Obama to Visit Walter Reed

With John McCain now blatantly trying to claim credit for the new GI Bill, Obama needs to outline what he will do for Veterans, not just on the first day of his administration if he wins, but what he will build to take care of them for the next twenty years--like, hospitals, counseling centers and service centers.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is scheduled to pay a solemn visit to wounded Iraq veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Saturday, Politico has learned.

The visit will be Obama’s third.

Obama’s staff is keeping his trip low key. It is not on his public schedule, and his campaign would not confirm it. A pool of reporters will go with him, but will not accompany him inside.

Obama will be in Washington to speak to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. His opponent for president, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), will also address the group.

McCain occasionally visits soldiers at Walter Reed on weekends when he is in Washington, most recently May 31.

McCain’s visits are usually unannounced to the press, and sometimes he shows up without even giving the hospital notice. He tells friends it gives him a sense of peace and feeds his soul.

As usual, McCain is probably sincere in his appreciation, not so sincere when it comes to actually doing anything to help Veterans.

Not only has he refused to support the 21st Century GI Bill, which the Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed last June, he has consistently voted against increasing funding for the Veterans’ Administration, which oversees all medical care for veterans:

– Voted AGAINST an amendment providing $20 billion to the VA’s medical facilities. [5/4/06]

– Voted AGAINST providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care “and treatment for veterans,” one of only 13 senators to do so. [4/26/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes. [3/14/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending “abusive tax loopholes.” [3/10/04]

Typical straight talk express to oblivion--tell enough hazy, patriotic, loving stories, cozy up to the media, and hide from your voting record. And McCain couldn't even bother to show up and vote for legislation he's already flip-flopped on. That's the John McCain way of screwing Veterans. And Obama needs to point this out, every single day.

--WS

Deus nobiscum, quis contra?

Organizations that combine religion, the military, and proselytizing are recipes for disaster. While proselytizing is "banned" by the military, there are numerous instances where this type of activity has caused severe problems for members of the military. The question for readers is, are they ethical? Are they harmless? Should a veteran use their GI Bill Benefits to pay for the training that is being marketed by such an organization?

The idea of someone who has left the military going to work for an organization that does missionary and charity work is a fine idea. Selfless service should not be criticized. However, an organization that advertises on military issues websites and recruits former members of the military to engage in missionary work and proselytizing might be the sort of organization that should be scrutinized.

Individuals who "click" on the ad pictured above [the link is deactivated here] are taken to a web site for the Active Duty Missionary website. Visitors are asked to take a look at the various aspects of joining this program. Military images and graphics are found all throughout the site:



The facility where people would go to train is described as something very similar to what Blackwater uses in North Carolina:

The Master’s Mission’s 1500-acre training base in the remote mountains of North Carolina provides a unique setting for thorough and “hands-on” preparation for missions service. The Bible & Missions curriculum encompasses scriptural authority, principles of biblical interpretation, a survey of God’s plan throughout history, and scriptural methods for establishing churches in both remote and urban areas. The Technical curriculum includes building construction on roads, dams, and airstrips, bush living, mechanics, water systems, community development, health and first aid, and more.

The cost is fairly steep, but the applicant can get special assistance to apply Montgomery GI Bill benefits to the training costs:

Married Couples and Families: $17,675 *
Single: $12,010 *

*This amount includes estimates for living expenses while training, in addition to tuition and board. From the informational .pdf file: Cabins are equipped with kerosene or propane lamps and accessories. Each candidate is responsible for purchasing propane and kerosene for their cabins as needed. This cost is included in the above estimate.

Contact the Business Office to apply your Montgomery GI Bill – Active Duty Educational Assistance Program benefits to your training costs.

It is not known whether this covers the use of All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs):



Their doctrine is fairly explicit:

We believe in the literal biblical account of creation (a grammatical/historical method of interpretation).

