Broken Soldiers and a Broken System

Apr. 8, Letter to Editor: Broken Soldiers and a Broken System


Senator John Edwards


New York Times

Apr 08, 2008
To the Editor, New York Times:

In “For Wounded Veterans and Their Families, a Journey Without Maps” (Editorial Observer, March 24), Lawrence Downes missed an important opportunity to explain why both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are unprepared to care for the service members who have been hurt in the Iraq war.

The reason is that the frequently reported number of the wounded in action (29,320 as of March 1) does not include everyone who’s been hurt.

The complete number of nonfatal casualties in Iraq is 60,645. Most assume the wounded number includes all, but it does not. It leaves out another 8,273 injured and 23,052 who became ill and required medical air transport from the war zone. The Department of Defense releases two reports: one with the weekly numbers of those wounded and killed, and then another monthly report with the complete numbers. After five years, it is time for respected news organizations to use the complete number.

The public needs this information so that we can better prepare for the care of all of our veterans from this war and others. The struggle for them and their families your article addressed is happening all across this country. Nearly 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have already sought care from the V.A.

The system is broken. That is why so many veterans are still fighting for the care they earned. That is why their families struggle with paperwork and months of delay. And that is why 154,000 veterans sleep on grates or under bridges every night.

We have tens of thousands set to come home, and we aren’t prepared. Every day we should honor the more than 4,000 lives lost: every suicide, bullet or serious accident.

And every day we should honor those who have been hurt. That number is 60,645 and rising.

John Edwards
Chapel Hill, N.C., March 31, 2008

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/9759

John Edwards got my vote down here in Florida. It was before he dropped out when I took advantage of early voting. He received that vote because he was speaking out on the homeless veterans in this country and giving them a voice when no one else would. He has a habit of doing that. Giving voices to those who think they are relegated to be silent.

1 : to send into exile : BANISH 2 : ASSIGN : as a : to assign to a place of insignificance or of oblivion : put out of sight or mind b : to assign to an appropriate place or situation on the basis of classification or appraisal

We talk a lot about what we owe the men and women who are willing to risk their lives but we do not join those words with actions. For the most part, regular citizens across the country are stepping up attempting to fill in where the government has failed. They are trying moving mountains with a shovel when it is dynamite that is required to move barriers as quickly as possible. While it is the politicians who send these men and women to risk their lives, they are the last to provide the care for them.

The two reporters from the Washington Post, Dana Priest and Anne Hull, did such a fantastic job of their reporting about the conditions at Walter Reed, that the Pulitzer committee chose those reports for their prestigious award. If it did not provide such a power statement regarding the urgent need to make changes, nothing did. Americans were moved to contact their politicians and demand action. So how is it that the rest of the DOD and the VA did not become instantaneously state of the art and have the ability to take care of all the wounded? They didn't because they got away with it.

While the DOD will have us believe that there are only 29,320 wounded, this would really be sickening they cannot take care of less than 30,000 wounded with the wounded coming over a period of 5 years. That claim alone should have sicken every American with the abysmal performance of the DOD, understanding they could not even take care of that few. The truth is there were many, many more. John Edwards dared yet again to address this. It would be great if there were more honest and aware people giving voice to those who have been silenced by ignorance.