Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Veterans Still Being Denied Benefits - Pentagon Labeling Troops With "Personality Disorder" to Avoid Responsibility

Caught a crazy story about the treatment of veterans over the weekend. My first thought was- "is this still going on?". I recall first hearing about this under the Bush Administration when it was running rampant. But apparently veterans are still dealing with this problem. In a recent public radio interview, Investigative journalist Joshua Kors talks about the impossible situation veterans have been faced with when they try to get their benefits.

Eric Shinseki (Head of VA) and Robert Gates were supposed to correct this. Some improvements have been made, but there are so many applications for benefits, the system may be overwhelmed. According to NPR and the VA, the number of outstanding benefits claims is somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000. Unbelievable.

This is part of the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - a cost that often isn't included in the actual war cost calculations. The final cost could be mind boggling when you factor in the funding needed for long-term treatment.


Related

Hear an entire NPR series called "The New Veteran".

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