Veterans for Common Sense

US Army plagued by desertion and plunging morale

While insurgents draw on deep wells of fury to expand their ranks in Iraq, the US military is fighting desertion, recruitment shortfalls and legal challenges from its own troops.

The irritation among the rank and file became all too clear this week when a soldier stood up in a televised session with Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, to ask why the world’s richest army was having to hunt for scrap metal to protect its vehicles.

The same night, interviews with three soldiers who are seeking refugee status in Canada, where they have become minor celebrities, dominated prime time television. They are among more the than 5,000 troops that CBS’s 60 Minutes reported on Wednesday had deserted since the war began.

Many experts say that America’s 1.4 million active-duty troops and 865,000 part-timers are stretched to the point where President Bush may see other foreign policy goals blunted.

The bleed from the US military is heaviest among parttimers, who have been dragged en masse out of civilian life to serve their country with unprecedented sacrifice. For the first time in a decade, the Army National Guard missed its recruitment target this year. Instead of signing up 56,000 people, it found 51,000.

“This is something that the President and the country should be worried about,” said Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defence under Ronald Reagan and now a military analyst who opposes the war.

A further sign of strain can be seen in the Army’s decision this year to mobilise 5,600 members of a pool of former soldiers that can be mobilised only in a national emergency.

More than 183,000 National Guard and reserve troops are on active duty, compared with 79,000 before the invasion of Iraq. Forty per cent of the 138,000 troops in Iraq are part-timers who never expected to be sent to the front line.

Instead, as a woman soldier pointedly reminded Mr Rumsfeld on Wednesday, they face “stop loss” orders that delay their return to civilian life.

Another soldier lost his court battle this week to stop the Army extending his one-year contract by at least two years. At least eight soldiers have turned to the courts, accusing the military of tricking them into enlisting for a fixed term without warning them that they could be forced to stay longer. Once they get out, soldiers are increasingly resisting hefty bonuses to re-enlist, an incentive that had helped to meet recruitment targets in the past.

The crisis may be even deeper than the statistics suggest. Active-duty Army recruiters exceeded their target of 77,000 by 587 this year only by dipping into a pool of recruits who had not planned to report until next year, and by dropping educational standards, Mr Korb said.

At 10 per cent, the death rate among war casualties is the lowest in history. But maimed men and women are flocking home with horror stories about the war, which is claiming more and more casualties. Between June, when the Iraqi interim Government took over, and September, the average monthly casualty rate among US forces was 747 a month, compared with 482 during the invasion and 415 before the coalition government was disbanded. With elections looming next month, the toll is expected to mount.

Most soldiers keep their anger under wraps, partly out of patriotism but also out of loyalty to their units. “There’s a thin green line that you don’t cross,” said a veteran with the 4th Infantry, who deployed to Iraq last year to help to plan counterinsurgency operations and train Iraqi forces.

But at his home base in Fort Carson, Colorado, he has resisted a $10,000 re-enlistment incentive and plans to get out as soon as he can.

He illustrates the long-term problem the Army faces. He served for five years, first in Korea, then in Iraq, where he was a combat soldier for almost a year. The Americans received little training for the counterinsurgency they face. “Every day you wake up alive, is a gift from above,” the soldier said.

Few experts are surprised to hear that a recent army survey discovered that half the soldiers were not planning to re-enlist.

Experts are divided over how stretched America’s military really is. But they agree that another conflict would put the military in overdrive. Another war would require a shift to a “no-kidding wartime posture in which everybody who could shoot was given a rifle and sent to the front,” according to John Pike, of www.GlobalSecurity.org.

USA Today: Ambassador Nicholson is tapped for VA

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Thursday named soldier-politician-diplomat Jim Nicholson to head Veterans Affairs, the federal government’s second-largest Cabinet department.

If confirmed by the Senate, Nicholson will succeed Anthony Principi, whose resignation was announced Wednesday.  Nicholson, 66, is U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. He previously had been chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) during Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.

