Welfare Warriors

Julia Gorin has a biting commentary called “Welfare Warriors” in today’s Opinion Journal, about how the anti-war left views the military as a job training program. Key graf:

To the antiwar left, then, the military is a social program that went awry. As long as it was giving and not taking, the idea of national defense was tolerable. Indeed, what other purpose could national defense serve besides job creation, since America's enemies were figments of the right's imagination? So the idea has been for Americans to get an income and training, but not, God forbid, actually to serve in combat.

The local left-weekly here in the Pioneer Valley recently had an article titled “Veterans Against the War” profiling a bunch of AARP-members who take the time to protest U.S. military action wherever it may be. It was never revealed in the article, but I would have liked to know if these principled men were so horrified by the actions of their country that they refused their veterans benefits. Isn’t a little hypocritical to protest against your country’s military engagements while collecting a military pension? I’m sure there’s a rationalization in there somewhere.