John Eskow: Why Has John McCain Abandoned the American Soldier?

George Bush, Dick Cheney, and John McCain are sending a razor-sharp message to the fighting men and women of America.

It's underlined again in bright, fresh, blood-red every time a tank in Bahgdad is blown up by an IED and shrapnel rips into another soldier's flesh.

It's written in script-letters of grimy dust along the floors and walls of fly-infested VA hospitals.

It's spelled out in the invisible ink of the GI Bill that's still not passed -- the critically-important Webb/Hagel bill, sponsored by two gutsy Senators (and veterans) with the courage not to quit in the face of cold-blooded Bush/McCain resistance.

That secret message is everywhere the American soldier and veteran looks nowadays. But it's a secret message that's not really all that secret -- it goes something like this: pssst. Hey dude and dudette. Come. Be All You Can Be. We'll sing you national anthems and write you flowery speeches. We'll solemnly call you the pride of a nation, the Best of the Best, as we Stop-Loss you back to Iraq for tour after tour. But then, goddamn it--if you DO manage somehow to keep your ass from gettin' blowed up, and find your way back home, you're on your own. Understand?

To which The Happy Warrior, John McCain, might add: This is America, "my friends!" Do what I did! Marry some billionaire Cruella-de-Ville lookin' chick, and you won't NEED health-care for your war injuries! Over and over, McCain has chosen tax-breaks for the rich over the desperate needs of our wounded GIs. Whatever his private reasons, in addition to fighting non-stop to block the GI bill, McCain has -- as reported by Aaron Glantz, author of The War Comes Home:

-- voted against nearly every effort to increase funding for healthcare and disability benefits for wounded soldiers

-- voted against the interests of disabled American veterans 80 percent of the time

-- received a D+ voting grade from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (when Obama got a B+, and Clinton, to her lasting credit, an A-)

--consistently voted against expanding mental healthcare and readjustment counseling for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, efforts to expand treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.

And it goes without saying that the ex-bomber-pilot never lifted a finger to help Mary Tillman, as she struggled valiantly -- through one Pentagon lie after another -- in a lonely quest to find out what really killed her heroic son Pat.

Some maverick, huh?

For our suffering vets, the "Straight Talk Express" is a runaway train bound to Nowheresville.

Many peace groups make it clear that while they oppose the war, they support our troops. McCain's real campaign slogan ought to be: I support the war, but I oppose our troops.