Veterans for Common Sense

For Memorial Day 2008, Veterans for Common Sense provides several pieces of information frequently requested by our members.  Here are the latest death counts from the two current wars plus all prior wars.  We also provide the history behind Memorial Day plus a link to our U.S. Constitution that our service members swear an oath to protect and defend.  Finally, we provide the full text of President Lincoln’s poignant Gettysburg Address, where he honored our Civil War dead after the historic battle in 1863.

Memorial Day is set aside so that we may honor our Nation’s fallen service members – fellow Americans who died protecting and defending our U.S. Constitution.

1. U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq War: 4,059, as of May 3, 2008
   – Source: DoD, http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/OIF-Total.pdf

2. U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan War: 491, as of May 3, 2008
   – Source: DoD, http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/WOTSUM.pdf 

3. U.S. Military Deaths 1775 – to 1991:
   – U.S. Military Service during Wartime: 41,891,368
   – Battle Deaths: 651,022
   – Other Deaths (In Theater): 308,797
   – Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 230,279
   – Source: VA, http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/amwars.asp

4. History of Memorial Day from VA: http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp#hist

5. U.S. Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

6. President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863:
   – Source: Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/images/Gettysburg-2.jpg

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Press Release: Senator Akaka concerned by apparent lack of commitment to accurate assessment  

May 19, 2008, Washington, DC – Responding to a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General (IG) on VA patients’ waiting times today, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, expressed concern that VA continues to report inaccurate data on wait times for health care appointments.  The IG audit, which focused one VA health care network, VISN 3, found that VA under-reported patient wait times, and that staff there failed to follow recommendations made by the IG in previous reports on the issue.  Some VISN 3 employees reported to the IG that their superiors directed them to violate existing guidelines and directives, and deliberately manipulate data.

“VA’s neglect of patient wait times is a breach of the faith that servicemembers put in the system.  This audit indicates that the Veterans Health Administration is not committed to reducing unacceptable wait times.   I am concerned that this problem exists throughout the VA system,” said Akaka.

The IG report, released today, is titled “Audit of Alleged Manipulation of Waiting Times in Veterans Integrated Service Network 3.”  For the third time in three years, the IG found that VA is not producing accurate wait time records nor following proper scheduling procedures.  As a result, wait times are dramatically under-reported.  Further IG comments note that VA as a whole still has not implemented the majority of recommendations made in the July 2005 and September 2007 wait time reports, which contained similar conclusions.

Akaka continued, “This deception must end.  Veterans are not receiving the services they need, and inaccurate data prevents VA from fixing the problems.  This failure is inexcusable, especially given the unprecedented funding increases VA has received in recent years.”

May 19, 2008, Washington, DC – The comment was outrageous, but it was not the least bit surprising. A psychologist responsible for assessing returning war veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder — a psychological ailment that could entitle them to monthly disability payments — told staff members not to diagnose the illness because to do so would increase the government’s costs.

“Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out,” the psychologist at a Department of Veterans Affairs center in Texas wrote in an e-mail. She suggested diagnosing a less severe disorder that would not carry the greater long-term disability costs.

The correspondence was made public by VoteVets.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, two groups that have dogged the Bush administration about our latest national disgrace: the shoddy care and bureaucratic callousness shown toward the warriors who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with life-altering wounds of the body and spirit.

Of course, the morally indefensible missive was repudiated by higher-ups in the Department of Veterans Affairs as soon as it was revealed last week. And, of course, the persistent congressional outcry over the treatment of veterans—not to mention the onrushing election season—makes it more likely than not that some temporary alleviation of the pain and suffering vets endure in a system that is supposed to be serving them will be addressed. Somehow, some day, that is.

That bit of politically induced relief for vets, should it come, does not change the underlying sentiment of the message. Because at bottom, it is a demoralizing reminder of the way the U.S. health care system works for just about everyone.

Certainly, the government agency in charge of caring for veterans is not supposed to behave this way, under the law or any standard of conscience.

In truth, the mind-set mirrors the unconscionable standard of the health insurance industry’s thinking that the rest of us must endure—and from which neither leading candidate for president promises much relief.

