According to a study of veterans and vet benefits:
Despite the fact that recently discharged service members are trained, skilled, disciplined, dedicated and drug-free, Principi said, almost 20 percent of those aged 20 to 24 are unemployed — a rate higher than their nonveteran counterparts.
The panelists ran into some hard truths when they explored veterans education benefits, he said. Under the current program, service members contribute $1,200 of their first year’s pay to enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill. Principi said about half of those who contribute fail to use their benefits.
While many young people cite education as the reason they join the military, the commission found that increasingly more of them see the military as a detour rather than as a route to college.
The commission recommended Congress pass legislation for the government to pay for honorably discharged members with four years on active duty to attend any school in America for which they qualify. The panelists said the scholarship should cover full tuition, fees and books, and provide a $400 monthly stipend. The four-year service clock would start on the enactment date of the new law; members already on active duty at that time would qualify by re-enlisting or extending to satisfy the four-year requirement.
Meaning, those of us who have previously devoted years of our lives will see no benefit from this overhaul, and will still be out the money (plus the bonuses we gave up for the College Fund for some of us) we donated all those years earlier. Any wonder why the military has a hard time recruiting people, even in the middle of this war? After 6 weeks of the current semester, and having started the VA benefits process in June to get a headstart, I still have seen not a dime of my vaunted entitlement and I’m still trying to prove to the VA that I really am owed the College Fund. I gave up a $5000 bonus in 1989 for that extra cash, I’m damned sure going to fight to get it.
I can really relate to the “detour” remark above, as can most veterans I’ve talked to (and the retirees I work with if they were honest with themselves). At 31 years old, with the array of knowledge I have gained from my own personal quests as well as the 12 years of military intelligence (it’s not an oxymoron) experience, I damned sure should have had more than 2 job offers when I got out of the military. And, more than one of them should have been non-insulting. Instead, I can’t get paid what I’m worth (and what my coworkers and bosses tell me I’m worth), because I haven’t got a piece of paper on the wall that certifies my ability to learn stuff. Actually showing them all the stuff I’ve learned is impossible, and nobody believes anyone without a damned degree anymore. Five years ago, I could have gotten out and had a kickass overpaid job, just because I knew what HTML stood for in 1995. Now? Phbt!
To support me, please go to my site and buy a “Friends don’t let friends reenlist” shirt or sweatshirt. I even have mousepads! The “Battle for Knowledge” design is so far my best seller.
current_music: life
current_mood: aggravated
An Excite@Home shutdown would strand 45 percent of the cable modem users in North America, disrupting small-business owners, telecommuters and even students, since many cable companies have donated high-speed data lines to schools.
current_music: Dandy Warhols – Godless
This was in my email this morning. One way of looking at things, I suppose.
In America, 50% of homeowners have firearms. That means 50% of homeowners have the capability to kill you if you knock on their door late at night. That doesn't mean they're going to. But if they want to, that's absolutely within their capability.
If America really wanted to declare war on Afghanistan, the place would be a radioactive glass parking lot. That doesn't mean we're going to nuke-and-pave the Silk Road.
We haven't firebombed Kabul (we did it to Dresden and Tokyo in WW2), we haven't carpetbombed areas inhabited by civilians (we did it during Vietnam), we haven't turned entire cities into ash (we did it to Japan in WW2), we haven't used chemical weapons on the Taliban (as was widespread all over in WW1), we haven't sprayed carcinogenics over civilian population centers (Vietnam), we haven't fought the decisive battle of the war a week after the peace treaty was signed (War of 1812).
If you think that what we're doing to Afghanistan right now is "waging war on the people of Afghanistan", you need to read a few history books. What you're seeing in Afghanistan is about as gentle a war as the United States has ever fought.
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