I sometimes link back to previous posts, a common thing for bloggers to do as a way to provide more context in a post, but today, I’d like to encourage you to read an entire post from a few weeks ago. At that time, I posted about Ann Romney calling her husband’s and son’s Mormon missionary work as being like serving in the military.

So, Ann Romney compares Mormon proselytizing to sacrificing to protect our liberty?  Really? An act of inducing someone to convert is the same as risking your life to protect the foundation of our country? Only if our country is a Mormon or Christian theocracy.

At the time, I was so utterly offended, and remain so. I’m not a big fan of War, and consider myself more of a Peace Activist than a proponent of military efforts, but regardless, those Americans who enlist, and risk their lives, and all too often sacrifice far too much deserve our utter and complete support.

My point today, is not so much to draw attention to Ann Romney’s insensitive comments, but rather to ask that readers demand our elected officials to stop treating our veterans as pawns in a political game. Military actions may always be controversial, and therefor, political, but it is in our countries best interest that everyone at al levels of our society and government, resist the urge to use our military women and men as a wedge issue, a prop, or a leveraging tool. They, these men and women, have too much at stake, and often have lost far too much already.

ROMNEY: No, that’s not correct. He was serving his mission and you know my five sons have also served missions. None served in the military. None served in the military, but I do have one son that feels that he’s giving back to his country in a significant way where he is now a doctor and he is taking care of veterans.

Our commitment to our veterans can not start at the point that they need medical care. Our commitment to our veterans must start with holding our elected officials accountable to be placing as few of our military in harms way as possible. It must start with demanding that the media provide us with clear and accurate news to assist all Americans in understanding what is happening, why, and how our women and men are involved. In other words, there is a political issue of military action, and there is a the real-lives issues of military action. We must not as Americans confuse them, and must remain solidly supportive of the latter even as we pressure our elected officials about the former.