18k troops showing off Lady Liberty

I've gotten this picture too many times in the last month or so to ignore it, so I thought I'd share it. I'm always skeptical about e-mail forwards I receive, but occasionally, I get something that I want to be true, and this one of them. It certainly looks genuine, anyway.

According to the e-mail I received, the above picture was taken in 1918 of 18,000 men preparing for World War I at Camp Dodge in Iowa. As the e-mail succinctly said, it is "a gift from our grandfathers," but in my case, my great-grandfathers, or maybe even my great-great grandfathers. My grandfathers fought in World War II, but I certainly get the patriotic point.

Speaking of World War I, I just read the other day that there is exactly one veteran left in the United States from that war - the vet is something like 106 years old. I read the article with a tinge of sadness, because I know that our veterans from World War II are dying off at an average of 3,000 per day. If I live long enough, in a day not too far off in the future, there will be no vets left from WW II, either. I'm just happy that the vets from the most tragic war in human history are at long last getting their due for truly saving the world from tyranny.

I think another reason I look back on World War II with such admiration in recent years is because we had real, genuine leaders back then he thought out and planned for wars with foresight and intelligence, unlike the "leaders" we have in Washington now, who have no clue about when we should and shouldn't become involved in armed conflict. I also cringe to think about what awaits these vets when they finally do get home - sub-par health care from the Veteran's Administration, and indifferent politicians who are happy that these heroic vets helped them achieve their political goals. Meanwhile, the vets have to live their lives, many broken down mentally, physically, or both.

It's up to us to make sure that these morons in Washington take care of our returning heroes and that they are not discarded and forgotten, like old appliances. Because, mark my words, when the bill comes due for this war, many, many services are going to be axed to pay it off. Veterans' benefits had better not be one of them.