Frequently asked questions and issues are discussed:

In a section titled "The Issue," the subject of "why" is discussed:

Assumption
Short term missions and relief/aid projects are an effective way to present the message of salvation to people in foreign countries.
REALITY “Cross-cultural evangelization will hardly occur when the time frame is a 2 or 3-week visit into and out of a society, with little knowledge or understanding of local language and culture.” (International Journal of Frontier Missions, Spring 2004, p. 29)

Misconception
Short term missions and relief/aid projects are an adequate substitute for long term missionary presence.

REALITY
Such activities are valid expressions of love… but in the strict sense, they do not qualify as missionary work. The distinction is vitally important if we are to keep gospel proclamation, evangelism, church planting, and discipleship at the heart of what we are supposed to do. (Jim Reapsome, Mission Maker
Magazine–2005, p.26)

The following is a list of places where the organization has missionaries:

Strengthening existing mission work in...
Alaska, Congo, Ecuador, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Romania, Uganda

Starting new mission work in...
Afghanistan, Asia, Central America, East Africa, Eastern Europe, Iraq, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South America, Western Europe

h/t to Wired's "Danger Room."

We Need Action to Go With That Outrage

This is a continuing series of posts that follow up the lawsuit against the Veterans Administration and highlights what happened yesterday before a Congressional Committee.

That's all well and good--now follow it up with something that forces these people to act and that holds them accountable for their massive fuck-up:

...Committee Chairman Bob Filner lashed out at the man in charge, Secretary James Peake, accusing the V.A. of "criminal negligence," reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.
"What we see is a pattern -- deny, deny, cover up, cover up," Filner said.

Filner's colleagues quickly followed, piling anger on top of disbelief.

With his embattled Director of Mental Health Dr. Ira Katz at his side, Secretary Peake presented a detailed series of charts and graphs generally backing CBS News suicide data.

"I've never had a concern with their overall numbers," Katz told the committee.

"We're as far from hiding information from the public as anyone I know," Peake said.

But several lawmakers weren't buying it, citing a Feb. 13 e-mail titled "Not for CBS News" where Katz appears to be trying to keep attempted suicide numbers quiet.

These bastards have to go. Replace them with people who care and who will work hard to fix this problem.

New Report on Veterans Health Care Deficiencies

These reports need to be heeded. Sitting around and doing nothing is the wrong answer:

Many Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injury are not getting adequate health care and job assistance for their long-term recovery despite years of government pledges to do so, Veterans Affairs Department investigators say.

"Significant needs remain unmet," according to the report released Thursday by the VA's inspector general. It is the first to examine the Bush administration's long-term efforts in supporting veterans with traumatic brain injury, a leading problem among soldiers struck by roadside bombs that often causes lasting emotional and behavioral difficulties.

The study tracked a group of 52 patients that received VA treatment after sustaining brain injury during a seven-month period in 2004. An initial review by the IG in 2006 found gaps in follow-up care and family counseling 16 months after the injury and urged the VA to improve long-term case management.

The VA pledged to coordinate the necessary follow-up care with the Pentagon, but the latest audit concludes that efforts are still falling short for roughly one in four patients.

In a perfect world, you would be able to help everyone. I realize that this is far from a perfect world, and there are always going to be people who, for whatever reason, either don't want or can't cope with receiving help. I get that. But there are too many stories about Veterans being turned away, or ignored, or told the wrong thing.

The report included a VA response in which the department acknowledged problems with case management but stated that with recent improvements it now had "systems in place to ensure that all veterans with TBI are being followed as their clinical needs require."

For example, the VA pointed to plans announced last week to start calling 570,000 recent combat veterans to make sure they know what services are available to them.

In the audit, investigators praised the new measures as "positive steps" but questioned whether the VA's latest promise to keep watch over veterans would prove to be a reality. They said that "at least 8 of 49 veterans we contacted had significant unmet needs and no evidence of VA case management in the previous year."

"We continue to be concerned that all veterans discharged after inpatient rehabilitation for TBI receive case management, unless this has been explicitly denied by the patient," investigators stated, adding that they will continue monitoring the VA to ensure Iraq war veterans are receiving the care they need.

