Wounded Soldiers and the VA

Sunday's Washington Post has this article in which they describe the inability of the VA to handle the influx of wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq.

"The disability benefits and health care systems that provide services for about 5 million American veterans have been overloaded for decades and have a current backlog of more than 300,000 claims. And because they were mobilized to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans had become eligible for health care and benefits as of Aug. 1. That number is rising."

"Rep. Lane Evans (Ill.), ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, said the VA is woefully underfunded and unprepared. The current budget for fiscal 2005, which is still pending in Congress even though the fiscal year ended on Thursday, calls for cutting more than 500 claims processors and does not meet the VA's basic funding requests."

Of course that budget is based on recommendation's made by the President. This is the same President who doesn't understand how someone who can criticize the war can possibly be trusted by the troops who are currently fighting it. I'm wondering how the troops can possibly trust a President who is willing to send them in to battle, but is also willing to cut their benefits and provisions for their medical care while telling the public how much he "supports" them.

"'I love the military; that was my life. But I don't believe they're taking care of me now,' said Staff Sgt. Gene Westbrook, 35, of Lawton, Okla. Paralyzed in a mortar attack near Baghdad in April, he has received no disability benefits because his paperwork is missing. He is supporting his wife and three children on his regular military pay of $2,800 a month as he awaits a ruling on whether he will receive $6,500 a month from the VA for his disability."

This situation is shameful. And it's not merely the administration's fault. America has always been forgetful of the sacrifices our soldiers make when they go to war. We go out of our way to tie ribbons to trees, put bumper stickers on our cars and tear up watching Saving Private Ryan, but REAL support of the troops means acknowledging their sacrifices, hounding our government to cut the red tape and provide the money for their care, and putting paying for their medical care and livlihood ahead of our own $300 tax cuts. It's well past time that we learn to take care of those soldiers who've given their bodies and their health to fight for this country.