The industry’s term for paying a claim is “medical loss.” This is a disturbingly blunt but perfectly accurate reflection of reality: To make a profit, an insurer must take in more money than it pays out in claims. Denying payment on claims, or strictly limiting payments even for the most obvious or debilitating medical conditions, is how the industry stays financially viable. 

“I was told repeatedly that I was not denying care, I was simply denying payment,” Linda Peeno, a doctor and former managed-care medical claims officer testified before Congress in 1996. A video clip of her testimony was included in Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko,” the story of how the American health insurance system really works—or rather, doesn’t—for most people.

The slip-up at the veterans’ health agency comes at a propitious time, because neither of the two men who could become president next year would do anything to change the type of thinking it revealed. Democrat Barack Obama relies on the current, if uneasy—and increasingly unworkable—partnership between the insurance industry and employers to expand coverage. But Obama would not make universal coverage mandatory, and so insurers would still be able to cherry-pick among those it really wants to insure (the healthiest, and therefore the cheapest) and those it doesn’t (the sickest and most expensive).

Republican John McCain’s answer is far worse. He would effectively break the link between employers and the insurance industry and give individuals a tax credit with which to buy a policy on their own—a purchase they would make at the mercy of insurers. If you liked President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security and move toward a do-it-yourself retirement system, you’ll love McCain’s do-it-yourself answer to the insurance crisis.

But, of course, no one can really do it himself because the whole idea of private insurance is to spread risk broadly. That’s why employers are able to purchase policies more cheaply than can individuals: The expensive employee whose child has cancer is offset by the cheaper employee who is as fit as a marathon runner.

The psychology of the cost-conscious official at the Texas veterans medical facility is the psychology that controls the health care system for all of us. If we are outraged at the hint that it might be applied to wounded servicemen and -women, we should also be angry that it is applied every day to the rest of us.

May 21, 2008, Washington, DC – A veterans group that opposes the war in Iraq has been blocked from marching in a Memorial Day parade in Washington after being told its plans, which once included a casket representing war dead, would be too political for the event.

Veterans for Peace was initially granted a spot in the Monday parade that is scheduled to travel down Constitution Avenue, past landmarks that include the Washington Monument and the White House.

But the American Veterans Center, a nonprofit that organizes the parade, has pulled that approval, saying it does not allow the expression of political viewpoints.

Anthony Teolis, treasurer of the Washington-area chapter of Veterans for Peace, said that as veterans, the group should be able to take part in the parade. He said it was being singled out because of its anti-war views.

“We are a veterans group like any other except we have the word ‘peace’ in our name,” Teolis said.

Jim Roberts, president of the Arlington, Va.-based American Veterans Center, said the group strives to keep political statements out of the parade. Last year, two groups that supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were turned down. The Veterans for Peace program initially was approved by a contractor handling parade planning, but it was revoked when the center saw its plans for the march.

“We don’t allow groups in the parade that are projecting an opinion. That goes for pro-mission as well as anti-war,” Roberts said.

The parade, now in its fifth year, includes marchers that span the military history of America, from Revolutionary War re-enactors to active-duty military units. Other marchers scheduled for this year include 20 high school bands, a military high school and actor Gary Sinise. Last year, roughly 250,000 people attended.

The Washington-area chapter of Veterans for Peace submitted an application outlining plans to include a “miniature hand drawn funeral casket with U.S. flag symbolizing fallen troops,” according to a copy of their proposal. A convertible carrying three World War II veterans also was planned.

Teolis said the group dropped the casket plan when the producers of the parade objected. But he said the Veterans Center still barred the group from the parade.

Made up of military veterans dating back to before World War II, Veterans for Peace opposes the use of war to meet national objectives and wants American troops in Iraq to be brought home. It has roughly 7,500 members in 122 chapters nationwide.

It has sought to march in other parades honoring veterans with mixed results. Michael McPhearson, national executive director of Veterans for Peace, said the group took part in Veterans Day parades in New York and marched in other events nationwide. But it was blocked from taking part in events in cities such as Boston.

McPhearson said the group does not dishonor veterans. The parades, which highlight wars waged for political ends, are inherently political, he said.