When you read stories about what is going on with The Broken Soldier, and hundreds of other cases, you can't help but wonder why there isn't more outrage.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER 3:07PM

Closing arguments in the VA trial we've been following were today:

In closing arguments in a federal lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), plaintiff lawyers accusing the agency of failing to effectively take care of our nation’s military veterans said, “1,457 veterans died while their appeals were pending” in the last six months alone. “More of these veterans are dying in the United States than out in combat,” attorney Arturo Gonzalez said.

Two veterans rights groups - Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth - sued the VA hoping a federal judge could order the government agency to overhaul and improve its system. The trial took place in San Francisco with seven days of court testimony. Closing remarks were held Wednesday.

Plaintiff lawyers claimed the agency has dropped the ball in a number of ways and as a result has not provided proper access to health care and benefits to veterans. For example, they said the VA has yet to fully implement the Mental Health Strategic Plan that was introduced back in 2004. Gonzalez said, “there is no plan for dealing with all of these veterans who are returning and who are in need of help.” The argument was also made that veterans are waiting too long to get medical appointments and the benefits they deserve.

Daniel Bensing, the Department of Justice lawyer representing the VA, told the judge that the VA has a “very well-regarded system for providing health care.” He insisted that 80 percent of the Mental Health Strategic Plan recommendations have been adopted and he said, “98 percent of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans are seen within 30 days.”

A Dark Week For the Department of Veterans Affairs

We expect resignations this week. Lots of them. Barring that, hopefully, these officials will have the decency to at least start owning up to their colossal lies and outrageous mistakes.

A top-ranking official at the Department of Veterans Affairs defends the agency's treatment of disabled veterans and denies the agency has tried to cover up the number of veterans committing suicide. Dr. Michael Kussman, a department undersecretary for health, testified during a trial in San Francisco federal court that will determine whether the VA is shirking its duty to provide adequate mental health care and other medical services to millions of veterans.

The two veterans groups suing the VA want U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti to order the agency to dramatically improve how fast it processes applications and how it delivers mental health care, especially when it comes to preventing suicides and treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

This trial actually features some lawyers who are willing to put the VA under some scrutiny and challenge their methods. For other agencies and for other issues like public safety, public health and public housing, hopefully this trial will serve as the framework for beginning the process of unravelling the incompetence and the outrageous behavior of the Bush Administration:

The groups contend that veteran suicides are rising at alarming rates in large part because of VA failures. In court, plaintiffs' lawyer Arturo Gonzalez clashed Thursday with Kussman over how to compile and report the suicide rates.

For instance, VA Secretary James Peake told Congress in a Feb. 5 letter that 144 combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide between October 2001 and December 2005.

But Gonzalez produced internal VA e-mails that contended that 18 veterans a day were committing suicide. Kussman countered that the figure, provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, included all 26 million veterans in the country, including aging Vietnam veterans who are reporting an increased number of health problems.

You know, lying is a good way to get your ass in a sling, especially if you're in a position of public trust:

Gonzalez also asked Kussman to explain several e-mail chains among agency officials that discussed an unwillingness to share suicide statistics with CBS News, which was preparing a story on the subject.

"I don't want to give CBS any more numbers on veterans suicides or attempts than they already have - it will only lead to more questions," wrote Everett A. Chasen, chief communications officer in a March 10 e-mail to several VA officials.

On Monday, the first day of trial, an e-mail message written in December by Dr. Ira Katz, the agency's mental health director, was given as evidence. It alerted Kussman and others that 12,000 veterans under VA care were attempting suicide a year.

"Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail asks.

Katz also reported that of the average of 18 military veterans who kill themselves each day, four to five of them are under VA care when it happens.

Three Democratic senators, including Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, called for Katz's dismissal this week.

"I disagree with the premise that there was some effort to cover something up," Kussman testified Thursday. "We don't obfuscate."

