Amidst the discussions to-and-fro about the Iraq War, the slovenly state of VA hospitals became a hot topic.  The moldy and dingy state of Walter Reed, the top VA hospital in the country, only emphasized the deteriorated state of a system that was a big news story in 2007.  The VA system had languished ever since WWII.  Veterans were calling the state of their hospitals their Katrina moment.  The system was incapable of handling the wounded vets that were returning home, first with Iraq and then with Afghanistan.  Although steps were taken after 2007 to improve the system, it is still woefully inadequate to treat veterans’ mental health issues.

Other veterans’ services also lag far behind what they should be.  Families of service men and women overseas have few if any support systems and returning veterans’ families don’t either.  Service families are often faced with eviction or foreclosure from rental or mortgaged properties.  Veterans make up the largest percentage of the homeless.  We can cheer our military overseas at a Super Bowl—we can also forget all about them when they come home.  Many disillusioned with their inability to reintegrate into American society re-enlist, often exacerbating their problems when they return once again.

I was never in the military.  I’m not quite sure how I would have reacted to the strict discipline and rigid structure required of modern armed forces.  But I can still admire our military men and women.  While it’s true that some just enlist to pull themselves out of poverty and learn skills for later life (and there is nothing wrong with that), many are also motivated by a true desire to change the world, to be of service in far-away places where the freedoms we enjoy are hardly known.  And, whether you call it revenge or patriotism, a young man or woman that enlisted after 9/11 to fight against terrorism is an American hero.

I don’t understand how politicians can send young men and women off to war.  What a responsibility!  Of course, the truth of the matter is that the sons and daughters of the political elite often don’t fight or have a very reduced role in wartime.  But those politicians that simply counted boots on the ground for the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan are naïve to send America’s youth into battle so blithely.  Those service men and women have faces—they are someone’s sons and daughters and some are the spouses and parents of children.  Putting people in harm’s way is not to be taken lightly, no matter whether they are volunteers or not.

Yes, it is in the welcome home where we often fail, politicians and ordinary citizens alike.  To me it is irrelevant whether the war is just or not and whether a soldier is a volunteer or not.  These people are taking a risk to represent our country overseas.  This is true, of course, for any citizen that leaves the U.S. to work abroad—embassy and consulate staff, Peace Corps volunteers, media members, and so on.  But in high risk areas—and there is no greater risk area than the battle zone, on land or sea—we owe something to those people when they come back, as individuals, and for government-sanctioned programs, as a nation.

The support pendulum swung from a truly welcoming nation after WWII to an unwelcoming nation during Vietnam, and now towards the welcoming nation again for Iraq and Afghanistan.   People are finally coming to their senses and realizing that you can’t blame American troops for the mistakes of our leaders.  Leaders can be incompetent—service men and women just follow orders and lay out strategy to accomplish certain government policies.  In our country, the civilian government controls the military.

The low point in the treatment of American veterans occurred during the Vietnam War.  Up until then, there was a general consensus in the U.S. that the war the country was fighting was a just war.  Sure, there was a strong peace movement before World War II, but Pearl Harbor changed all that.  Whether FDR cleverly managed those events or not, the American war effort was one filled with patriotic fervor.  Even the Korean War, couched in the terms of stopping international communism, seemed to be accepted.  So why the turn in the Vietnam War?

I like to think it was a sign of the times.  Baby boomers, enjoying the prosperity of their parents after WWII, were a highly educated and free-thinking generation.  Veterans themselves were returning to campuses all across the U.S. under the G.I. Bill—many turned into leaders of the anti-war movement due to their maturity and world perspective.  The nation became polarized around Vietnam.  The draft created antagonism against the government among the young and their parents.  As veterans came back from Southeast Asia, many in the peace movement wrongly declared them to be the enemy.

I always thought that was stupid.  Even as I marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in November, 1969, showing my middle finger to President Nixon, I knew the veterans were not responsible for this war, so why berate them?  Yet we did so, as a nation and as individuals.  We watched them lose their jobs, lose their families, become homeless, struggle with drugs, and suffer medical atrocities without doing much about it.  The ones that didn’t come back in some sense were the lucky ones.  The living were collateral damage for a society that no longer cared.

Some of this, like I said, is still happening.  In my novel The Midas Bomb, an old veteran of the Iraqi campaign named Walter Jones and his dog Crackles have important roles as witnesses to the planning of a terrorist attack on New York City.  Walter, like many a real homeless veteran, is an invisible citizen of that great American city.  However, in his invisibility, there is power, a force in this case that is used for good.  One reason I added this character was to have an example of how we lose so much of our human potential in this country if we ignore the veterans’ plight.

In my university days, I had many opportunities to work and help veterans.  Now these opportunities don’t come as often.  However, if each one of us is receptive to the idea of helping out and consistently confirms this in the ballot box, things will get better.  Who knows?  The politicians might dwell a little more on that all important decision of sending young men and women off to war.  And they just might vote for providing necessary services to our soldiers who come home from abroad.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 7:44 am and is filed under Capitalism Without Control, Government Waste & Inefficiency, Medical Coverage Crisis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.