Last week, the New York Times had this encouraging news:
The government is preparing to issue new rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits, a change that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
The regulations from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which will take effect as early as Monday and cost as much as $5 billion over several years according to Congressional analysts, will essentially eliminate a requirement that veterans document specific events like bomb blasts, firefights or mortar attacks that might have caused P.T.S.D., an illness characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and flashbacks.
For decades, veterans have complained that finding such records was extremely time consuming and sometimes impossible. And in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans groups assert that the current rules discriminate against tens of thousands of service members — many of them women — who did not serve in combat roles but nevertheless suffered traumatic experiences.
That, as much as anything, underscored the fundamental change in treatment of U.S. combat veterans now that the Obama administration has replaced Bush-Cheney. For all the blather about patriotism and supporting our troops, the reality is that to Bush-Cheney, patriotism was mere political jingoism and the troops were mere cannon fodder and props for photo ops. Under Bush-Cheney, the troops were used and abused, but not treated as the brave human beings who willingly risk everything in service to our country regardless of the politics of war, over which they have little or no say.
Another example of the paradigmatic change in attitude and treatment came several months ago. After eight years of Bush-Cheney, U.S. veterans were suffering from myriad personal traumas, including dramatic rises in mental illness, including PTSD, and spiking rates of suicide and homelessness, with a doubling of homeless female veterans, alone. Last November, the Associated Press reported:
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Tuesday unveiled a plan to end veterans’ homelessness in five years, saying that without action the improvements of recent years could be lost because of the bad economy.
Shinseki said the VA will spend $3.2 billion next year to reduce homelessness among veterans and is working to strengthen partnerships with other government agencies and service organizations. He said he recognizes that a goal of zero homeless veterans is ambitious but that he wants a high target so that everyone puts in their best efforts.
“My name is Shinseki and I’m here to end veteran homelessness,” he said at the beginning of a speech to 1,200 service providers at a VA summit.
Even as a goal, however difficult it may be to attain, no previous administration had ever spoken in such clear terms. It begins with attitude. It is a profound disgrace that some men and women who served this nation in uniform are essentially discarded, with some literally ending up living on the streets. The Bush-Cheney team not only ignored the problem, their policies made it worse. The Obama team wants to solve it. And this speaks to an even larger issue.
One of the most insidious lies often disseminated by the corporate media, and still permeating much of public consciousness, is that Republicans care more than Democrats about our service personnel, despite a clear record that proves otherwise. And because that lie so permeates public consciousness, Democrats often find themselves on the political defense, making bad decisions out of a reflexive desire to prove that they're not weak or soft or unpatriotic. It's beyond absurd, but it's part of the political dynamic. And the best way for the Democrats to fight it- the best way for them to fight their own reflexive defensiveness- is to keep referring back to the facts. Sometimes, those facts are mostly symbolic: President Obama visiting Arlington National Cemetery and Dover Air Force Base, demonstrating a human compassion and empathy that Bush-Cheney lacked. And sometimes, such as the new policy on PTSD, or Shinseki's goal of ending veterans' homelessness, those facts prove the substance behind the symbolism. Democrats care about the troops. Democrats in government want to take care of the troops. On the other hand, the Bush-Cheney regime hardly could have been more abusive to the troops. I've been compiling a handy reference sheet:
Overused and over-extended.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: By the middle of 2005, Stop-Loss policy had prevented at least 50,000 troops from leaving the military when their service was scheduled to end.
USA Today: Multiple deployments were adding to the troops' stress.
CNN: In April 2007, tours of duty were extended from 12 to 15 months.
New York Times: Republicans killed Democratic Senator Jim Webb's attempt to give troops more down time between deployments.
Associated Press: Deployed single parents were having to fight to retain custody of their children.
International Herald Tribune: The bipartisan National Governors Association warned Bush that use of National Guard troops for his Iraq escalation was overburdening already overburdened units, and undermined the Guard's ability "to respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies."
CBS News: To accommodate Bush's Iraq escalation schedule, two Army combat brigades had to skip their planned desert training.
