"Kurt Ullman" wrote in message

stuff snipped

Actually no, what with waiting times, lousy care, etc, I think
veterans deserve much better than the services the VA provides. You
been paying ANY attention to the news? (And from personal experience
with the VA, I can tell you some of this runs at least from the mid-80s
forward.

And before the VA it was going on throughout the whole world.

It's the same old story: When the war is over the veterans are forgotten.
Probably no Americans in recent memory got worse treatment that the
Confederate vets because the South was so impoverished after the war. I
remember seeing the museum curator they often have on "Pawn Stars" talking
about how to tell a Confederate wooden leg from the much more elaborate
prosthetics used for Northern vets.

I also seem to remember something about the same being true in ancient
Europe. It's easy to forget how much the soldiers sacrificed once the war
is over. No one had it tougher than these vets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kleidion

Skylitzes records that Basil completely routed the Bulgarian army and took
15,000 prisoners (14,000 according to Kekaumenos). Modern historians
however, such as Vasil Zlatarski, claim that these numbers are exaggerated.
The 14th century Bulgarian translation of the Manasses Chronicle numbers the
prisoners at 8,000. Basil divided the prisoners into groups of 100 men,
blinded 99 men in each group and left one man in each with one eye so that
he could lead the others home - this was done in retaliation for the death
of Botaneiates, who was Basil's favourite general and advisor, and also to
crush the Bulgarian morale. Another possible reason was that, in Byzantine
eyes, the Bulgarians were rebels against their authority, and blinding was
the usual punishment meted out to rebels. For this action, Basil gained the
nickname Boulgaroktonos (Greek: ??????????????), "the Bulgar-slayer". Samuel
died of a heart attack on October 6, 1014, reportedly due to seeing his
soldiers blinded.

While the wikipedia article doesn't mention it, the soldiers fared very
poorly when they returned home. Even VA care at its worst would have looked
good to them.

--
Bobby G.