Vets should be wary of CVA pitchforks and torches

Vets should be wary of CVA pitchforks and torches
Standard Examiner
Tom Philpot
FRIDAY , MAY 23, 2014

This month marks 20 years of writing Military Update. I’ve used it three times to editorialize about news events including President Clinton’s sex scandal while commander in chief and President George W. Bush worrisome plan to invade Iraq a month before it happened.

This week I do so again to shed light on a disturbing new force that is confusing veterans and darkening attacks on the Department of Veterans Affairs during the current health appointments scandal. I refer to a well-funded group called Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).

So far one major veterans’ organization, The American Legion, has called on VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign, following a CNN report that 40 veterans might have died awaiting VA health care in Phoenix where appointment dates perhaps were fudged to make wait times look shorter.

I can’t claim to have covered VA medical appointments and wait times with enough depth or regularity to know if there’s gross mismanagement and deceptive bookkeeping at some or many VA facilities. That will be verified, or not, by independent audits and criminal investigations now underway.

Most veterans’ groups continue to support Shinseki. They say they know him well enough to believe he’ll address any abuses uncovered and will work to protect more veterans from harm. And we’ll see.

It is no coincidence only Republicans, including Rep. Jeff Miller (Fla.) and Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), participate in CVA events. They should reconsider. Though CVA sponsors an occasional informative forum in Washington D.C., it produces no careful analyses of what ails VA. The goal seems to be to attack, relentlessly, while a Democrat holds the White House.
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This should be about doing the right thing but too many groups won't bother with a small detail like how it all got this bad or how long it has been going on.