“It is ridiculous to say we have this political objective when the whole thing is about politics,” McPhearson said.

May 20, 2008 – A group of older military veterans in the Inland region says the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is pushing it out of counseling programs to make room for an expected influx of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans.

Albert Cruz, 59, of Hesperia, said officials at the Victorville Veterans Center told him and other members of a post-traumatic stress disorder therapy group that “they have to bring (the group) to an end.”

Cruz, a veteran of Vietnam and Desert Storm, and his colleagues are convinced that their government is abandoning them.

“It’s like a slap in the face,” he said.

When he asked the veterans officials what he should do about treatment, he said, “They said, ‘Well, if you flip out again, call 911.’ “

Lois Krawczik, a psychologist who oversees post-traumatic stress programs for the VA Medical Center in Loma Linda, said Cruz is mistaken. She said the VA has no plans to eliminate programs at the Victorville clinic. In fact, the clinic is expanding, she said.

“There may be some changes,” Krawczik said, but “we’re not discontinuing or cutting back services.”

Budget figures provided by the Loma Linda medical center show that funding earmarked for mental health has increased dramatically in recent years, from $70,000 in 2004 to $3.1 million in 2007. During the same period, the number of patients seen each month for mental health went from 6,700 to 9,600.

Cruz, and others, insist they have been told they’ll have to go. Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, there seems to be a pervasive suspicion among older veterans, particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder, both locally and in other parts of the country, that the VA is interested in pushing them out.

Stories of Cancellations

A dozen of those veterans, including Cruz, stood outside the Victorville clinic on a recent morning. They said they had all been given the same information about the counseling groups being cancelled.

In March, a group of veterans receiving therapy at the San Bernardino Veterans Center picketed the clinic. They said their therapist, Phillip Garcia, had been told to retire because he refused to drop Vietnam-era patients to make room for Iraq war returnees. Garcia is no longer at the center and said he could not be quoted for this article.

Two veterans receiving counseling therapy at the veterans center in Palm Desert said they had not heard of any cutbacks at their clinic.

David Autry is a spokesman for Disabled American Veterans, a Washington-based advocacy group. He hadn’t heard of the situation in Victorville, but said he has seen the same thing elsewhere.

“There was a similar situation in North Carolina not terribly long ago,” Autry said, “where the VA had scaled back its PTSD counseling for Vietnam-era veterans and had cited the need to put more resources into the returning folks from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In some ways, the VA is pulling all the stops out for the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan at the expense of the other veterans,” he added.

Cutbacks Denied

Laurie Tranter, spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., said: “There is no policy on cutting back on services for Vietnam vets.”

Tranter also said she had not heard of any complaints regarding such cutbacks.

Former Inland resident Frank Flores, a founder of a veterans assistance group called Project Guiding Light, now lives in Texas. He said the VA hospital in Temple, Texas, discontinued counseling groups for nearly 150 older veterans.

“This is happening nationwide,” Flores said. “They say, ‘We’re here to take care of our veterans.’ That’s a hell of a way to take care of them if you just show them the door.”

But Nelia Schrum, spokeswoman for the VA Medical Center in Temple, said the groups were simply moved to a new VA center 20 minutes away in Killeen.

“They haven’t been discontinued,” Schrum said. She said Flores and other veterans might just be confused about the change.

Loma Linda’s Krawczik said changes are taking place with programs here, too, and veterans may have trouble adjusting to that.

“It’s easy for people, when it’s an emotional issue, for there to be misunderstanding,” Krawczik said.

While some counseling programs at the Loma Linda hospital are being discontinued, she said, others are being added.

“We have national rollouts right now for a variety of evidence-based treatments,” she said. Those include peer counseling and a 12-step oriented protocol.

Veterans’ Fears

Dane Steinberg is another of the veterans at the Victorville clinic. He said he and his colleagues don’t begrudge the newer vets and support the aggressive outreach programs being conducted by veteran agencies. He just doesn’t want to see the door close on him as a result.

“They’re out soliciting the Iraqi vets while on the other hand they’re telling us to go home,” said Steinberg, 61, of Helendale. “Isn’t that strange?”

