On August 12, 2009, at 9:30 AM, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear oral arguments in our landmark lawsuit.  Although Noah Pierce is not a client in our lawsuit, his tragic suicide highlights the very serious mental health crisis among our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, and VA's systemic challenges. Noah's poignant story appears below as a reminder of our unfinished work and why our lawsuit is so important.

Going forward, the debacle hopefully has taught us to set aside money for our veterans, crack down on fraud and be honest about the costs of war.

July 2, 2009 - Tuesday, the U.S. "stood down" in Iraq, finalizing the pullout of 140,000 troops from Iraqi cities and towns -- the first step on the long path home. After more than six years, most Americans are war-weary, even though a smaller percentage of us have been involved in the actual fighting than in any major conflict in U.S. history. We have relegated the car and suicide bombings to the inside pages of newspapers, accepting at face value that the "surge" has calmed things down enough so we can finally leave the whole sorry Iraq adventure behind us.

June 18, 2009, Washington, DC – Veterans for Common Sense proudly announces our new partnership with Lawyers Serving Warriors™ to help our VCS members who were deployed in the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) war zones so they receive the military and VA disability benefits to which they are entitled.

June 12, 2009 -Two hundred years ago this week, the radical journalist and pamphleteer Thomas Paine died an ignominious death. But during his life, Paine was renowned as the philosophical architect of the American Revolution, a true democratic populist who voiced ideas that are still considered dangerous. Common people can govern themselves justly and democractically. Liberty should not be forsaken for security. Both of these principles must guide our foreign relations.

VCS Note: The Associated Press article in today’s Washington Post plus today’s Congressional hearings are the result of VCS efforts to highlight the many problems veterans face dealing with the VA.  Your support for our publicity and advocacy makes a huge difference in the lives of our veterans.  In May 2009, Veterans for Common Sense used the Freedom of Information Act to learn that VA’s claims backlog was about 900,000.  Based on our VCS analysis of VA data, we estimated VA's disability claim backlog would exceed more than one million this year – a tragic national scandal.  On June 1, investigative journalist Jason Leopold at the internet news site Public Record reported our findings.  A few days later, Congress announced hearings into the growing claims backlog fiasco.  Leopold’s story can be read here.

June 18, 2009 -This isn't the same as getting a free duffel bag for being the millionth person to go through the turnstiles: The Veterans Affairs Department appears poised to have hit the 1 million milestone on claims it still hasn't processed.