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Veterans: The War After the War
by Dick Price
ow that the last American combat soldier has walked across the desert out of Iraq, and the Obama administration seems poised to end our military involvement in Afghanistan over howls from the military's brass and war machine manufacturers, the question returns: What now for the men and women who fought those wars in our name?
Older combat veterans know, and younger veterans and their loved ones are finding out, that the battle for how to live out the rest of your life begins after you've come home and taken off your uniform for the last time, with your wounds, memories of your fallen comrades, and the agitation that makes a full night's sleep difficult without drink or drug long after the last firefight.
So the veterans who gathered at the California Democratic Party's Veterans Caucus meeting last week in San Diego were eager to find out what California's political leaders might do about the alarming rates of homelessness, unemployment, suicide, and disability among the state's veterans.
LA's the Homeless Capital for Veterans, Too
"We have unprecedented levels of homeless veterans in California," acknowledged California State Assembly Speaker John Perez, who convened the Democratic Party's meeting and who represents an impoverished district near downtown Los Angeles. "My district has among the highest levels of homelessness in California."
Nationwide, an estimated 76,000 veterans are homeless on a given night, with 130,000 spending at least one night in a homeless shelter, a growing number of them women veterans, according to David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times:
"Veterans make up 8% of the U.S. population, but almost 16% of homeless adults. Half of all homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, and two-thirds are substance abusers."
In Los Angeles County, about 7,400 veterans are homeless, including "about 1,415 veterans considered to be chronically homeless, meaning they have been homeless for at least a year and suffer from a serious health issue, mental illness or addiction."
In San Diego County, home to a huge US Navy presence and just down the road from the Marine Corps Camp Pendleton, 35%, or 3,000, of the county's 8,500 homeless are veterans.
Speaker Perez announced that the Assembly has taken $2 million out of its operating budget to help returning veterans, especially those from the California National Guard, admittedly a drop in the bucket with so many veterans living on our streets.
Read more: Veterans: The War After the War
Congress Considers Endless War, Worldwide
by Alex Newman
A controversial provision in the National Defense Authorization Bill that would “affirm” the President’s supposed power to wage perpetual war anywhere on Earth against undefined enemies — including Americans in the United States — is attracting fierce criticism from across the political spectrum.
The language was inserted into the bill by Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who unveiled it last week. President Obama never even requested the sweeping powers. In fact, the administration believes it already has all the authority it needs to wage the terror war.
But a coalition of advocates is now furiously attempting to downplay the measure’s significance, claiming it simply re-affirms the executive branch’s power to carry on the “War on Terror” for as long as there might be “terror” in the world. From the Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal, establishment media outlets are painting the proposed language as a harmless statement acknowledging that the terror war is legal.
Read more: Congress Considers Endless War, Worldwide
Veterans with brain injuries still struggle to get help
by Barbara Barrett
Washington - Improvised bombs rattled former Army Spc. Adam Pittman a dozen times in his three tours in Iraq, most severely when his Bradley fighting vehicle ran over one hidden in the dirt in 2005.
Now, part of Pittman's brain has gone dormant, and on most days he can't think straight.
He leaves the room and forgets what he was searching for. He gets migraines so piercing that his right eye sometimes curls away from his left. Anger comes easily, inspiring rages that sometimes have his wife terrified for herself and their 3-year-old daughter.
Although Pittman, who lives in Lillington, N.C., left the military in July 2008 complaining of headaches and memory loss, it took nearly a year for him to get a brain scan and another five months to start getting temporary disability benefits.
"They were blowing me off," Pittman, 30, said of the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I feel like things that have to happen, they're dragging their feet on."
Nearly 30,000 veterans have suffered some kind of traumatic brain injury in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an estimated 2,000 of them severe enough to put the warriors into comas or leave them with severe disabilities. Yet eight years into the wars, testimony before Congress shows that veterans still suffer yawning gaps in coverage for what's become the conflicts' signature wound.
Read more: Veterans with brain injuries still struggle to get help
Pentagon Health Plan Won’t Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops
Versions of this story were co-published with NPR and Stars and Stripes
During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation therapy -- a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home.
Many neurologists, several major insurance companies and even some medical facilities run by the Pentagon agree that the therapy can help people whose functioning has been diminished by blows to the head.
But despite pressure from Congress and the recommendations of military and civilian experts, the Pentagon's health plan for troops and many veterans refuses to cover the treatment -- a decision that could affect the tens of thousands of service members who have suffered brain damage while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.Read more: Pentagon Health Plan Won’t Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops
