American Weekend interview on President Obama's DAV Speech

I just got off the radio with American Weekend. Paul Harris seemed a bit shocked when I said that veterans had to fight the VA when they came home after fighting for us. The truth is, it isn't new. I pointed out that as far as that goes, in 2009 Veterans for Common Sense filed a law suit because VA had a claims backlog of over 900,000.

But that isn't anything new really. Veterans for Common Sense has been taking the lead on most of the issues involving our veterans, like this from January of 2009,

Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield injuries and deaths number 81,361, up from 72,043 last January, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Veterans for Common Sense (VCS). Veteran patients - including those who didn't seek care until their return home - shot up to 400,304 (from 263,909 in December 2007).

For the thousands of soldiers flooding the VA, mental illness tops the list of ailments. Forty-five percent of VA patients have already been diagnosed with mental health conditions, including a startling 105,000 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These data do not include the incalculable number of mentally ill veterans who have not received a diagnosis or haven't sought treatment at the VA.

But this was topped off with the lawsuit filed because the VA was lying about how many veterans were committing suicide.

But things were not really fixed going back to 2007.

The VA's current backlog is 800,000 cases Earlier this year, using the clout that only major broadcast networks seem capable of mustering, CBS News contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from 45 of the 50. From the mountains of gathered information, they sifted out the suicides of those Americans who had served in the armed forces. What they discovered is that in 2005 alone -- and remember, this is just in 45 states -- there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120 every week for a year and an average of 17 every day.

The truth is no political party is getting the job done. When President Bush was in the Oval office for the last two years, the Democrats had control of the House. As we've seen by what is happening today, they didn't get it fixed all the way. While it may have cleared up some of the backlog, it all got repeated again. Is anyone paying attention to this stuff? Does Congress? Hell no!

President Obama won't hold anyone accountable and Congress won't. The military won't. The VA won't. So who really cares about the veterans?

Paul wanted to know if there was a link between the backlog of claims and suicides. The answer is yes. I've seen what claims not being honored does veterans and families. It happened to us but that was back in 1999, six years after my husband's claim was filed.

So what exactly does supporting the troops really mean?