An Iowa native who said he grew up “dirt poor,” Nicholson is a West Point graduate and a decorated Vietnam veteran who was an Army Ranger and paratrooper. A 22-year veteran of the Army Reserve, he retired at the rank of colonel. He was a lawyer and housing developer in Denver.

Bush praised the outgoing Principi as a “goodhearted man” whose legacy is that “veterans and their families … are receiving better care.”

David Gorman, head of Disabled American Veterans, said Principi’s work will make Nicholson’s job easier.

“With Secretary Principi at the helm, the VA charted a course that will enable the agency to serve veterans more effectively and more compassionately in the future,” Gorman said.

The usually lower-profile VA job has gotten more attention with the return of Iraq war veterans, many suffering serious injuries. The aging of Vietnam-era veterans also will put greater demands on the department.

“Our military is the pride of our country,” Nicholson said. ” Our country depends on them, and they have never, ever let us down. We must not let them down.”

The only initial criticism of Nicholson’s appointment was from Democrats who suggested that his background as RNC chairman raises questions.  “We’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now,” said Jim Holley, Democratic staff director of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “But we do have an early concern about his having held the highest appointed partisan political position there is.”

Contributing: David Moniz and William M. Welch

VFW Reaction: VFW Applauds VA Secretary’s Service; Issues Challenge to New Nominee

http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=2288

Washington, Dec. 9, 2004 – “He is a true veterans’ advocate,” said the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., in reaction to Anthony J. Principi’s recent announcement that he will step down as the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“During his tenure, Secretary Principi constantly challenged his staff to improve their services to America’s 25 million veterans,” said John Furgess, who leads the largest organization of military combat veterans in the country. “And his work to address the needs and concerns of today’s newest generation of veterans who are fighting the war on terrorism typifies his vision and leadership.”

“Secretary Principi wore his compassion and commitment to veterans on his sleeve, a personality trait that forged extremely strong ties with all of America’s veterans and their families,” said Furgess. “We applaud him for his service to our country and wish him and his family the best of futures. He will be missed but not forgotten.”

With 230,000 employees, the VA is the second largest department in the federal government. Known primarily as a healthcare provider, the VA also oversees all veterans’ benefits programs that range from educational assistance and home loans to vocational rehabilitation and service-connected disability compensation.

President George W. Bush has nominated U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Jim Nicholson to succeed Principi.

“As a military veteran, Ambassador Nicholson meets the initial qualification we seek in a new VA secretary,” said Furgess. Both Nicholson and Furgess are Vietnam veterans and retired colonels from the Army Reserve and Tennessee Army National Guard, respectively.

“While we recognize the ambassador’s lack of experience in the complexities of leading the Department of Veterans Affairs, we welcome the opportunity to work with him on behalf of veterans everywhere,” said Furgess. “And we challenge him to continue to build upon Secretary Principi’s excellent roadmap for the future of veterans’ healthcare and benefits.”

American Legion Reaction: VA Secretary Resigns, President Announces Nominee

http://www.legion.org/?section=pub_relations&subsection=pr_listreleases&content=pr_press_release&id=252

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 09, 2004  –  President Bush today announced his nominee to replace outgoing Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi who resigned yesterday.

R. James Nicholson will succeed Principi following Senate confirmation.  Nicholson, a U.S. Military Academy graduate and decorated Vietnam War veteran, is currently serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

After graduation from West Point, Nicholson served 8 years as an Army Ranger and paratrooper, then 22 years in the Army Reserve, retiring with the rank of full colonel. As a Ranger in Vietnam, he earned the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantry Badge, the Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry and two Air Medals.

Nicholson also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Columbia University in New York and a law degree from the University of Denver. He practiced law with a major Denver law firm and after two years of practice, became a partner, specializing in real estate, municipal finance, and zoning law.

A successful businessman, Nicholson was tapped in 1997 to head the Republican National Committee.

According to his biography, Nicholson’s tenure as RNC chairman was marked by record fund raising and flawless adherence to the rules and ethics. During his chairmanship, Nicholson held a series of meetings with leaders in the veterans’ community to discuss areas of concern.

