Inadequate medical and psychological care is being provided to the active duty forces, let alone the Guard and Reserve. Pinching pennies in this area is going to have an effect on readiness, which is going to have an effect on national security.
I think we have gone beyond the somewhat deceptive contracts that were foisted on the Guardspeople. I don't feel that the administration has held up its end of the deal even according to the letter of those contracts.
And I'm not sure that all those Guardspeople thoroughly understood the contracts that they signed. We've all seen the advertising for Guard recruits that has widely been lampooned as "two weeks a year my *" There's a lot of fine print in those contracts, and a lot of recruiters that are less than forthright in describing those contracts to naive young people--especially if they're running behind on their quota.
I just think that there is an irony associated with our insistence that members of the Guard live up to every jot and tittle in the contract (and maybe even beyond, if you consider the abuse of stop-loss), but allow them no recourse when we (the American people) do not live up to our obligations towards them.
On a related but separate front, I was pleased to see that counselors are once again allowed to help returning service people fill out their disability paperwork to help them get the proper level of benefits. It is a shame that it took stories like this one in the press to shame the military into doing the right thing.
