Write a "Victory Plan" to fix the VA, modeled after the plan that was used to win WWII.
In June of 1941, the United States faced a desperate situation. Belgium, whose army was larger and better equipped than the US, had fallen to the Nazi’s along with France the previous year. Now, only England and Russia prevented Hitler’s total domination of Europe. If both fell, US military planners reasoned that within a year, Hitler would being using his newly acquired raw materials, food and manpower to build a military capable of dominating the Mediterranean, Africa, the Far East and even the Americas. To prevent this, the US would need to build and train an 8 to 12 million man Army, Air Corps and Navy and be ready to attack Europe in just two short years. The task of determining how to achieve this impossible feat fell to one Albert C. Wedemeyer. An Army Major with an unremarkable career, he had spent two years at the Kriegsakademie, Germany’s premier officer training school, where he became an expert on their new highly mobile combat techniques (The Blitzkrieg) and post-war strategic planning. Staring with a vision of what a post-war world should look like, he and a few other officers produced the “Victory Plan” in just three months. An intellectual Tour de Force, it not only detailed all of the men, equipment, fighting strategies and domestic production that would be needed to win WW II, but also the strategic actions necessary to win the post-war peace.
The reason I mention this somewhat obscure piece of US military history is because on this Veteran’s Day, history can provide an example of how to fix the VA. In the most recent scandal, whistle blowers have accused the VA of letting more than 40 veterans die while awaiting treatment. And just like so many past scandals, officials expressed both surprise and the absolute conviction that the problem was limited, until it became known that it wasn’t, had been going on for years and was known about by senior officials. We have been down this road many times before. In 1783, revolutionary war veterans outraged by Congresses' treatment of them, briefly held it hostage. The devastating effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam were hidden by the Defense Department for almost 40 years. The Gulf War Syndrome was denied until the numbers became overwhelming, as were the most recent waves of Iraq and Afghanistan vets suffering from PTSD’s (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). All these cases are now hitting the VA. To get a feeling of how beleaguered the system is, a back of the envelope calculation using $8,500 (US average) to $10,000 for a vet’s annual healthcare times 21.2 million vets shows the VA is underfunded by $16 to $48 billion dollars. Such an annual shortfall will always result in list of vets who die before receiving treatment. Thus, the 40-plus veterans in Phoenix are just a very, very small tip of a vast iceberg of neglect, incompetence and cruelty. It also reminds us that there is an effort and cost to winning the post-war peace that has been forgotten by those who send our men and women into harm’s way. Without wasting time about who is more outraged (VA officials, the President, the Democrats or the Republicans), or who is more to blame (the same crew), all can take a lesson from General George Marshall (Yes of the Marshall Plan too), who selected Wedemeyer because he knew how to both win a war and win the post–war peace. Following Marshal’s lead, the President can seize this opportunity by appointing a panel of veterans, expert administrators and, yes a few VA officials, and ask them to write a “VA Victory Plan”. Starting with a vision of what a "working" VA should look like and the American Legion’s 2013 detailed report of VA problems as a guide of what needs fixing, they should be able to complete it three months (Note: The Legion says their latest report was ignored by most in Washington, just like the previous ones.) The plan could then be presented to the country and voted on before the November elections to see if as a Nation, we are willing to support our veterans with more than pre-war bravado, campaign promises, and post-scandal irate speeches. It will also give the President, outraged Senators and angry Congressmen a chance to wright a wrong that is as old as the nation itself.