Challenges Ahead

As the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Nicholson will face several challenges including health care funding, timely health care for veterans currently enrolled in the system, and for the new era of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. He will also need to address the quality of decisions on veterans’ benefit claims.

Secretary Principi, himself a decorated Vietnam War veteran, has served this nation’s 25 million veterans well.

Principi’s desire to improve the lives of America’s veterans through his role as Secretary stemmed from his personal understanding of the deep commitment and selfless sacrifices made daily by the men and women of the U.S. military. With two sons currently serving in the global war on terrorism and through his own service as a River Patrol Unit Commander in Vietnam Secretary Principi clearly understands the importance of fulfilling this nations commitment to it’s men and women who have served and are currently serving. His accomplishments were appreciated and his leadership will indeed be missed.

Hastert jumps into vets scandal

Illinois’ congressmen have given outgoing Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi a deadline of Jan. 5 to answer why Illinois veterans receive among the lowest disability pay in the nation.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who also signed the Illinois delegation letter to Principi, is calling for a VA study that would pinpoint why disability pay varies drastically from state to state and recommend a more equitable system.

“Veterans in Illinois are on the short end of the stick on this,” said Hastert. “We want a uniform way of doing this. It’s only fair.”

Also on Thursday, Democratic Senator-elect Barack Obama called for the newly appointed VA secretary, Jim Nicholson, to come to Illinois and meet with veterans who have struggled to get disability benefits. Principi had agreed to come to Chicago before his resignation was announced, but Obama said it was more important now that Nicholson address Illinois’ veterans.

“We want the person who is going to be in charge over the next several years coming in with a clear attitude that this is a problem that needs to be solved,” Obama said. “My assumption is that as a veteran himself [Nicholson] is going to be as concerned as we are about some of the disparities that the Sun-Times has reported on.”

A Chicago Sun-Times article last Friday showed that Illinois’ disabled veterans receive thousands less than other states’. The article highlighted several veterans from the Chicago area who have spent years fighting for disability benefits, including Louis Vargas, 57, of Crest Hill near Joliet.

Disability pay granted

On Wednesday, Vargas, a Vietnam veteran who has been fighting the VA for disability since 2000, learned that the VA has decided to award him 100 percent disability for post-traumatic stress disorder and upgrade his other injuries.

“It’s unbelievable,” Vargas said only minutes after learning of the VA’s decision. Overcome with tears, he said: “This has been such a battle. It’s gone on for so long and it’s been so draining.”

Vargas has suffered for decades with nightmares — reliving the horrors of Vietnam where he was stationed from 1967 to 1968, first as a cannoneer with an artillery group and then as a truck driver in the motor pool.

During his Vietnam tour, Vargas was ambushed in the jungle, watched a comrade die and handled dead soldiers. The experience haunted him.

When upset, Vargas often takes out a small toy, a beagle named Fred, that his mother sent him while he was in Vietnam.

In 2000, a VA doctor diagnosed Vargas with post-traumatic stress disorder and told him not to return to his job as a mechanic at a nuclear power plant. But Chicago raters told him he couldn’t prove he ever saw combat and continued to deny his claim.

Long wait is over

“I feel like I’ve been on a pendulum just swinging back and forth. It seemed like it was never going to end,” Vargas said. “It’s just so overwhelming, this feeling that it is over.”

Vargas believes last week’s article about his case propelled the Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington and Chicago raters to act this week. Both approved claims that will give Vargas an additional $2,300 a month. His veterans representative, Randy Bunting of the Disabled American Veterans, also calls the timing of the decisions “highly unusual.”

Vargas currently receives $306 a month in disability pay for diabetes related to Agent Orange and a knee injury. But with the new decision, the VA will have to pay Vargas retroactively.

“If it weren’t for your article this would have never happened,” he said. “They realize now that the watchdogs are out and are looking at them.”

Lawmakers help wounded soldier get home after dispute with ArmyBy DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
December 10, 2004, 4:23 PM EST

WASHINGTON — Specialist Robert Loria of Middletown lost his arm in Iraq, but instead of a farewell paycheck from the U.S. Army he got a bill for nearly $1,800.

