Editorial on Veterans got the obscenity target wrong

This part got to me. "We believe that is obscene as our nation’s veterans deserve better." but what they missed was the fact the veterans also deserved better from the press. They always ignore their own role in what happened because they simply ignored it or played political games. When they took such an important subject but assigned reporters without a clue, unable and unwilling to do basic research so they know what questions to ask.

That happens all the time. I know my readers are growing weary of reading about THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR but when you know what is in it, you'll know why I wrote it. It is what they "saw" that haunts them but the DOD and the VA won't address that. There is a difference between what they actually "saw" and how they see themselves afterwards. That is only part of the book. It is about how things got so screwed up after 40 years of research on the connection between combat and PTSD, much different from what civilians end up with. It is about businesses and colleges making billions a year pushing the program experts blame for the rise in suicides along with attempted suicides. It is about how Congress had funded "efforts" for over ten years that do not work and have not held anyone accountable. If the fact veterans are suffering really bothered the editorial board of DNJ, then they should have paid attention all along and told the whole truth.

EDITORIAL: The nation's veterans deserve better
DNJ.com
Jun. 26, 2013

The Department of Veterans Affairs currently has 245,000 veterans who have waited a year or more for the VA to take action on their medical claims. More than half a million have waited 125 days or more, which is the organization’s goal for processing claims.

Recently the VA bragged that most of the backlog that was more than two years old had been cleared.

We believe that is obscene as our nation’s veterans deserve better.

The men and women who serve this country have returned from war only to face a bureaucracy that does not seem focused on providing them the assistance to which they are entitled. Many veterans who face physical injuries or life-long post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are returning and finding the help they need is unavailable.

This is particularly ironic given that June is PTSD Awareness Month and the VA’s own website is filled with articles and links talking about PTSD, symptoms, treatments and more.

The nation has been at war since 2001. Two different presidents, both of whom express a tremendous amount of respect and affection for our nation’s veterans, have seen these problems increase under their administrations. They have seen vets returning from war and facing far too many challenges in trying to get the benefits they’ve earned.
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My Comment

You are right about the two different Presidents however you are missing the most important part. Nothing was ready to care for the wounded before they were sent into Afghanistan in 2001 or into Iraq in 2003. But you also have to go back many more years, more generations, before you find a time when veterans were treated with the dignity and respect they paid for when they were sent to war. If you do that, then it is an honest attempt to fix what has been broken for years. Just an example the backlog of VA claims was over 900,000 in June of 2009. Not the first time veterans were left waiting. Vietnam veterans had the same problem and the bulk of the VA claims are from Vietnam veterans still seeking help for PTSD and Agent Orange. We didn't do right by them but newspapers forget about them all the time. OEF and OIF veterans will be forgotten about when the next war starts unless we fix what is broken now.

By the way, would have been great if they took a look at how long Vietnam veterans waited. My husband's claim took six years and that was back in the 90's. I found all the reports they failed to put together and was shocked by what I discovered.