Veterans Administration into the 21st Century: Grim Aftermath of a Decade of War

The present Veterans Administration is the most pro-active one in my lifetime, lets keep it that way, as it always should have been! The Countries Responsibility is to Fully Fund!
“We are dealing with veterans, not procedures—with their problems, not ours.” —General Omar Bradley, First Administrator of the Veterans Administration
"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013
“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013
WHY? GOOD QUESTION THOSE SERVED SHOULD ANSWER!

Prior too this present Executive and Veterans Administrations and just touching on the problems:
Army Times Oct. 16, 2008 - VA claims found in piles to be shredded
CNN iReport October 25, 2008 - House Vets' Committee To Probe VA Shredder Scandal
Tampa Bay Times Oct 27, 2008 - Hundreds of VA documents improperly shredded, review finds {Tampa Bay Times search page and series of articles}
CBS News February 11, 2009 - Veterans' Claims Found in Shredder Bins
And more disturbing in relation to even before and through the early years of the Afghanistan, quickly abandoned missions of, and Iraq occupations, this:
ProPublica and The Seattle Times Nov. 9, 2012 - Lost to History: Missing War Records Complicate Benefit Claims by Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans
"DeLara's case is part of a much larger problem that has plagued the U.S. military since the 1990 Gulf War: a failure to create and maintain the types of field records that have documented American conflicts since the Revolutionary War."
Add in the issues of finally recognizing in War Theater and more Veterans, by this Veterans Administration and the Executive Administrations Cabinet, what the Country choose to ignore from our previous decades and wars of: The devastating effects on Test Vets and from PTS, Agent Orange, Homelessness, more recent the Desert Storm troops Gulf War Illnesses, Gulf War Exposures with the very recent affects from In-Theater Burn Pits and oh so so much more! Tens of Thousands of Veterans' that have been long ignored and maligned by previous VA's and the whole Country and through their representatives!

America's representative democracy, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people" - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
How does a Country HONOR It's Fallen, by Their Own 'Sacrifice' in Taking Care of the Brothers and Sisters They Served With!!
These present wars have yet to be paid for, rubber stamping and rapid deficits rising started before 9/11 and continued with same for the wars. But especially in the early some six years of extremely little was added to the Veterans Administration budgets by those Congresses, and since obstructed by same war rubber stampers, as to the long term results of War, DeJa-Vu all over again. Keeping the VA under budgeted causes problems and of many grow worse, which costs more to correct much more, which is the goal of those seeking to privatize Government Agencies as they attack the people of and which was created by their own incompetence and ideologies, but doing those served will!
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." - Abraham Lincoln
"To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan" - President Lincoln

Are You Concerned About a Veteran? The Veterans Crisis Line Can Help>>>

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Grim Aftermath of a Decade of War

AIR DATE: Jan. 15, 2013 - More U.S. Troops Died by Suicide Than in Afghanistan Combat in 2012

SUMMARY
Suicides by active duty U.S. troops last year exceeded the number of servicemen and women killed in combat in Afghanistan. Ray Suarez talks to psychiatrist and retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis, who says more than half of the soldiers who killed themselves had already sought help from a mental health professional.

snip
STEPHEN XENAKIS: We have seen this before.
We saw it 20 years ago in the first Gulf War.We even in some ways saw it after Vietnam.I mean, the issues of medical health, of personal stress, of family stress, in fact, go up after the actual fighting has stopped and the soldiers redeploy, they're back in garrison, because the force is still under a lot of stress. Transcript>>>

Watch More U.S. Troops Died by Suicide Than in Combat in 2012 on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

January 15, 2013 - The Wilderness After War: Living with PTSD

Photojournalist Lori Grinker profiled three former U.S. service members suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The video, which features Hart Viges, Mark Wilkerson and Jessica Goodell telling their stories in their own words, was produced by Grinker for the Dart Society, an association of journalists who cover violence. The audio inconsistencies are due to the differing locations and modes of interviewing, including Skype. Some of the war images from this video may be too graphic for some viewers. read more>>>

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