McCain does not think all veterans worthy of care

While this sounds good, considering the combat wounded do have a sense of urgency in getting proper care, PTSD is healed better the sooner treatment begins, what McCain is getting wrong is that this system is supposed to be taking care of all veterans. All of them were willing to lay down their lives for this nation. We need to take care of all of them but he just can't understand that.

McCain has voted against veterans for years and now he wants to tell millions of non-combat veterans their health care is not as important to him. What he also does not understand is that when it comes to VA disability compensation, the claims get processed the same way and the backlog pile holds combat veterans and non-combat veterans lives on the line. Example would be a sailor serving on a ship never deployed into war is injured on that ship. Is he less important to take care of? What if it was a sailor who happened to have been hurt on the USS Cole? What about a pilot? Let's say he was injured but never deployed into combat. Is he less worthy? When it comes to the VA it is not Combat Veterans Administration but Veterans Administration, in other words, all veterans.

We have a pressing need to take care of the veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan right now, but we also have a pressing need to take care of Vietnam Veterans, Gulf War veterans and Korean war veterans along with the other minor combat operations we had that also produced veterans and wounded veterans. We have state side veterans being eaten away from Agent Orange exposure, Marines from Camp Jejune exposed to contaminated water but he does not address them. We have women in the military and female veterans never deployed into combat but have been wounded by sexual attacks. Do they count?

McCain: Make combat-disabled top VA priority

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 14:48:14 EDT

Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s call to “concentrate” veterans’ health care on those with combat injuries is raising questions about the Arizona senator’s commitment to funding the ailing VA system.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., said a system that treats combat veterans and non-combat veterans differently is inherently unfair. “We can care for both combat veterans and non-combat veterans if we just decide it is an important thing to do,” Filner said Thursday, one day after McCain talked at a Dover, N.H., town hall meeting about the need to concentrate veterans’ health care on people with injuries that “are a direct result of combat.”

“Right now, there are people who drive a long way and they stand in line to stand in line to get an appointment to get an appointment,” McCain said.

Filner agreed veterans are being ill-served by the Veterans Affairs Department, but he disagreed with the idea that only combat veterans deserved attention. “We are not providing adequate health care for combat veterans. We are not providing adequate care for veterans who never saw combat,” Filner said.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_mccain_healthcare_072208/