Well, the E-mail chain says otherwise. Hopefully, these men will do the right thing and leave public life. This wasn't their thing, apparently, and they've done a great disservice to Veterans. Now that Doug Feith is out of work, maybe they can all get together and start a company that gives people bad advice and then covers it up--that might get some play. My advice is, give that service to retiring Republican Congressmen who face indictment or disgrace and quit playing with the lives of people who have actually served this country.

Veteran's Administration HID Suicides - a Follow-up

We're following this story, and we are picking our jaws up off the floor over THIS revelation:

In San Francisco federal court Monday, attorneys for veterans' rights groups accused the VA of nothing less than a cover-up - deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans.

"The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA is in denial," said Veterans Rights Attorney Gordon Erspamer.

The charges were backed by internal emails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health.

In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it's not outside the norm.

"There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told Keteyian in November.

But in this e-mail to his top media advisor, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our metical facilities."

Katz's email was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 - a fraction of Katz's estimate.

"This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows clearly, without a doubt, that there is an epidemic of suicide among veterans," said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.

And it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers.

First, he titled his e-mail: "Not for the CBS News Interview Request."

He opened it with "Shh!" - as in keep it quiet - before ending with
"Is this something we should (carefully) address … before someone stumbles on it?"

Today we showed the e-mail to Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

"This is disgraceful. This is a crime against our nation, our nation's veterans," Filner told CBS News. "They do not want to come to grips with the reality, with the truth."

And that's not all.

Last November when CBS Newsexposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.

"Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate," he said last November.

But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later.

He wrote: there "are about 18 suicides per day among America's 25 million veterans."

CLICK the link and go to the original CBS News story--it's full of evidence that shows possible malfeasance and outright lying by the VA. It's worth the read, and they're doing a great job keeping us informed--show them some love. I think we'll be reading about the departure of Dr. Katz before too long...

Something to follow this week...

Happy Sunday--here's something we'll be paying attention to in the coming weeks...

(AP) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs isn't doing enough to prevent suicide and provide adequate medical care for Americans who have served in the armed forces, a class-action lawsuit that goes to trial this week charges.

The lawsuit, filed in July by two nonprofit groups representing military veterans, accuses the agency of inadequately addressing a "rising tide" of mental health problems, especially post-traumatic stress disorder.

But government lawyers say the VA has been devoting more resources to mental health and making suicide prevention a top priority. They also argue that the courts don't have the authority to tell the department how it should operate.

The trial is set to begin Monday in a San Francisco federal court.

An average of 18 military veterans kill themselves each day, and five of them are under VA care when they commit suicide, according to a December e-mail between top VA officials that was filed as part of the federal lawsuit.

"That failure to provide care is manifesting itself in an epidemic of suicides," the veterans groups wrote in court papers filed Thursday.

A study released this week by the RAND Corp. estimates that 300,000 U.S. troops - about 20 percent of those deployed - are suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We find that the VA has simply not devoted enough resources," said Gordon Erspamer, the lawyer representing the veterans groups. "They don't have enough psychiatrists."

Eighteen Veterans a day commit suicide--that's a staggering number. How many of those could be prevented with simple care? If only 5 of the 18 are under VA care, how many are under no care at all and have no health insurance?

This is, hopefully, a lawsuit that will bring changes for the better.

Veterans Issues in the Debates

Not really a post, more of an observation.

I'd like to see ALL the candidates admit that we are going to have to find billions of dollars to refit, refurbish, and retrain our troops. I'd like to hear specific examples of how they're going to expand health coverage for active duty, reserve and National Guard troops. As the Vietnam Veterans begin to retire and need more health care, there will be a crush over the next decade or so as Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan begin to use the VA system and the active duty system more and more.

Retirees already have to wait in line on post to get their promised coverage. What's it going to be like when there are more and more of them, competing with families and troops in need?

Just a thought.

We Read GAO Reports Because We Have the Time

New GAO Report on Veterans with TBI:

Brain screenings for vets may be flawed
Review of VA centers reveals problems with patient follow-up

updated 2 hours, 54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Thousands of Iraq war veterans who could have suffered traumatic brain injury may be getting unnecessary or inadequate health care because Veterans Affairs officials have yet to determine whether their initial screening tests are reliable, investigators say.

