As we come onto the first Memorial Day since the end of the Iraq war and the continuing draw-down of the Afghanistan theater, few citizens will even think of the real meaning of the day, except for the reminders of the many sales in the private sector, but only as a long weekend and all that comes with those, another report comes out of the once again rising back log from the Military to the Veterans community of those seeking the help needed and they sacrificed for with many others sacrificing their lives.
Many of those who served in one or both theaters are now discharging out of the military, and have been but endings brings more in numbers, and joining the veterans community, a slow down in pushing reenlistment's starts as soon as any war draws-down as well as many rethink a career in military service, so once again like at the start of wars and continuing through the long occupations the numbers quickly spike up and maintain that spike as those systems, long under funded, and not enough man power bog down, greatly frustrating everyone.
And once again with that comes the DeJa-Vu all over again of the country not demanding their own sacrifice in funding the needs of the results of the wars, a decade plus now as to these two added to the previous decades, they send the few into and leading the accusations against the agencies charged with the peoples responsibility are those who's job it is to not only fully fund the needs, and over-site, but demand that sacrifice, the representatives, federal and state as the country, including many vets, join them with the agencies accusations of neglect or incompetence, rarely looking at themselves.
In the 110th and 111th congresses we finally had issues related to these wars brought into congressional hearings and many taken care of that went with no actions in the previous two, as reminded in the opening of this article points out one major issue in the military care system, as those rubber stamped the costs of waging the wars but not the results of for those sent throughout. The 112th, especially in the House of Reps, came in trying to cut the VA budget with their colleagues full support in the Senate, many states had already been cutting their funding of veterans issues budgets. They also now are fighting any cuts in the Defense Budgets, not to make sure the DoD military care is fully funded but for the needs and wants of the defense industry and the new weapons systems they seek with the huge profits from. They're also seeking to block the militaries moving into alternative clean and many being portable energy sources for their fossil fuel special interests, which as developed will actually save the defense department monies and be integrated into the civilian sectors quicker after that needed growth industry has been blocked for some forty years.
The country says those who serve do so to protect and defend the freedoms of everyone, but many of those who served or are serving start thinking about those sacrifices related to their brother and sisters who are left fighting years and decades long battles to get what the country owes them for their service to the masses of.
You won't hear that demand for Sacrifice, from the pols that partake right down to the citizens who attend, at any of the many Memorial Day actions that do take place from those who attend them for a couple of hours of flag waving!
{click on graphic for larger view} May 23, 2012 - Since the deep embarrassment of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal in 2007, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been trying to make the process of getting a medical discharge from the military less complicated, time-consuming and contentious. “Seamless transition” to civilian life was their oft-repeated goal.
But a new report from the Government Accountability Office and testimony on Wednesday before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee suggest they have not exactly succeeded.
The new G.A.O. report says that the joint medical evaluation system that the two departments created in 2008 to expedite the stress-inducing process for determining whether troops are fit to return to duty has been getting slower and slower – not exactly what members of Congress wanted to hear.
According to the G.A.O., the average processing time for active duty service members has risen to 394 days and for guard or reserve members to 420 days. The two departments had set a goal of 295 days for active duty troops and 305 days for the guard and reserves. read more>>>
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