On Friday a platoon of New York lawmakers came to his rescue.

Loria found himself stuck in Fort Hood Texas this week when Army officials claimed he owed them money for travel expenses to a hospital and lost equipment.

Several lawmakers, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D – NY) and Senators Charles Schumer (D – NY) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D – NY) interceded on behalf of the 27-year-old veteran after his irate wife, Christine Loria, told the Times-Herald Record of Middletown about the problem.

Loria was wounded in February. But as he was about to leave the Army this month, officials told him he had been overpaid for his time as a patient at a military hospital in the Washington area, and claimed he still owed money for travel between the hospital and Fort Hood, and $310 for items not found in his returned equipment.

Instead of a check for nearly $4,500, Loria was told he had to pay nearly $1,800.

“Christmas is coming up, and we are severely overdrawn because of this,” Christine said angrily.

“It turned out his getting wounded wasn’t the worst thing this year to happen – this was,” she said.

Clinton, Schumer, and Hinchey said Friday the Army has dropped the billing demands and will allow Loria to return home today or tomorrow on leave before he is discharged.

Clinton’s office said late Friday that Army officials were now looking at cases of 19 other injured veterans who may have had payroll snafus similar to Loria.

“This man has already made such a sacrifice, and then they just put him through the wringer,” said Schumer.

Clinton blamed the problem on someone in the bureaucracy being unwilling to help him with the paperwork that the Army insisted upon.

Hinchey charged the demands of the Iraq war have overstretched the military, which “sent people out to make sacrifices and then provided them with what essentially is personal abuse when they return home – abuse and dishonor.”

The Democratic lawmakers said Loria should be able to start heading home to New York in a day or two, but his wife said she wants to make absolutely sure those bills won’t be reinstated at some point.

“I just want him out of there. I’m relieved that I know he’s coming home but I know how powerful the military is and I’m just so very, very nervous until he is actually home,” she said.

Fort Carson halts access for The Post

The base is refusing to give the paper information because of a Sunday front-page article on military medical holds.

By Eileen Kelley
Special to The Denver Post
Thursday, December 09, 2004 –

Fort Carson -The Army is denying The Denver Post access to Fort Carson and to information on military activities in the wake of a Sunday article in The Post on military medical holds.

To view the original Denver Post article, please go to this link:

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2508

“We have temporarily suspended relations with The Denver Post as a direct result of Fort Carson not being given fair and balanced treatment in a story that appeared on Dec. 5, 2004,” Lt. Col. David Johnson, the chief public affairs officer at the base, said Wednesday evening.

The front-page article examined claims from mentally and physically ill National Guard and Army Reserve members who say they are being denied access to quality care and are being shoved out of the military without disability pay. Congress has been scrutinizing medical holds at bases across the country.

“All of those involved with the med-hold piece which ran yesterday are extremely disappointed with the outcome,” Kim Tisor, a Fort Carson public affairs officer, wrote in a letter to reporters Monday. “Perhaps we would have been better off not commenting – it certainly would have saved us a lot of time.”

Denver Post Editor Greg Moore said the base’s public affairs staff was misguided in their actions.

“They are singling us out simply because they didn’t like our story,” he said. “Other newspapers and media organizations have reported on the issue. Our story was thorough, and balanced the concerns of soldiers with substantial response from the military, including from some officers who acknowledged problems with the program.

“It’s our job to investigate issues like these and explain them to our readers, many of whom have family members serving in the military,” Moore added. “We hope Fort Carson officials reconsider their ban of The Denver Post. If they don’t, we will appeal to senior military officers at Fort Carson and in Washington, and through any other legal or congressional channels that are available to us.”

Any commander has the authority to control access to his installation or unit, but a specific news organization can be banned from a base only in accordance with an Army regulation that provides for due process, according to a senior Army official who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

Johnson said the paper has been dropped from an e-mail list that distributes invitations to cover events and official statements.

A Post reporter was told Tuesday she could not attend a formal deployment ceremony Wednesday even though other media members were invited.

Johnson said the lack of access is not an official ban, but he later said that all Denver Post reporters and editors were – for the time being – no longer welcome at Fort Carson.

