Fight in Congress to Right Veterans' Health Care

It's rapidly becoming a national disgrace.




Our men and women in uniform are ordered into harm's way in far-flung places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Then they're tossed aside to battle with a hidebound bureaucracy when they return home in need of what should be the best medical care on earth.

Well, no more.

We've published one horror story too many about shabby treatment of our returning veterans since this war with no end in sight began more than four years ago. From rat-infested quarters at Walter Reed Hospital in the nation's capital to an overwhelmed military medical care system elsewhere, our veterans are being shortchanged by a systemic failure.

They deserve the best care this nation can provide and for as long as it is needed.

Last week, this newspaper carried a story on the appearance before a congressional committee by Denise Mettie of Selah. She told a story of incredible insensitivity on the part of Army officials in dealing with her wounded son, Spc. Evan Mettie of Selah.

She said the Army knew her son had post-traumatic stress disorder after his first tour of duty in Iraq but did nothing to treat it because if he was medicated, the Army wouldn't have been able to redeploy him.

As it turned out, when Evan Mettie returned for his second tour of duty, the 23-year-old 2002 Selah High School graduate suffered serious head wounds during a New Year's Day 2006 suicide car-bombing in Baji, Iraq.

Subsequently, Denise Mettie said she signed away her son's health-care options without realizing it, agreeing to a medical retirement for her son. She told committee members that it was unfair for the Army to begin the retirement process just 17 days after Evan's injury -- especially since retirement limits health-care options.

We find it incredible the Army would so quickly push "retirement" for someone suffering severe brain injuries. It might be expedient, but it's certainly not in the interests of proper care. And sure enough, there have since been complications with his condition.

We totally agree with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who told Mettie that "our country owes you and your son an apology. Your son fought a war for our country. You shouldn't have had to fight every day to get him the care he deserves."

The Washington state Democrat is a senior member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The daughter of a disabled World War II veteran, Murray speaks from more than passing knowledge and interest and has been an outspoken advocate for veterans' care.

"War is expensive and if we don't face the full costs of war -- including caring for our veterans -- we'll never be able to get the resources and help families like Evan's need," Murray said. "We need the truth, so we can set the right budget and the right policies."

The war has dragged on for more than four years now and obviously just as the administration had no exit plan for getting out of Iraq, it also had no plan for dealing with the thousands of injured and wounded men and women the fighting would inevitably produce.

We call on Sen. Murray to do whatever it takes in Congress to "set the right budget and the right policies," now that she's part of the majority party in the Senate.

It's the least this country can do. It's certainly the right thing to do.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee.

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Those who take some sort of relief in the "We are fighting them over there so we won't be fighting them here!", Better Rethink their Future, or rather their Childrens Future!!

The Failed Policies will Haunt Us and the World for Decades!!

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