How does doing more for veterans produce these results?

How does doing more for veterans produce these results?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 13, 2013

There are things about President Obama we should have issues with. One of them is the fact that he promised to do something about suicides connected to military service before he was elected the first time. Since his election, what has been done has increased the number of men and women taking their own lives while serving and as veterans back home.

President Obama traveled to Montana during campaigning in 2008 because they started their own program after Spc. Chris Dana committed suicide.

During the visit in 2008, then Senator Obama blamed the GOP for veterans troubles. He heard from a Vietnam veteran.

“In Great Falls, they're building a $6.5 million animal shelter and we don't have a shelter for veterans. What does that tell you about priorities?” asked Bahr, a 1967 Army draftee who survived the Tet Offensive, a nine-month series of battles that resulted in more than 6,000 deaths and 24,000 injuries among American and allied troops during the Vietnam War.

As President, Obama has tried to make it right for Vietnam veterans when he told the VA to fix what was broken in their PTSD and Agent Orange claims. Thousands of Vietnam veterans ended up jumping into the already overloaded system. Vietnam veterans are the majority of claims in the backlog but the media, yet again, doesn't seem too interested in them. They also happen to be the highest percentage of suicides.

Since taking office in 2009 congress has increased spending by billions a year pushing "resilience" refusing to address the fact that after all this money, the results are more deadly than doing nothing. This attempt actually prevents the troops from seeking help as soon as they start to have problems. Congress has not been interested in very much when it comes to military suicides or they would have used common sense to end what has not been working instead of just expanding the "effort" that is a huge part of the problem.

In THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR, the money, what could be found online, is listed by year along with what the results were. More suicides followed and psychiatrist warning against this approach were ignored. Congress didn't pay attention and President Obama hasn't been informed by his aids what is really going on. The national media won't tell the public what the truth really is.

President Obama should be screaming about the fact that no one has been held accountable for any of this. Where are the congressional hearings on who is responsible? Hearings on the wasted money producing deadly results? No one has been held accountable as program after program has been funded to the point where there are over 900 suicide prevention programs producing more suicides.

The VA budget has been increased and the number of homeless veterans living on the street have been going down. More veterans are finding work because of the tax incentives. Vietnam veterans feeling left out of the debt this nation owed to them to take care of their wounds now have hope again. Why does it have to be a double edged sword hanging over their heads when they have to wait so long to have their claims approved?

There are good things happening but if you read the news reports, it is almost as if none of these problems happened before. Military sexual assaults happened before Obama. Veterans felt betrayed before Obama. There were homeless veterans before Obama. National Guards and Reservist families were suffering before Obama. The list of issues tied to those who serve all happened before Obama and that is something we all need to acknowledge. If we don't, nothing will change when the next President takes office.

We cannot trust the national media simply because most stopped paying attention. CNN has been more interested in reporting on world news than news that is happening right here. Other than spending hours on storms how much have you seen on CNN that has to do with what is happening here? As for MSNBC and FOX, they have been more interested in political news and taking sides than the truth.

If you read Wounded Times then you know what they are not telling you simply because small news outlets are paying attention to what is happening right in their own communities. These reports are about veterans and veterans serve the whole nation but the whole nation is not being informed.

Unless people know what is going on, nothing tangible will be done to fix what has been happening to them and that, that is the saddest piece of news you will read today. Everything we are reading today is directly tied back to what was not fixed in the last generation. What does that say about this generation?

The national media can report on scandal after scandal but they ignore the biggest one of all. Tomorrow is Flag Day but few will think about the fact this nation was formed by men and yes, women, risking their lives to obtain freedom and generations of Americans stepping up to risk their lives to retain it. This is the one subject that should never, ever be political. So why are politicians failing to honor the people who risked their lives for all of it?