Also last week, The Denver Post obtained an injunction to stop an investigative hearing that had been closed to the public for three Fort Carson soldiers charged with murdering an Iraqi general.

Judge Nixes Troop Request to Stay in U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A soldier who challenged an Army policy requiring him to serve past the date of his enlistment contract must return for duty in Iraq while his lawsuit is under review, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth refused to issue a temporary restraining order allowing Spc. David Qualls to remain in the United States, where he is home on leave. He is scheduled to fly to Iraq on Friday.

“It appears to me the extension was legally proper,” Lamberth said during the hourlong hearing. “I find no likelihood of success on the merits.”

Qualls, 35, is one of eight soldiers challenging the “stop loss” policy that lets the Army extend enlistments during war or national emergencies to promote continuity and cohesiveness on the battlefield.

The lawsuit contends the enlistment contracts are misleading because they make no explicit reference to the policy. The soldiers also say no one told them they could be kept in the service beyond their discharge date.

“Nothing in the contract that he signed says anything about involuntary enlistment,” said Jules Lobel, Qualls’ attorney.

Justice Department attorney Matt Lepore, representing the Army, argued that Qualls’ enlistment contract has a provision that says he may be involuntarily ordered to active duty in the event of war, national emergency or any other condition required by law. Lepore said the language should be read broadly to include extensions of existing contracts.

Lamberth agreed the language was clear enough and rejected Lobel’s claim that the military conflict does not qualify as a war because Congress never made a formal declaration of war.

“I don’t think the average person looking at this would think we had to have a declared war” for it to apply, Lamberth said.

About 7,000 active-duty soldiers have had their contracts extended under the policy, and up to 40,000 reserve soldiers also could be ordered to stay longer. The Army says the policy is needed to ensure there are enough experienced soldiers on the battlefield.

Visiting troops in Kuwait on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the policy is “a sound principle” that is “well understood” by soldiers.

“My guess is it will continue to be used as little as possible, but that it will continue to be used,” he said.

In court, Lepore contended a ruling for Qualls could irreparably harm the military and “open the floodgates” for thousands of soldiers to try to leave.

Qualls declined to comment after the hearing, but Lobel said he was very disappointed.

“Obviously the judge wasn’t willing to interfere with the military,” Lobel said. He said his client would comply with the decision and return to Iraq as scheduled.

The other seven soldiers in the lawsuit — listed as John Does to protect their privacy — are serving in Iraq or are in Kuwait en route to Iraq, according to court papers. The soldiers, believed to be the first active-duty personnel to file such a lawsuit, are asking Lamberth to order the Army to immediately release them from service.

Qualls signed up for a one-year stint in the Arkansas National Guard in July 2003 but has been told he will remain on active duty in Iraq until next year. His pay stub now shows his term of service expiring on Dec. 24, 2031.

Homeless Iraq War veterans showing up at shelters

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) — U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning
to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are
the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

“When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God,” said Linda
Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. “I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening
and this nation is not prepared for that.”

“I drove off in my truck. I packed my stuff. I lived out of my truck for a
while,” Seabees Petty Officer Luis Arellano, 34, said in a telephone interview
from a homeless shelter near March Air Force Base in California run by U.S.VETS, the largest organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless veterans.

Arellano said he lived out of his truck on and off for three months after
returning from Iraq in September 2003. “One day you have a home and the next day you are on the streets,” he said.

In Iraq, shrapnel nearly severed his left thumb. He still has trouble moving
it and shrapnel “still comes out once in a while,” Arellano said. He is left
handed.

Arellano said he felt pushed out of the military too quickly after getting
back from Iraq without medical attention he needed for his hand — and as he
would later learn, his mind.

“It was more of a rush. They put us in a warehouse for a while. They treated
us like cattle,” Arellano said about how the military treated him on his return
to the United States.

“It is all about numbers. Instead of getting quality care, they were trying to
get everybody demobilized during a certain time frame. If you had a problem,
they said, ‘Let the (Department of Veterans Affairs) take care of it.'”

