Re “A Patriot in More Than One Way”
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Larry Brezeale, green jacket, and Robert L. Rosebrock
Whether you agree with him or don’t, no one sleeps through a Larry Breazeale interview because his opinions are abundantly lathered with passion.
Retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., Mr. Breazeale — Msgt., USAF (Ret.) — is chairman of the National Veterans Coalition, which values the brand of core patriotism fashioned by the Founding Fathers that used to be prominent in school books.
The four-year-old Coalition honors a most patriotic American, and last month they honored Robert L. Rosebrock, who has been waging muscular land and policy battles against the West Los Angeles VA.
Having spent most of his life in uniform, Mr. Breazeale’s observations and answers shine with the gleam of military spit-and-polish, and his unfettered comments crackle with heel-clicking efficiency.
No wonder.
After a career in the Air Force, he segued into the Sheriff’s Dept. “On the very day of my retirement from L.A. County Sheriff’s,” he became the national chair of a veterans group more committed to restoring America’s red-white-blue sheen than swapping war stories weighted down with whiskers.
In choosing a patriot of the year, Mr. Breazeale said the National Veterans Coalition choose “people we feel give an extra effort. Despite the odds, they stand up for America first and for the Constitution.
“The Coalition is the veterans’ arm of the Constitution Party, which is the largest third party in the United States and the fastest growing.
“We are not a 502, or whatever you call (a non-profit group). We are none of that. There are plenty of fine veterans organizations that are benefits-oriented.
“What we do is address issues that affect our country from a veterans’ standpoint.
“We believe in getting rid of foreign aid. We believe if you got rid of foreign aid we would have the money to take care of Americans who have to eat and of wounded warriors.”
Mr. Breazeale was asked how elimination of foreign aid would change foreign policy.
“Drastically,” he said. “The Constitution Party and the National Veterans Coalition are non-interventionists. We don’t believe we are the policemen of the world. I served in Vietnam and Desert Storm, both of those wars. We support our military, no matter where they have to go, no matter where they are ordered to go.
“But the fact is our leaders, both Republican and Democrat, continually get us involved in no-win, undeclared wars.
“We have thousands of veterans in our organization all over the United States who feel pretty much the way the NVC does, and that is why they joined.
“They have had it with the Republican neocon leadership and the Democrats who continually get us wrapped up in everyone’s business around the world. We really feel millions of dollars are being thrown away on Third World countries in the name of foreign aid. If we had that money here in America for America’s domestic needs, we would have plenty of money to take care if our own needs and our wounded warriors.
“The wounded warriors who come back limbless and everything from these no-win undeclared wars, they get good medical aid in the beginning. But when they are discharged, they get peanuts. It is a travesty.
“We are told the VA doesn’t have enough money for a higher pension for veterans or for better medical care.
“Yet,” said Mr. Breazeale, “they always have enough money, in the millions or billions, to throw away at foreign countries. We never see that money again.”
