Veterans for Common Sense and Paul Sullivan are proving a point. When people care beyond politics, speak the truth and fight to change things, things change. It is basic common sense. They are fighting for our veterans to receive the care they thought they were promised as anyone working a job would assume.
The rest of us go to work in the civilian world expecting that if we're hurt on the job, workman's comp will take care of our injury as well as the lost income when we cannot work. That's the rest of us and we'd be pretty angry if anyone prevented us from getting it. There would be people lining up in every newspaper office around the country demanding action because it would be simply wrong to not pay when we ended up hurt just doing our jobs. So why isn't this happening when it is men and women serving this country in one of the most dangerous jobs anyone could do?
These men and women agree to risk their lives everyday they are deployed. They agree to do jobs not many others would be willing to do. They are not just sent to another state to fill in gaps in manpower, they are sent into nations around the world and since 2001, they have been sent to a couple of the most dangerous places on earth to provide for what this nation needs.
They don't play politics. They don't get to decide to go into combat or not. They don't get to decide who to fight or how long it goes on. They don't even get to quit when they just don't want to do it anymore unless their enlistment time is up. They also have to leave their families behind when they are deployed for a year or, more often, longer than a year.
What do they ask of the rest of us? The same thing we expect out of our own employers and nothing more.
We hear all the talk about the backlog of claims but we tend to forget that number is a veteran usually along with an entire family waiting for us to do the right thing for them. We show up to send them off and we show up to welcome them home but then we pull a vanishing act as if our job is done and we don't need to care anymore.
The way our veterans are treated is not unique to the world. No nation really lives up to taking care of any of their servicemen and women properly but you'd think since we spend the bulk of the world's defense spending, we'd have at least a higher standard when it came to taking care of them men and women in the military. Why is it that we never think of them this way?
For years we've heard politicians say no amount of money is too much for this nation's defense. We were told that hundreds of billions of dollars had to spent to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan but did we hear the same cry for necessity when it came to talking care of the people we depend the most on? No. When it came to them some politicians were on the floor of congress whining about tight budgets with two wars to pay for.
The time to do the right thing was before they were sent. All of the wounded should have been planned for ahead of time and not when it was too late to save so many. To lose more after combat than we do during it is simply wrong and we didn't have to see so many die by their own hand but the DOD and the VA were not prepared to take care of all of them. We need to make sure this never happens again.
The other factor is as the newly wounded were waiting in line for help, the older wounded were getting into the same line and no one planned for them either. This all got worse very, very fast but until we get things right, it will keep getting worse at the same time we ask more and more out of the servicemen and women. Taking care of them is not just common sense, it's common decency.
Landmark CBS Investigation
The landmark news segment by reporter Byron Pitts and Producer David Schneider at "60 Minutes" revealed many new pieces of information because it was the first-ever major investigation into VBA.
* CBS reported the fact that more than 400,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have already filed disability claims against VBA. This information was obtained by VCS using the Freedom of Information Act.
* CBS embarrassed VBA into admitting VBA's disability claim form is an insane 23 pages long. We want to know when VBA will use a shorter, veteran-friendly form.
* CBS mentioned that VBA will be issuing new claim processing rules for PTSD. This an effort initiated and led by VCS since 2007 worth an estimated $5 billion for our disabled veterans.
VBA didn't dispute any of the facts presented by VCS and broadcast by CBS. Top on the list is the fact VBA has one million backlogged claims. Our lawsuit uncovered the long and outrageous waits veterans endure - six months for an initial decision and four years for an appealed decision.
Your Turn to Act
Now, today, it is your turn to call local newspapers, TV stations, and your local Congressman and demand immediate reform at VBA. We also need more investigations into VBA. For example, VBA illegally shredded veterans' claims, VBA improperly backdated computer records, and VBA paid top leaders huge cash bonuses while the claim backlog grew larger and veterans waited longer.
VBA urgently needs pro-veteran leaders, a pro-veteran culture, streamlined rules, and VBA claims staff to help veterans in every Veterans Health Administration medical facility.