A draft report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained this week by The Associated Press, highlights the Bush administration's continuing difficulties in treating traumatic brain injury, a leading problem among soldiers struck by roadside bombs in the Iraq war. It also comes as a provocative military study this week found that symptoms of memory loss and irritability that have been tied to brain injury might be more accurately attributed to post-traumatic stress and depression.

The GAO review of nine VA medical centers found that months after former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in April promoted new screenings for brain injury and pledged personal responsibility in seeing them through, the department was still struggling to determine how to best gauge the clinical accuracy of its screenings.

If you're following this story, so are we. Due to outages and outrages and adages and whatnot, we're trying to stay afloat in these Interesting Times.

Go Read This Now

A quick hit, just to get the word out:

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

About a third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, among them 2-year-old Krisiauna Calaira Lewis, whose 20-year-old father slammed her against a wall when he was recuperating in Texas from a bombing near Falluja that blew off his foot and shook up his brain.

Unbelievable.

We are not doing enough to care for these men and women as they return home from war.

Next time you see a politician--ask them why. And don't take their cute little stock answers in stride.

I would very much like to see future debates put the question to the candidates--what are you doing about the Veterans?

With the V.A. overwhelmed, Veterans suffer needlessly

The Department of Veterans Affairs has produced it's annual year-end report to the congress, and for the third year running, the rate at which the V.A. acts to render decisions on disability claims fell further behind.

While the goal is to make determinations within 125 days, the reality is, on average it takes a claim 183 days to be acted on.

When a claim is rejected and appealed, the goal is to act on that appeal within one year, or 365 days. In reality, rejected claims take on average 660 days to be acted on; just under two years.

The VA has responded to this backlog by hiring new personnel, but it takes a reviewer two to three years to become efficient at their job, and the backlogs had a huge head start. While new personnel have been hired, and are being trained and gaining the acumen to do their jobs efficiently, veterans continue to be caught in limbo.

And when it is all said and done, just under 90% of all claims are found to be reasonable and valid, and the veteran receives the benefits he or she is due.

Very few wounded veterans have the ready resources that politicians seem to take for granted, and virtually none have the resources of the Bush clan. While they wait for their benefit determinations, they often face poverty, destitution and homelessness. No returning soldier should face homelessness, and no soldier should be relieved that they lost both arms because then the VA will have to give them a 100% disability rating!

That is why I favor the heartbreakingly simple approach advocated by Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard: Give the Veteran the benefit of the doubt. Provisionally approve all claims made by Veterans for disability benefits, and don't withhold health care benefits while the claim is under review by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bilmes has been studying veterans’ medical care and disability benefits for years, and it is her considered and esteemed opinion that the current backlog simply overwhelmed a system that was already struggling under budget cuts before the wars started and created a whole bunch of new veterans needing services. Now things only stand to get worse. Last spring, in testimony before a congressional subcommittee, she predicted 250,000 to 400,000 claims will be filed over the next two years alone by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This, she maintained, would create a situation that she said “will rapidly turn the disability claims problem into a crisis.” The problems of the VA are exacerbated as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on and on with no end in sight, and and the flood of wounded shows no sign of abating. And the DoD health system continues to dump patients into the underfunded VA system. This negatively impacts all veterans who use the system.

Keep in mind that Bilmes offered this testimony nearly a year ago, before the latest information on TBI was publicized.

The most recent findings are the result of percussive experiments conducted on animals, then the animals were sacrificed and the brain tissue examined microscopically. In the animal studies, scientists have discovered a fundamentally different injury than the “concussion” wound that has traditionally been ascribed to exposure to explosions. A concussion is essentially a bruise on the brain that generally heals with time.

Brain damage at the cellular level is likely permanent – and will almost certainly lead to further neurological degradation over time. Put bluntly, G.I.’s afflicted by TBI are not likely to get better, and in fact will get worse. How much worse is still unknown, but this will strain the system even further.

