Blowing it Strategically, Medically-Wise

One of the problems that this country had in World War II was getting enough servicemen into the military. The problem was so acute that in 1944, we came very close to drafting women. A source of that problem was the poor physical condition of the young men, who, as boys, had grown up during the Depression with poor nutrition and no health care.

We would have the same problem today.

It would seem to me that having a healthy population of intelligent and physically fit young adults would be a military necessity. Forget all the blather about socialized health care and Chimpy's irrational fantasy that people living on the lower rungs of the economic spectrum would be benefited by tax cuts to help pay for medical insurance. We can't break though that adamantine wall of stupidity by a straight assault with the facts of the matter. Facts don't matter to this Administration.

No, the way we get there is to argue that the only way we continue to have enough young people to feed into the Neocon Meatgrinder is to make sure that they grow up healthy and strong. And that means providing subsidized nutrition for poor kids, medical care for all children, physical fitness training for school kids (like they used to do back in the days following Sputnik, when we last worried about stuff like this) and good quality schooling.

It is a military necessity that we do these things.

Beyond that, why is it any more evil to provide basic universal health coverage for children up to age 18, as we provide universal education? What benefit is to to society to have children grow up in less than optimal health?