VA Backlogs - Vietnam to Afghanistan/Iraq

"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

Backlog of veterans claims recalls Vietnam-era benefit battles

03/31/2013 - The frustration of Vietnam veterans echoes today among new veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who deal with a current backlog that has left nearly one million veterans waiting for their benefit claims to be processed.

In a February 6, 1991 broadcast highlighted Sunday on Melissa Harris-Perry, NBC News reported on Vietnam veterans suffering from illnesses they contracted due to exposure to Agent Orange, the chemical used widely during that conflict. The devastating effects of Agent Orange to the men, women, and children of Vietnam were already known, but even in the 1980s, the men who were exposed to it during their tour of service had to fight to get treatment and benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“The V.A. basically told me to get lost,” Jim Donaghy, a Vietnam veteran, said in the clip. ”The rage is incomprehensible. It goes beyond rage, it’s betrayal.”

March 29 marked 40 years since the last American troops left Vietnam, and March 20 was the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. read more>>>

Not just Agent Orange but PTS and so much more was Ignored by the Country, it ignores it doesn't see the need to fund the care for or the rest of it's responsibility, it likes it that way {note: Korean war vets for the most part were completely ignored}. Leading to Desert Storm and Gulf War Syndrome and still more. Finally now all are being addressed by the still grossly underfunded VA, as they try to build what always should have been a modern VA with advanced technologies and more Finally, and with the help of this present Executive Administration and the rest of it's Cabinet, while the congress, especially those still calling themselves republican, the rubber stampers of two more wars and long occupations costs, attack the VA personal as they still seek to privatize the peoples responsibility, for private bottom line profit of the few off the public's treasury!!

"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

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." - Abraham Lincoln

From the Costs of War Project: Because the Iraq war appropriations for FY2003 - FY2013 were not funded with new taxes, but by borrowing, it is important to keep in mind the interest costs already paid, and future interest costs. Iraq War appropriations for DOD and State were 54 percent of the interest costs. If one were to include Iraq's share of cumulative interest through 2053, those costs could be more than $3.9 trillion.

So far, Washington has paid some 260 billion dollars in interest charged on war-related borrowing, but the potential interest cost of the U.S. war debt reaches into the trillions

Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Cost U.S. 4-6 Trillion Dollars