How the US is failing its veterans is an excellent article looking at
the job the Veterans Administration is doing (or failing to do) for those wounded or disabled as a result of the Iraq conflict.
One of the reasons they're so overwhelmed? In World War II, two soldiers were wounded for every one that died. Then medical science got better,
and by Vietnam it was three-one. Now? Sixteen are injured for every death, and these are often devastating injuries such as traumatic brain injury
or those requiring amputation. Plus, it's harder to quantify the emotional toll. Mental health issues affect thousands of veterans but many are getting little if any treatment.
It is a travesty to wage a war without taking care of the men and women who risk their lives everyday to fight it. I have and never will support this war,
but I recognise that those who serve are doing so because they want to defend their country.
Their country need to do more to provide them all the benefits promised in exchange for that service, especially when all the flags and military ritual is gone and there's only a hospital bed or a mortgage to make.
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