The Pentagon has acknowledged some early problems and delays in treating
soldiers returning from Iraq but says the situation has been fixed.

A gunner’s mate for 16 years, Arellano said he adjusted after serving in the
first Gulf War. But after returning from Iraq, depression drove him to leave his
job at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He got divorced.

He said that after being quickly pushed out of the military, he could not get
help from the VA because of long delays.

“I felt, as well as others (that the military said) ‘We can’t take care of you
on active duty.’ We had to sign an agreement that we would follow up with the
VA,” said Arellano.

“When we got there, the VA was totally full. They said, ‘We’ll call you.’ But
I developed depression.”

He left his job and wandered for three months, sometimes living in his truck.

Nearly 300,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, and almost half
served during the Vietnam era, according to the Homeless Veterans coalition, a
consortium of community-based homeless-veteran service providers. While some experts have questioned the degree to which mental trauma from combat causes homelessness, a large number of veterans live with the long-term effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse, according to the coalition.

Some homeless-veteran advocates fear that similar combat experiences in
Vietnam and Iraq mean that these first few homeless veterans from Iraq are the
crest of a wave.

“This is what happened with the Vietnam vets. I went to Vietnam,” said John
Keaveney, chief operating officer of New Directions, a shelter and drug-and-alcohol treatment program for veterans in Los Angeles. That city has an estimated 27,000 homeless veterans, the largest such population in the nation.
“It is like watching history being repeated,” Keaveney said.

Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that as of last July,
nearly 28,000 veterans from Iraq sought health care from the VA. One out of
every five was diagnosed with a mental disorder, according to the VA. An Army
study in the New England Journal of Medicine in July showed that 17 percent of
service members returning from Iraq met screening criteria for major depression,
generalized anxiety disorder or PTSD.

Asked whether he might have PTSD, Arrellano, the Seabees petty officer who
lived out of his truck, said: “I think I do, because I get nightmares. I still
remember one of the guys who was killed.” He said he gets $100 a month from the government for the wound to his hand.

Lance Cpl. James Claybon Brown Jr., 23, is staying at a shelter run by U.S.VETS in Los Angeles. He fought in Iraq for 6 months with Alpha Company, 1st
Battalion, 2nd Marines and later in Afghanistan with another unit. He said the
fighting in Iraq was sometimes intense.

“We were pretty much all over the place,” Brown said. “It was really heavy
gunfire, supported by mortar and tanks, the whole nine (yards).”

Brown acknowledged the mental stress of war, particularly after Marines
inadvertently killed civilians at road blocks. He thinks his belief in God
helped him come home with a sound mind.

“We had a few situations where, I guess, people were trying to get out of the
country. They would come right at us and they would not stop,” Brown said. “We
had to open fire on them. It was really tough. A lot of soldiers, like me, had
trouble with that.””That was the hardest part,” Brown said. “Not only were there men, but there were women and children — really little children. There would be babies with arms blown off. It was something hard to live with.”

Brown said he got an honorable discharge with a good conduct medal from the
Marines in July and went home to Dayton, Ohio. But he soon drifted west to
California “pretty much to start over,” he said.

Brown said his experience with the VA was positive, but he has struggled to
find work and is staying with U.S.VETS to save money. He said he might go back
to school.

Advocates said seeing homeless veterans from Iraq should cause alarm. Around
one-fourth of all homeless Americans are veterans, and more than 75 percent of
them have some sort of mental or substance abuse problem, often PTSD, according to the Homeless Veterans coalition.

More troubling, experts said, is that mental problems are emerging as a major
casualty cluster, particularly from the war in Iraq where the enemy is basically
everywhere and blends in with the civilian population, and death can come from
any direction at any time.

Interviews and visits to homeless shelters around the Unites States show the
number of homeless veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan so far is limited. Of the
last 7,500 homeless veterans served by the VA, 50 had served in Iraq. Keaveney,
from New Directions in West Los Angeles, said he is treating two homeless
veterans from the Army’s elite Ranger battalion at his location. U.S.VETS, the
largest organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless veterans,
found nine veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan in a quick survey of nine shelters.