Agence France-Presse: Nearly two-thirds of polled veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars considered the military over-extended.
Inadequately protected and inadequately cared for.
New York Times: A 2006 study showed that 80 percent of marines killed from upper body wounds would have survived, if they'd had adequate body armor.
Newsweek: Troops were forced to improvise their own vehicle armor because the military wasn't providing the real thing.
Washington Post: Even as the Iraq escalation began, thousands of Army Humvees still lacked FRAG Kit 5 armor protection.
TXCN News: Soldiers were provided such inadequate supplies of water on the battlefield that it was literally making them ill.
Salon: The Veterans Administration knew as early as 2004 that there were serious problems with the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center- and did nothing.
Salon: The Department of Defense also knew about the problems long before public exposure, and the resulting outcry forced them actually to do something about it.
NPR: Veterans were receiving fewer medical disability benefits than before the war
MSNBC: Up to 20 percent of Iraq vets may have been suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Washington Post: A Pentagon task force concluded that the available medical care for those troops suffering psychological problems was "woefully inadequate."
Salon: Wounded soldiers classified as medically unfit for battle were being reclassified as fit so they could be sent back into battle.
Salon: These reclassifications were done to provide enough manpower for Bush's escalation.
Salon: Even soldiers with acute Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder were being sent back to Iraq.
Understandably, morale deteriorated
Spiegel Online: Troops stationed in Germany were increasingly going AWOL rather than be used as cannon fodder for Bush's insanity.
New York Times: The army had to revise upwards its understated desertion rate.
Boston Globe: West Point graduates were leaving the military at the highest rate in three decades, as repeated tours of Iraq drove out some of the army's best young officers.
Associated Press: The Army had its highest desertion rate since 1980.
Psychological trauma and suicide.
Associated Press: By July 2007, some "38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of Marines report psychological conditions such as brain injury and PTSD after returning from deployment. Among members of the National Guard, the figure is much higher — 49 percent — with numbers expected to grow because of repeated and extended deployments."
Journal of the American Medical Association:
The prevalence of reporting a mental health problem was 19.1% among service members returning from Iraq compared with 11.3% after returning from Afghanistan and 8.5% after returning from other locations (P<.001). Mental health problems reported on the postdeployment assessment were significantly associated with combat experiences, mental health care referral and utilization, and attrition from military service. Thirty-five percent of Iraq war veterans accessed mental health services in the year after returning home; 12% per year were diagnosed with a mental health problem. More than 50% of those referred for a mental health reason were documented to receive follow-up care although less than 10% of all service members who received mental health treatment were referred through the screening program. </p>
Stacy Bannerman in Foreign Policy In Focus:
Soldiers who have served -- or are serving -- in Iraq are killing themselves at higher percentages than in any other war where such figures have been tracked.
Associated Press: The Army experienced the highest suicide rate in 26 years.
New York Times: By January 2008, traumatized Iraq veterans were leaving "a trail of death and heartbreak in U.S."
Washington Post: Suicides among active-duty soldiers had reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records.
Washington Post: In April 2008, 300,000 veterans of the Bush wars were reported to be suffering from PTSD or major depression.
The Oregonian: In July 2009, a report showed a dramatic jump in the rate of mental illness, among veterans of the Bush wars.
Boston Globe: By July 2009, homelessness was rising among female veterans of the Bush wars. Many are single parents.
Science Daily: By November 2009, the rate of PTSD among Iraq troops was reported to be as high as 35 percent.
San Francisco Chronicle: Homelessness, overall, was rising among veterans of the Bush wars.
Don't ever let Republicans claim to be more supportive of U.S. military personnel. Not only was their beloved Bush-Cheney regime cruel and inhumane in its treatment of the very people whose service it politically capitalized upon, but in the past several months the Obama administration has demonstrated a respect and appreciation that Republicans wouldn't have given a moment's consideration. To Bush-Cheney, military personnel were not given any consideration but were considered but political pawns. President Obama will best serve military personnel when he ends the Bush-Cheney wars, but he already has shown that he is always conscious of their fundamental humanity, and intends to honor them for the honor they do this nation by serving it in uniform.