What's New
| Congressman Mitchell: Pausing to Consider People Who REALLY Matter |
Chairman Harry Mitchell is a Hero to Veterans Nationwide August 20, 2010 (Arizona Republic) - It's been a month since I spoke to Rep. Harry Mitchell about suicides among military veterans and I'm just getting around to writing something. |
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| What Obama Won't Say Tonight About US Withdrawal from Iraq |
| August 31, 2010 (ConsortiumNews) - President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of "combat operations" in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We’ll see. |
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| Lawsuit Update: Prudential's Half-Billion in Dirty Secret Profits |
Families of Dead Soldiers Sue Insurer Over Its Handling of Survivors’ Benefits August 29, 2010 (New York Times) - Vickie Castro’s only child was killed six years ago just before Christmas, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Army mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, killing more than 20 people. |
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| Op-Ed: Cost of War Must Also Include Caring for Our Veterans |
Overlooked Cost of Iraq / Afghanistan Wars: Our Veterans' Healthcare and Benefits August 15, 2010 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. |
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| VA Secretary Shinseki's Open Message to Gulf War Veterans |
| August 11, 2010, Washington, DC (VA Press Release) - August 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, launched with Operation Desert Shield and followed by Operation Desert Storm. VA honors this milestone with a renewed commitment to improving our responsiveness to the challenges facing Gulf War Veterans. |
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Editorial Column: Obama Can Help Vets
Written by Army Times
Monday, 24 August 2009 09:28
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August 24, 2009 - President Barack Obama and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki met in early August with Military Times and other military journalists in a bid to restore confidence in the administration's commitment to delivering quality care to America's veterans.
They said all the right things: • VA should reach out to vets in need and bring them into the system. • VA must install a comprehensive, up-to-date electronic medical records system. • More resources must be dedicated to helping veterans with mental health problems. • Veterans' health benefits will not be reduced or affected in any way as part of the national health care reform initiative. • And it is a disservice to veterans to deny links between health problems and war-zone burn pits before all the evidence is in - just as it was premature to reject claims arising from exposure to 1950s atomic bomb tests, Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Thus far, the Obama administration has made a good-faith effort to fulfill its campaign promises by boosting VA funding and building on efforts to improve VA services. But with new claims expected for years to come from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, VA will need still more resources in the future. The administration is going to have to demonstrate stiff political will to continue to fully fund VA. At the same time, Obama will have to demand efficiencies and accountability that are all but countercultural within VA. This is an opportunity to break with a sad tradition of short-changing VA and the people it serves. There can be no greater priority than truly taking care of those who have sacrificed so much for their country.
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