Crimea and the Golan Heights

A writer to the Letters to the Editor in a recent Wall Street Journal, actually tries to equate Israel’s hold on the Golan Heights with Russia’s occupation of Crimea and of the People’s Republic of China’s seizure of the South China Sea.

And he’s serious.

Approval of Israel’s seizure lends support to Russia’s claims that the Ukrainian territory seized by Russian “separatists” now belongs to Russia, as does Crimea. President Trump’s stance also gives sanction to China’s seizure and fortification of islets in the South China Sea.

This is just idiotic. Israel’s seizure and retention of the Golan Heights was a defensive move: terrorists acting with Syrian (at least tacit) approval, along with the Syrian army, were using that higher ground to shoot at Israel and Israelis.

No one was shooting at Russia from anywhere in Ukraine; Russia’s seizure and occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine is nothing but a gun-point land grab.

No one was shooting at the People’s Republic of China from anywhere at all, much less from the South China Sea. The PRC’s seizure and occupation, and militarization of the occupied islands, are nothing but a gun-point land and sea grab for the resources in and under the Sea and from which to threaten the surrounding nations.

There’s no equivalence here.

Yet Another Veterans Administration Failure

Here is another failure of the VA to take care of our veterans as they are charged to do, and as the VA’s motto promises they’ll do.  Here is another casual dishonor of that promise [emphasis added].

More than 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs patients in Kansas didn’t get proper follow-up care after initial colonoscopies last year, a problem that was addressed only after a whistleblower repeatedly reported it, according to a government watchdog.
The watchdog found patients didn’t get follow-up screenings on time and when they did, often didn’t get the results in a timely manner because of [a string of excuses].

Here’s that motto which the VA has so routinely dishonored:

To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan

After all this time, and with VA failure rate continuing unabated, it’s time to get off the dime and get rid of the VA altogether.  As I’ve said many times, commit this Failure Administration’s current and putative future budgets to vouchers for our veterans so they can get the care they need and want from the doctors they choose, the clinics they choose, the hospitals they choose.  It’s time to unshackle our veterans from the VA’s determined resistance to perform.

 

Veteranos Administratio delende est.