Others, like the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training in
Baltimore, said they do not currently have any veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan
in their 170 beds set aside for emergency or transitional housing.

Peter Dougherty, director of Homeless Veterans Programs at the VA, said
services for veterans at risk of becoming homeless have improved exponentially
since the Vietnam era. Over the past 30 years, the VA has expanded from 170
hospitals, adding 850 clinics and 206 veteran centers with an increasing
emphasis on mental health. The VA also supports around 300 homeless veteran
centers like the ones run by U.S.VETS, a partially non-profit organization.

“You probably have close to 10 times the access points for service than you did
30 years ago,” Dougherty said. “We may be catching a lot of these folks who are
coming back with mental illness or substance abuse” before they become homeless in the first place. Dougherty said the VA serves around 100,000 homeless veterans each year.

But Boone’s group says that nearly 500,000 veterans are homeless at some point in any given year, so the VA is only serving 20 percent of them.

Roslyn Hannibal-Booker, director of development at the Maryland veterans
center in Baltimore, said her organization has begun to get inquiries from
veterans from Iraq and their worried families. “We are preparing for Iraq,”
Hannibal-Booker said.

Report from the Voters

To view the Common Cause Report, please go to the link below:

http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/{FB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665}/REPORT_TO_NATION2.PDF

Deserters: We Won’t Go To Iraq

It’s an offense punishable by death during wartime. It’s been committed by 5,500 soldiers since the war with Iraq began.

The men, who have violated military orders and oaths, tell 60 Minutes Wednesday that it isn’t cowardice, but rather the nature of the war in Iraq, that turned them into American deserters.

American soldiers currently living in Canada tell Correspondent Scott Pelley why they made the decision to desert their units, in a report to be broadcast on Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

One soldier, Pfc. Dan Felushko, 24, tells Pelley, “I didn’t want…’Died deluded in Iraq’ over my gravestone.”

It was Felushko’s responsibility to go with the Marines to Kuwait in January 2003. Instead, Felushko slipped out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and deployed himself to Canada.

“I was a warrior…I always have been,” Felushko tells Pelley. “I’ve always felt…that if there are people who can’t defend themselves, it’s my responsibility to do that.”

“As we’re sitting here, something just short of 1100 Americans have died. What do you say to their families about the choice you made?” asks Pelley.

“I honor their dead. …Maybe they think that my presence dishonors their dead, but they made a choice the same as I made a choice, and my big problem is that, if they made that choice for anything other than they believed in it, then that’s wrong,” says Felushko. “The government has to be held responsible for those deaths, because they didn’t give them an option.”

Soldiers who want to be assigned to non-combat jobs have the option of applying for conscientious objector status.

Spc. Jeremy Hinzman, from Rapid City, S.D., filled out those forms, and while he waited for the decision on his request, he worked in a kitchen in Afghanistan.

The Army eventually told Hinzman he didn’t qualify as a conscientious objector. “I was walking to the chow hall with my unit and we were yelling, ‘Train to kill, kill we will,’ over and over again,” recalls Hinzman.

“I kind of snuck a peek around me and saw all my colleagues getting red in the face and hoarse yelling, and at that point, a light went off in my head and I said, ‘You know, I made the wrong career decision.'”

Despite his decision to leave the army, Hinzman says he wasn’t looking for a way out of his commitment to the military.

“I was told in basic training that, if I’m given an illegal or immoral order, it is my duty to disobey it, and I feel that invading and occupying Iraq is an illegal and immoral thing to do,” says Hinzman.

“I think there are times when militaries or countries act in a collectively wrong way. …Saddam Hussein was a really bad guy, but was he a threat to the U.S.?”

Hussein may have been a threat to the Iraqi people, but Hinzman maintains that was not enough of a reason for Hinzman to risk his life fighting in Iraq.

“Whether a country lives under freedom or tyranny or whatever else, that’s the collective responsibility of the people of that country,” says Hinzman.

He later adds that his contract with the military was “to defend the Constitution of the United States, not take part in offensive, preemptive wars.”