Steinberg said two different officials at the clinic told him his therapy group was being eliminated by the end of summer. He and others suspect a sinister motive.

Wilfred Abeda, one of Steinberg’s fellow group members, lives in Barstow. He is on 100 percent disability for his post-traumatic stress disorder. To maintain that disability rating, he said, he has to be receiving therapy. Several years ago, when his wife was dying from cancer, Abeda was her primary caregiver and couldn’t travel to his therapy group, which at that time was in Loma Linda. He said the VA cut his disability.

“They said, ‘You’re not going to therapy. You must be cured,’ ” Abeda said. “They rejected me.”

He was able to get his disability reinstated after he appealed and re-entered therapy. But he believes the same thing may happen again if his current group is discontinued. Only this time, he said, he won’t have a group to go back to.

Project Guiding Light’s Flores said such fears are not without merit.

“The VA does use medical treatment as a basis of continuing disability,” Flores said. Veterans such as Abeda, he said, “are worried because if they’re not getting treatment their disability will be reduced.”

Programs ‘Keep Us Alive’

Of even greater concern, Abeda said, is the well-being of his fellow veterans. He worries about possible suicides.

“It’s going to happen,” he said. “A couple of guys said, ‘This is the only thing that keeps us alive.’ It helps us a lot.”

Some might wonder how, 40 years after returning from battle, Vietnam veterans can be so dependent upon group counseling. But Abeda was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder just five years ago. Many veterans have exhibited symptoms for years, such as night terrors, uncontrolled anger and the inability to hold a job, but never knew why.

“We’ve been suffering with this since (Vietnam),” Steinberg said. “I didn’t get diagnosed until three years ago.”

Now, he and others feel, just when they are getting some help, the rug is being pulled out from under them.

“That makes it pretty hard on all the guys,” Abeda said. “You have to fight for everything.”

Reach Mark Muckenfuss at 951-368-9595 or mmuckenfuss@PE.com

May 20, 2008 – Homeless heroes are getting a second-helping of support in the Bronx.

The Jericho Project, a national group seeking permanent solutions to homelessness, recently purchased a second site in the borough to build another residence for homeless vets.

Jericho launched its Veterans Initiative late last year with the purchase of a vacant lot at 355 E. 194th St. in Fordham, and recently closed the deal on property in Kingsbridge Terrace.

Together, the two planned residences will offer permanent, supportive housing and comprehensive counseling to 130 homeless and low-income veterans.

“We intend for our Veterans Initiative to be scalable – and become a model for helping low-income and homeless veterans nationwide regain their dignity and rightful place in society,” said Jericho Executive Director Tori Lyon.

Veterans advocates say repeated deployments and post-traumatic stress disorder are leading to a cascade of financial dislocation, family estrangement and homelessness.

A recent study by the RAND Corp. found that about 300,000 U.S. combat troops are suffering from major depression and PTSD, while 320,000 have suffered traumatic brain injuries. Most of them, the study concluded, do not get adequate care.

According to The Homelessness Research Institute, veterans make up 26{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of the homeless population nationwide, despite representing only 11{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of the civilian adult population.

Although veterans are disproportionately represented among homeless adults in the New York City shelter system, there are only two supportive housing projects dedicated to veterans in the city.

Vietnam vet Ivery Walker, 57, who does outreach for the Bronx Vet Center on the campus of the Bronx VA Medical Center, was delighted to hear of Jericho’s plans.

“That would be wonderful,” he said, pointing out that the Bronx VA’s homeless services unit offers counseling but not housing.

He said that without a stable address, it’s almost impossible for disabled veterans to receive their rightful benefits.

“Homelessness is a real problem for vets,” Walker said.

At both facilities, 60{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of potential residents will be veterans referred from the city’s homeless shelter system, and 40{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} will be low-income veterans from the community.

The Jericho Project purchased the vacant lots with financing from the New York City Acquisition Loan Fund, and will receive development funding from the city Housing Preservation and Development Department as part of the New York-New York III program, as well as ongoing funding from the city Health Department.

Jericho expects to begin construction on the first residence this year, and open the doors in early 2010.