Honoring Our Veterans in 2007

By: Teddy
Published On: 11/10/2007 10:30:29 PM

On this 11th of November in 2007, we honor the veterans of all of America's wars. Let us especially consider those of our current conflicts.  Over 1,500,000 veterans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan so far- every last one of them a volunteer. Over 420,000 of them have done more than one tour of duty.  The Department of Defense lists some 26,000 as being wounded in action (although exactly how they figure "action" is subject to some debate, leading some observers to claim that the Administration's careful parsing of "action" obscures the true number of troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan).  According to IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association) almost 45,000 veterans have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and it appears that 1 out of every 3 Iraq vets will be so diagnosed (http://www.Iava.org).  Brain trauma is the signature injury of this war, thanks primarily to IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) of ever-increasing sophistication and malice. (http://www.liveleak....)  As Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director of IAVA, says "Nobody comes home from war unchanged."
How are these veterans treated by their grateful nation when they come home from war?  Surely, a Commander-in-Chief who constantly talks about supporting our troops, who so ardently sent them off to battle, remarking that he was "now a wartime President," surely that leader has made certain that every returning veteran has been cherished with loving care and ample benefits.  Think again.  The Department of Veteran Affairs not only was totally unprepared for the huge number of wounded vets (as of a year ago, September 2006, over 700,000 Iraq-Afghanistan vets qualified for health care), it woefully underestimated the need for psychiatric care.  The VA has a general shortage of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers; around 90 percent of those the VA does employ have no training in PTSD. 

In 2005 as many as 15,000 vets were still waiting for their first primary care appointment, and that number doubled to over 30,000 in 2006.  Since 2001 over 138,000 vets have received VA benefits, but many have had to wait for months, even years, to get them.  In fact, there are over 378,000 pending disability claims, including 83,000 who have waited over 6 months.  Sad to relate, I have been told that there was initially a concerted effort to disallow mental health claims based on PTSD in an effort to hold down costs (the bottom line, you know- the so-called problems were all considered to be a "pre-existing condition" for which the government had no responsibility).  I myself in 2005, when remarking to a Republican operative and war booster about the number of veterans who had committed suicide, and the long delays vets experienced in getting treatment, was told "These cry-baby vets are just young kids who never experienced any stress before; they're malingering."

It is now some 8 months since the scandal broke about the revolting conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  Congress has prepared an excellent budget for the VA, but it has yet to be passed.  Whether you are for the war or against the war, Veterans Day is "not about debating the wars or partisan politics.  It is about the men and women who have served in our armed forces, and they deserve our gratitude," says Rieckhoff. They need our help now, as the rock band Drowning Pool makes very clear in this video  http://www.thisisfor...

Comments



Political appointees (Teddy - 11/11/2007 12:48:35 AM)
at the VA had an aagenda, and it was not to serve the veterans, no matter how they protest otherwise. Somehow the Bush administration felt billion-dollar no-bid contracts were fine for Halliburton, but every dime had to be squeezed twice when it comes to taking care of veterans. Chastized by the uproar over the disgusting conditions at Walter Reed, what does Bush do, I hear, but appoint a new head of VA who actually was the top top dog overseeing Walter Reed when the situation was deplorable. Mess up, move up; if you're on the favored elite list, you are protected from consequences of your incompetence.


We the people have much to answer for (Ron1 - 11/11/2007 3:02:58 AM)
There is something fundamentally immoral (amoral?), capricious, disgusting, and wrong with a country that allows its leaders to start a war on lies, that allows its leaders to throw billions of dollars at war profiteers and contractors without an ounce of oversight, and yet does not demand that those that bore and are bearing the brunt of this disastrous folly are taken care of in the richest country in the history of mankind. We choose not to take care of our own out of ... what, rank apathy or indifference? Our culture happily glorifies war, but studiedly ignores the effects on those that have to do the killing or the families of those killed.

We have proven these past six years that we have no business telling any other country or people how to run their affairs -- our moral standing has been destroyed, by our own actions (granted, led by an especially grotesque political movement that was almost literally a collection of wolves masquerading as sheep).

I remember two years ago, during the World Series between the Astros and White Sox, I was in a bar in Austin watching the game. One rowdy young guy was making a bit of a scene of himself, as the only White Sox fan in a bar of unhappy Astros fans. Eventually he ended up on the bar stool next to mine, and we got to chatting. He apologized somewhat for being so loud, but I told him it was all in good fun. Eventually I find out he had been back from Iraq for some months, and had been traveling and drifting from town to town and visiting friends, but avoiding his family. I asked him how he was doing, and he was taken a bit aback by the bluntness of the question, and just said, "Not good. I have nightmares every night." I dropped it at that, and just thanked him for serving and bought him a beer. I said I wish I could do more, that I felt we had failed him and his fellow troops. He said the only answer was at the ballot box -- of course, this was in 2005, so I told him we both knew how that turned out. He ambled on, and that was that. It was a haunting experience, and it saddens me that this young kid probably never got any help and will go through life scarred.

I hope at some point in the future we again have a government that will honor people like that lost soldier by helping to bind their wounds. That is why we cannot let any congressional race go uncontested. Inch by inch, we have to fight to get our country back.

Thanks for the diary, Teddy. It is important to remember what this is all about.



Tinsel patriotism (Teddy - 11/11/2007 12:10:19 PM)
means making an obligatory if hypocritical cameo hoohah over flag and country, but never exerting onesself personally actually to BE patriotic. War is the rich man's profitability scene, the fight is for the poor dude.