Veteran's perspective: Looking beyond Walter Reed

[babylonsister]

http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles/2007/03/21/opinion/columnists/03charlie_brown.txt

Veteran's perspective: Looking beyond Walter Reed
By Lt. Col. Charlie Brown, USAF, Ret, Guest Columnist

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 8:49 AM PDT

Beneath the troubling revelations about the deplorable state of affairs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center lies something even uglier: a pattern of chronic neglect of veterans and their families by Washington politicians who will stand in front of any group of soldiers during an election year, but will stand behind none of them when it counts the most.

The Walter Reed scandal is only the tip of the iceberg.

Skyrocketing rates of homelessness, incarceration, substance abuse, suicide and divorce that have long plagued the veteran community - frequently the result of lasting psychological scars like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - are a national disgrace. And with more than one-third of recently returning vets showing symptoms of PTSD, experts already predict these disturbing trends will get worse in the decades to come.

Meanwhile, wait times at VA hospitals and mental health clinics, VA user fees and co-pays and the backlog of veterans' benefits claims are all increasing at exponential rates.

There's no question the staff at VA and Department of Defense facilities do the best they can with the limited resources allocated. The negligence illustrated by the Walter Reed fiasco is systemic, and a direct result of caring for war veterans on the cheap.

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[Monkeyman]

1. Dam how many Months have I been posting how bad it is

[babylonsister]

2. That you have, and I've been listening. I'm still majorly pissed off

at the way vets have been/are being treated. x(

[pwb]

3. a veteran who is 50% disabled gets $960 a month

that is not very much to live on.