For those of us old enough to remember, America’s extrication from its Afghanistan involvement is tragically reminiscent of the Soviet pullout 25 years ago, when the last Russian tank crossed the bridge out of that star-crossed patch of real estate, its mechanical tail tucked between its treads.

That godforsaken country (if you want to call Afghanistan a country at all) will revert to the state of semi-anarchy and warlord rule that dominated it before we arrived. America’s temporary intrusion will be memorialized by vast, rusting mountains of junk, some of it practically brand new.

Thousands, maybe millions of tons of war materiel have been judged more expensive to ship home than to simply abandon in place. Scavengers bid over the detritus by the pound, and this cottage industry — financed by the American taxpayer — has developed into an integral part of the Afghan economy.

Meanwhile, back here at home, the phrase “with the thanks of a grateful nation” rings hollow as these same taxpayers only grudgingly cough up the funds to rectify the enormous injustice done to their servicemen and -women who have suffered war’s human toll.

We always sent our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers to war with the promise that in return for their service, we would do whatever necessary to make them whole, or treat them unselfishly for the physical and psychological sacrifices they made. The hard reality has oftentimes been that politicians waved them off to war with encomiums about their heroism, only to fall silent when it came time to appropriate real money to heal them. That is, until they were shamed by scandal into doing so.

Strangely, there never seems to be the same reluctance to lavish the people’s money on defense contracts with corporations that slyly farm out work to as many congressional districts as possible.

But in the end, when we tut-tut about the crisis at the VA, we have no one to blame but ourselves — either for using flawed voting criteria, or for not bothering to vote altogether.

The next time we feel guilt about the shabby way we treat our veterans, we should put our member of Congress — and his or her challenger — on the hot seat to find out exactly where they would place veteran care on their list of top spending priorities. When it comes to sacred obligations, little else rivals it.