Will the "right" talking talents feel safe to complain now?

In 2001 when President Bush sent the troops into Afghanistan, the "right" talking talents on cable and radio didn't complain about the lack of planning the DOD and VA did when it came to getting ready for the wounded. Not many people complained about anything back then if Bush wanted it. The problem is, no one complained when the troops were sent into Iraq on top of Afghanistan. The VA budget was cut and nothing was in place to take care of the wounded created by two military campaigns.

With both producing more and more wounded, the VA had less doctors and nurses on staff than they had after the Gulf War. Claims were already backlogged and appeals delayed for older veterans but no one thought of any of them.

When the Washington Post came out with the report about the conditions at Walter Reed, the "right" talking talents on cable and radio went ballistic over the reporting and not that it was a fact the wounded were being treated as poorly as they were. This kept on with all the other reports coming out concerning the troops and including reports of contaminated water, exposures to depleted uranium, illnesses caused by immunizations, being fed spoiled food all the way up to being electrocuted in showers. None of them raised issue with the Bush Administration as the rest of the country was talking about all of it going on and the fact our troops were paying for it and our veterans were suffering because of what was not being done.

They were dying for attention from people like Hannity and O'Reilly and the rest of the people on FOX cable programs along with radio personalities like Rush. None of them complained about any of it leaving the impression on their listeners that all was well. After all, unless they had a family member on the receiving end of the suffering, no one would have a way of knowing anything.

When reports came out that suicides were rising and many killed themselves because they couldn't get into the VA for the help they needed, again there was silence from the "right" talking talents when they had the chance to raise the issue. When reports came out about homeless veterans, people like O'Reilly denied them and in turn denied them the help they could have received. Later when he was forced to admit there were homeless veterans, he dismissed them as being "drug addicts and alcoholics" as if they were no longer worthy of help from this nation.

Now President Obama is in charge, the man they love to hate, and I really have to wonder if any of them will finally begin to address anything the troops and our veterans need. Will they inform their viewers of any of the problems they have been dealing with for years? Will I ever be able to have a conversation with a listener to these people and not have them stunned with by the facts of the abysmal care the veterans have been receiving? It is not that the Republican voters don't care about the troops or our veterans because most of them are very active in doing things for them. They care deeply but when they are excluded from facts by people with their own agenda instead of providing them with information, there is little they will do because they simply don't know.

Yet if they do begin to complain about President Obama, will they be forced to acknowledge when the problems began? Will they be forced to admit the Republican majority all the years before caused most of the problems our troops and veterans faced? Will they be able to be honest once and for all and admit they were part of the problem because they kept defending Bush and the GOP instead of making them live up to their obligations?

Some fear "perfect storm" for VA with 2 wars, economy
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- From the economic crisis at home to a troop increase in Afghanistan, veterans' advocates are warning of a "perfect storm" that could flood an already beleaguered health care network for former service members.

Even with the troop count in Iraq scheduled to wind down, the demands on the Department of Veterans Affairs could increase.

"The crisis is not going away," said Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonpartisan advocacy group. "Everyone thinks that with bringing the troops back from the war, things (at the VA) are going to get better. They're not."

The VA has treated 400,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans since 2001, but it's often underestimated how many of those former troops would need its help.

What impact the pullout from Iraq will have is unclear. President Barack Obama wants to withdraw around 100,000 of the 142,000 U.S. troops there by August of next year.

"It is something we need to be watching," said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, a leading veterans' advocate in Congress. "We don't yet know the percentage of those who will be coming home, but we do know there will be some. There is a combination of factors that are sending a big, yellow, blinking caution light."

Since 2001, the twin wars have stretched the VA's capacity as it's been called on to provide long-term treatment for the kinds of devastating physical wounds that have become signatures of modern combat, as well as a host of unseen, but no less searing, mental health traumas.

Veterans' advocates said they were concerned about the agency's ability to handle more patients since its health system already was operating at full tilt.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1041039.html