During the Democratic National Convention, speakers pounced on the fact that Romney did not mention Iraq or the war in Afghanistan during his Republican National Convention address.
So, too, did some right-leaning pundits. Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, wondered aloud about the “civil propriety of a presidential nominee failing to even mention, in his acceptance speech, a war we’re fighting and our young men and women who are fighting it? Has it ever happened that we’ve been at war and a presidential nominee has ignored, in this kind of major and formal speech, the war and our warriors?”
The day before his acceptance speech, however, Romney spoke with members of the American Legion. “When our nation called, you answered,” he told them, “And I consider any opportunity to address our nation’s veterans a privilege not to be missed.”
That said, veterans groups lament that neither presidential candidate has been particularly vocal on specifics when it comes to the needs of those returning from America’s battles. “Veterans issues do not seem to be front and center on any campaign, on any level which I think is a little alarming, because we are still a nation at war,” says Tom Tarantino, an Army veteran and platoon leader in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.
Romney for his part has pledged to improve the Veterans Administration care process by allowing vets to go outside the VA system for services such as counseling. The VA under the Obama administration has been reluctant to do this, instead pledging to hire more mental-health specialists. Obama signed a bill in August to expand suicide-prevention efforts and fill lingering vacancies for counselors.
The plight of struggling vets is often compounded by their inability to find work when they leave the service, says Mr. Tarantino, now the chief policy officer for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. It’s a topic veteran advocates are eager to see the candidates address. “We haven’t had a robust conversation about the future of veteran employment,” he says.
The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans who have returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at 8.9 percent in July, is higher than the national average of 8.3 percent. White House officials are quick to add, however, that the unemployment rate for all vets, at 6.9 percent in July, reached its lowest level in more than three years.
In preparing vets for the job market, Tarantino and others point to loopholes in the new GI Bill, which make it possible for for-profit schools to exploit veterans by taking their money and giving them little in return. “The for-profit school industry is taking one-third of the [GI Bill] funding every year,” Tarantino adds, “and giving [veterans] a degree they can’t get a job with.”
These are loopholes the Obama administration has pledged to address. Romney says that if he is elected, he would change the new GI Bill to allow veterans to be eligible for in-state tuition anywhere, regardless of where they live.
For a full list of stories about how Romney and Obama differ on the issues, click here.
