"Why It's So Difficult To Treat Our Vets The Way They Deserve"

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too" "not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

Jon Stewart Would Really Like To Know Why It's So Difficult To Treat Our Vets The Way They Deserve

01/16/2014 - Jon Stewart pressed former defense secretary Robert Gates on a number of issues on Wednesday night. But things got particularly heated when the two got to the topic of the benefits backlog at the Department of Veteran Affairs.

“You have faced down pretty fearsome adversaries –- Iraq War reconstruction, the Taliban resurgence, but you talk about [in your book] a battle you fight with a really terrifying opponent, the VA bureaucracy,” Stewart said. “Why is it so difficult to take care of our men and women when they come home in the manner that they deserve?”

Stewart has proved himself a dedicated advocate for wounded veterans and is regularly vocal about the many challenges they face coming home.

Back in March, the host of the “Daily Show” reported that the number of veterans waiting over a year for their benefits to come through had grown 2,000 percent during Obama’s tenure. He went on to call the statistic “f*cking criminal."

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Gates said to Stewart that the holdup had nothing to do with a lack of funding or any inability on the part of VA employees. He even credited Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as being "effective." read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

Stewart and others are in those top tax brackets that have been living with huge tax cuts through these years of these recent wars and long occupations, adding to the under funding, and ignoring so many issues, of the previous decades and wars from, many making more wealth off their investments in the defense industries and private contractors with no bid war contracts.

It's so easy to say it has "nothing to do with a lack of funding", just as easy as it is to totally ignore the issues as a result of our wars. PTS for decades till these two wars and finally understanding it's also in the civilian population, Agent Orange till this VA administration, Gulf War Illnesses till this VA administration, these are but a tiny few and still not funded while help is finally offered through the VA. PTS had some making handsome livings on the speakers tours and writing books about in denying it even existed, since Vietnam.

Rachel Maddow: "We got a huge round of tax cuts in this country a few weeks before 9/11. Once 9/11 happened and we invaded Afghanistan, we kept the tax cuts anyway. How did we think we were going to pay for that war? Did we think it was free? Then, when we started a second simultaneous war in another country, we gave ourselves a second huge round of tax cuts. After that second war started. The wars, I guess, we thought would be free, don`t worry about it, civilians. Go about your business." 23 May 2013

It's been longer then the now 13 years of these two recent wars, the ignoring has been going on for decades, add these to those above, Test Vets, Gulf War Exposures, In-Theater Burn Pits, these still are but a few, also being addressed in this VA administration finally along with Veterans homelessness and more, with help from the Executive branch Cabinet who do not set their budgets the peoples representatives do, and with every conflict we order the few who serve into!

"12 years also is a long time. We now have a lifetime responsibility to a generation of service members, veterans and their families." Dr. Jonathan Woodson 11 Sep. 2013: 'With 9/11 Came Lifetime Responsibility'