I hate war. I believe that in 9 cases out of 10 or 999 out of 1000, a better solution can be found than a contest of numbers that results in death and destruction and martyrs and vendettas. Precisely because that is usually the result, if we must, war should be entered into carefully, with wisdom and forethought and the full weight of the lives (on all sides) that will be lost and the damaging ripples those losses will incur. Any family who loses a member should be taken care of. Any individual, upon return, who has physical or mental illness due to their participation in war on our behalf deserves at least as much as was spent on the war to recover from it. We, as humans, know the effects of war. And as Oprah would say, when we know better, we do better. So far, we are failing on the do better part with regard to our veterans of war. We talk a lot about them, displaying our yellow ribbons and putting them on pedestals where we think we honor them. But they don’t need pedestals. They need care, and compassion, and an ear to hear, and a shoulder to lean on because they were strong for us there and it is our turn to be strong for them here. I failed in preventing the war from occurring. I pray I do not fail in giving our veterans and veterans families what they have earned.

Reform the VA.