"A nation that does not care for its war veterans has no business making new ones."

[WilliamPitt]

-- quote I first read on DU a long, long time ago

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/22/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/

https://veterans.house.gov/hearing/a-continued-assessment-of-delays-in-va-medical-care-and-preventable-veteran-deaths

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2023658616_veteranscarexml.html

[Scuba]

1. Another in a long list of reasons to avoid war.

[NYC_SKP]

2. So, um, if we start caring for Vets then it's "game on"?

This is the problem with clever and provocative adages: they might spotlight a problem but don't really offer a cure.

On a related but oft neglected note, ~20 veterans commit suicide each day, on average.

So, yes, this is a problem; we horribly neglect our veterans and we need to take the TS our of PTSD.

[woo me with science]

3. Now we have "donate to veterans" commercials just like ASPCA commercials.

Send $19 dollars a month to maimed veterans on food stamps.

It seems there are no limits to how low this criminal, corporate, warmongering government will go.

[marym625]

14. exactly.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

From a bird's eye view of the neglect, I recommend this post.

There's nothing glorifying about war and paying patriotic lip service to vets is meaningless.

Creating more vets you can't take care of is insane.

I can't stop my country from going to war but I can remind my country that their record for treating vets is a sad sorry state of affairs.

Yes, people give it a lick and a promise and some inroads are made.....but let some time go by and those vets are soon forgotten again.

Been there. Seen it.

[suffragette]

7. Yes, all the flag pins they wear don't add up to one cent of actual support for veterans

I think a large part of it is that they don't want to acknowledge the physical and psychological costs to the people who are sent to fight the wars.

[Solly Mack]

10. They lost my husband's records of serving in Iraq. Just *poof*.

Fortunately, we had 2 copies of his jacket, so we had extra copies of his orders, ALL of his injuries, and everything else related to Iraq.

They wanted our copies. We laughed in their faces.

We made copies for them.

A year later his knee injury paperwork was missing again.

Never ending merry-go-round to deny he served in Iraq and was injured more than once.

And he's an active duty soldier. (retire in March 2015)

[suffragette]

13. I'm sorry that happened

Glad you had the copies and, yes, smart move to make the copies for them.

So much wrong there.

[leftstreet]

5. DURec

[jwirr]

6. Exactly. My son-in-law was hurt in the Turkey years ago and he has been trying to get his paperwork

straightened out at the VA - it is going on more than 2 years now and they are fighting to keep their home. Yet the VA does nothing. They had a meeting 3 days ago when the VA admitted they had screwed up so now we will see.

Just curious - does it do any good to write our congress people and the president?

[ColesCountyDem]

8. We don't even take proper care of our active-duty folks, much less veterans.

When active-duty military personnel find themselves in need of SNAP benefits, it's a clear indication that our government has no intention of adequately caring for those are no longer on active duty, it seems to me.

[1dogleft]

9. your on fire today

[WilliamPitt]

11. you're

[1dogleft]

12. correct n/t