The Wait Zone

Here we go
We're at it again
With Mickey Mouse
and Rin Tin Tin
--Old Army Cadence

VFW Magazine--mouthpiece of the uberpatriotic VFW and staunch supporter of the Phony War on Terror--even VFW magazine has its limits.

In "'Overwhelmed' VA Claims System is Strained to the Limit [May 2007]," we read the sorry truth, which is the Department of Veterans Affairs is broken, has been for some time, and neither the fighting Democrats nor Republicans have the political will to fix it.

Patch it, sure; fix it, no.

Following are some article excerpts:

"(I)n the area of compensating wounded veterans, VA is, according to veterans filing claims as well as independent analysts, a mess."

"VA says its backlog of disability claims is up to more than 400,000, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes, who spent a year researching VA’s claims system, say it is actually 600,000. VFW says the backlog is closer to 800,000, with more than 100,000 claims decided wrongly every year."

"GAO’s Daniel Bertoni, testifying before a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on March 14, said that 'after more than a decade of research, we have determined that federal disability programs are in urgent need of attention and transformation.'"

"Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) said, 'I can’t even begin to count the number of GAO reports over the years outlining the problems. It’s been 20 years in the making trying to get VA and DoD to cooperate.'

"[Bilmes said] the agency as currently structured is simply not capable of settling the current and projected volume of claims in a timely manner."

Even toe-the-party-line Commander-in-Chief Gary Kurpius told a joint House and Senate VA committee hearing on 6 March, “No disabled veterans should have to wait for benefits many of them need to care for themselves and their families.”

Odd man out VA Secretary Jim Nicholson told the Boston Globe, “I feel wonderful about the way we are treating the nation’s veterans and that is exactly what they deserve.” There is something sinister in this comment, or the guy was out in the hallway smoking dope.

Speaking as a veteran from four or five wars ago, not only am I outraged on behalf of these young men and women returning now and having to endure waits of up to almost two years, but there ought to be an examination of how older vets are being treated by the DVA system, as well.

The current rave is about the returning vets, but what about the older vets who are broken, and who deteriorate daily? How are their claims for increased severity for service-connected conditions being handled?

Since there is an absence of national dialog on the topic, it is safe to say there is no national priority to serve the needs of these veterans in an expedited and timely manner.

The sidebar article asks, "What Does the VA intend to do?" This is not the question. More to the point: What are the citizens doing to force the Commander in Chief and Congress to address these issues in a non-partisan manner?

The ball is in the Decider-in-Chief's court.

"In the meantime, veterans will endure long waits while their claims are resolved.

“There’s this wait zone,” [Jeffrey] Lennon said, “and that is where you fall apart.” [Lennon is a former Army Reserve Sergeant who served in Iraq.]