Jon Stewart attacks the VA again, without a clue

Jon Stewart attacks the VA again, without a clue
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times
May 21, 2013

If you read Wounded Times with any regularity, you know how bad it has been for the men and women willing to risk their lives for this country and each other but if you don't you'd think the rantings of members of Congress on the subjects they want to talk about were all that was happening.

If you watch The Daily Show you'd hear Jon Stewart ranting about the claims backlog. He seems to think the problem just started. He has been going off on the VA for about a month now but as vocal as he was on the 900,000 claims, he didn't seem to know that the majority of those claims were from Vietnam Veterans. Stewart had no clue these numbers have been going up and down for as long as I've been involved and aware, which goes back to 1982.

Where the hell was Stewart when President Bush was advised to cut the VA budget because he was told that the number of veterans being treated by the VA would drop? Yes, that happened and Nicholson said that most of the claims backlogged were for dental appointments. Guess the forgot there were two wars producing more wounded war fighters and veterans.

It isn't as if President Bush was the first to betray the troops and veterans. Every week the VA releases a report on the claims they are handling. Monday Morning Workload Report 60% of the claims are for veterans with approved claims filing supplemental claims. Vietnam Veterans are 38% of the backlog and 37% of Pending Claims. These veterans have waited through all the presidents going back to President Kennedy. Agent Orange claims and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders tied to their service in Vietnam along with the contaminated military bases like Camp Lejeune and Fort McClellan more toxic than Camp Lejeune. If Stewart mentioned any of this it wouldn't be so funny to him. After all, no one cares about Vietnam veterans being the majority of the claims since the only reports Stewart's staff reads are OEF and OIF so they can hit the majority of their viewers.

Pending claims

Backlog claims


The problems didn't just start just because Stewart became aware of them now. It would have been great if he paid attention to the "other than honorable discharges" that were happening years ago and then maybe things wouldn't be as bad as they are now. Total discharges at the eight Army posts that house most of the service's combat units have increased 67 percent since 2009. Then again the military sexual assaults caused over 85,000 treated last year alone. Maybe he could care that 13,000 males were among the victims of sexual assaults?

I have no patience for any administration giving excuses on any of this. I have even less patiences when someone like Stewart blows the opportunity to actually do something about it.

I fully understand that Stewart is a comedian and not a reporter but if he makes the choice to cover a topic this serious, he has an obligation to know what the hell he's talking about.

I used to watch the Daily Show because he made me laugh. Now I think it is too sad to watch because he just doesn't care enough to know what is going on.

Last night he was talking about what a great machine Obama had running for office. What he didn't mention was Congress is responsible for oversight, hearings as well as funding. Obama appoints the heads of the departments and sets the agenda but all of it has to happen with Congress taking action or not. So far no one has been held accountable for any of this throughout any administration other than Nicholson losing his job.

It would be nice if Stewart thought about any of this and then maybe Congress would be forced to not just hold hearings but hold people accountable for a change and fix what is happening to the people we send to fight our battles.

If you want to get caught up on what you haven't been hearing about what has really been going on, read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR and know how bad it is and how it got this way. I track all these reports and even I didn't know all of this was happening.