WHILE MEMORIALIZING THEIR CASUALTIES, THE PENTAGON HAS KNOWINGLY RIPPED OFF PTSD VICTIMS OF THEIR BENEFITS!
By Glenn S. Reiner
IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO when I met the first of many returning Iraqi War veterans at a VA Medical Center. The 21-year old had recently been discharged with all the tell-tale signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The former GI was extremely bitter and resentful with the Army’s bizarre decision to diagnose his illness as “Adjustment Disorder” rather than PTSD.
Simultaneously, the VA disability filing and evaluation process began to surpass two years, significantly longer than the 90-day procedure when I was discharged from the Navy in 1973 with an disorder later to become known as PTSD.
This was just the first testimony I received of what has become another federal scandal with its roots firmly planted during the Bush Administration.
Adjustment Disorder is the Army’s way of avoiding disability payments to those truly deserving by blaming the serviceman’s traumatic experience overseas on personality disorders existing prior to enlistment.
But wait! Don’t the Armed Forces give a whole battery of psychological exams to all recruits before accepting them?
They sure do and have done so for the longest time.
A personality disorder is something an undergraduate psych student would be capable of diagnosing. So how does the Pentagon explain this massive number of combat vets escaping detection by fully-credentialed mental health professionals who administered those tests?
Actually there is a simple explanation, especially when the previous administration and its relationship with the all-mighty dollar always seemed to trump humanity!
Although there was no actual diagnosis on the books for my disability 36 years ago, the VA was far less concerned at that time with a medical label than a patient’s symptoms and personal discomfort level.
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What folly this is! “W” left office virtually three months ago and this country is still stinging from the Bushing we took on all fronts.
Can you remember how many times Bush and Cheney publicly avowed their support for our troops in Iraq? But behind the scenes they were simultaneously looking for the means – any means –to pay the debt on that war. Their determination: decrease veteran benefits.
Despite the multitude of differences that have long existed between Congressional Republicans and Democrats, they do both possess a passionate desire to eliminate wasteful government spending. But even with this concept, the parties are far apart on their respective perceptions of what constitutes “wasteful.”
For the GOP, it is any “entitlement” program that enables the disadvantaged to get back on their feet and into the mainstream of life. This includes Social Security, Medicare, college federal grants and loans, vocational rehab for those who grew up in rat-infested ghettos and weren’t privy to those services earlier.
Sadly, the Republicans hit list also includes the United States Veterans Administration — our nation’s primary health care organ for former servicemen. For nearly 80 years, the VA has been the mainstay for an array of veteran benefits.
The Democrats, in contrast, equate wasteful spending to non-bid government contracts (Dick Cheney conveniently arranged these for all his old cronies in the Military Industrial Complex), massive tax breaks and loopholes for the top five percent of affluent Americans and their multi-billion Dollar corporations, stockpiled nuclear weapons, outdated military equipment and do-nothing government oversight departments that allow the private sector run wild.
Regardless how the Bush White House and hyperbolic news agencies like the FOX New Channel have attempted to put a positive spin on the war in Iraq, Americans have watched in disbelief the shabby treatment experienced by those who volunteered to serve us over there. In addition to the defected, inept equipment military personnel received for the first few years of the war, more than 4,200 of them have been killed and 10,000 additional injured. The death toll for Iraqis has surpassed 1.3 million.
And it has cost us a whooping 10 million dollars monthly for the past six years.
During this time, only the final veteran spending bill was supported by the Bush Administration and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill. Yes, even former Mighty Squid, himself — John McCain — repeatedly voted against veteran funding.
This has been such a dismal embarrassment for any man or woman who has ever worn the uniform of our Armed Forces. Even our European friends could smell the stench all the way on the other side of the Atlantic after each vote.
Given the prohibitive cost of combat itself, I can’t see how any decent man would try to save a few dollars treating the disabilities of those who participated in America’s least-justified war.
No doubt, President Obama is doing everything possible to completely reverse direction from the Bush years. And without a single complaint, he has taken on a far-oversized plate from day one.
And I’m sure this calamity has already been added to his agenda – which more resembles the passenger list of a 747 – and he will take corrective action.
But again, like so many others, I can’t understand how we all allowed this to go on for so long. It is perhaps the worst “dirty” bomb America ever built.