When the V.A. falters, it is the Veterans who stepped up and served who pay the price - again! - and who suffer as a result. That is a situation I find wholly intolerable. And frankly, anyone who professes unflagging support for the troops, but isn't hopping mad about the way our veterans are being treated once back home, should probably not profess their patriotism in direct proximity to me.

They gave the government the benefit of the doubt that they would not be sorely used when they joined up - the government owes them the same courtesy in return.

You say you support the troops? Fine...Where's your outrage?

You know that things are bad for the wounded when they get back stateside when the Marine Corps sets up an entire regiment just to help repatriated wounded deal with the issues they face as they negotiate the DoD and VA health and benefit systems.

And let’s just get this right out in the open – our wounded are getting screwed over– from the abuses of the 5-13 discharge to the veterans turning up in homeless shelters because they have been denied benefits. The outrages are pervasive, manifest and vast. At this point, when an allegation is made, I am assuming to the veteran the benefit of the doubt. When as many wrongs are verified as have been proven in recent weeks, the assumption of malfeasance on the part of the government agency is justified.

It is time to radically change the way we are treating veterans. It is time to fully fund the VA, and if taxes have to go up, well, that's the price you pay for supporting an unnecessary vanity war. Think about that next time. But instead of giving vets the run around, provisionally approve every claim, and hire and train adequate staff to review the cases. But shift the burden of proof to the government, and leave it there.

I am not the only one saying this. Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard says the same thing and backs it up with research data. If 86% are ultimately approved for benefits, why are we making them run a gauntlet of obstacles and homelessness and denying them necessary care?

While we are retooling the system to protect our veterans from the capricious whims of a feckless government, let’s change the rules under which the 5-13 discharge can be applied. Every 5-13 should have to be reviewed by a panel of civilian mental health professionals before it can be issued.

I want to challenge all of the war-supporting congress-critters. Will just one of you step up for our wounded veterans and offer legislation to give our wounded veterans the benefits I just described?

I’ll be waiting.

Pointing Up a Vital Distinction

In the fallout from the Walter Reed scandal, I am afraid that a vital distinction is being lost.

Walter Reed is not a VA hospital.

Walter Reed is an active duty military hospital.

Veterans Administration hospitals are operated under the auspices of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Walter Reed, like Brooke and Tripler Army Medical Centers, and the Naval medical facilities at Bethesda and San Diego, and Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, and all other military medical centers treating the active duty and war wounded, operates under the auspices of the Department of Defense.

The VA health system, under the leadership of Undersecretary Dr. Michael Kussman, was a government system done right before they were overrun by a flood of Iraq and Afghanistan war wounded. The VA computer system is the envy of all civilian healthcare employees who struggle mightily with archaic HIS systems. I know from HIS platforms - I've been a Cerner Pathnet and Meditech "Super User" in every facility I have ever been employed by that used those data management systems. The VA system rocks.

It is an apostacy that the VA faces funding cuts at a time that the active duty services are rushing to dump their wounded off onto the VA system.

The VA is the largest provider of mental health services to the returning veterans of America’s current military actions. Over a million troops have rotated through Afghanistan and Iraq, with a quarter million of them at minimum needing counseling services because they face readjustment issues. Yet they are facing staff cuts and closing of the Vet Centers that provide these crucial services. As a result, troops are not getting the care they need - the care they deserve - sometimes to tragic ends.

It is high-time the VA be fully funded and the Vet Centers fully staffed.

A country that can not or will not adequately accommodate the needs of those it sends to war needs to stop sending its sons and daughters off to war.

Editorializing aside, it is vital to remember that VA Medical Centers and Military Medical Centers are two separate and discreet entities, answering to different cabinet secretaries.

The Military Medical Centers answer ultimately to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The VA Medical Centers answer ultimately to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson.

Remember the distinction and do not let the media or the politicians conflate the two.

Doing so is a disservice to those who serve and that is not conducive to accountability.

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]