Vet Centers see escalating demand for help as troops return

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - A network of community-based walk-in veterans' treatment centers is under increasing pressure as more and more former troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have come looking for help.

A report to be issued Thursday from the House Veterans Affairs Committee's Democratic staff says that nearly a third of all Vet Centers have seen the demand rise for outreach and other services.

The report surveyed 60 of the 207 Vet Centers operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It found that the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have sought help for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) doubled - from nearly 4,500 to more than 9,000 - from October 2005 through June 2006.

The number of veterans with other types of possible mental health and readjustment problems also doubled, and in some cases tripled, the report said.
...
"The administration's failure to increase staffing and other resources for Vet Centers has put their capacity to meet the needs of veterans and their families at risk," the report said.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15791120.htm

[Joanie Baloney]

1. My blood is boiling about this

We should organize protests on Veteran's Day (observed Friday, Nov. 10th by the Feds this year). This treatment of the very men and women the yellow ribbon crowd pretends to support is inexcusable. Hypo-fucking-crites!


:grr:







* edited for anger-induced dyslexia

[CAG]

2. Don't bother Cheney's beautiful mind with this type of distraction.... he

's got a war to run into the ground while he remembers his good ol' days of 5 deferrments. Besides, Cheney will tell you that these vets could go over and get a job at Halliburton, that place is growing and growing these days!!
:sarcasm:

[bling bling]

3. Maybe the Repubs will design a ribbon for them. "Support our veterans."

And they'll slap it on the back of their cars.

It's the Republican way.

By the way, if you look at the voting records of the US Senators you'll see how many times an increase for vet benefits has been supported by Democrats and killed by the Republicans.

Talk is cheap. And talk, and/or ribbons, is ALL the Republicans have to offer to anyone outside of their cushy rich-boy network.

[jody]

4. Some/many vets pray for physical death because their spirits and minds

are already dead.

[jody]

5. "Coming Home", a poem by Curtis D Bennet (US, former pilot in Vietnam)

Inside the gray, steel womb of cargo space.
Flag covered caskets quietly lie
In rank and file, line on line in silence.
Bound together in final military formation
Flags of blood reds, cloud whites and ocean blues,
Drape and caress the dull, pewter boxes
Encasing the broken, ashen, hallowed remains
Of dead young boys and girls,
Forced to pay the ultimate price
In this foreign land with strange people,
Where brutal Death forever lurks,
Beneath the surface, around the corner
Watching with cold eyes that never sleep.

Outside, hot desert night winds
Sweep down from the northern mountains
In biting, stinging clouds of dust
Blowing and swirling the tarmac, ruffling flags.
Steel, hydraulic doors whine and close tight

Sealing the precious cargo inside.
Engines come to life and rumble the air,
The huge cargo transport trundles away
Disappearing in the darkness of the taxiway.
Moments later, reemerging, a roaring shadow
That races and climbs sharply up and away
Into the night air to seek the stars.

Floating suspended between earth and sky
The westbound plane heads for the full moon.
Carrying its sleeping, youthful cargo home.
To the land that gave them birth,
To the parents who loved and raised then
To the government who sent them to fight,
And the politicians who killed them.
In the early morning hours, it touches down
On glistening tarmac of the sleeping base.
To taxi off and away towards the dark distant hanger
Where black hearses wait under tight security.

Once again hydraulics hum the cargo doors open.
The setting moon softly illuminates the caskets.
So quietly they lie, so well they sleep,
With no more promises to keep,
No more miles to go.

Curtis D. Bennett
May 12, 2004

[fed-up]

6. * administration is spitting on our troops again k/r for morning n/t

[gratuitous]

7. Nonsense

The little Risk board pieces just go back in the box at the end of the game. They don't need any fancy "medical care" or "follow-up treatment." At least, not the good and loyal soldiery. Now, it's inevitable that there will be some slackers and malingerers, malcontents who just want to give the Red, White and Blue a black eye, and pretend that they have physical "problems" or psychological "disorders" that goad them into shooting up the local "7-11" or beat the crap out of their "wife." But all good Americans know that these are loony psychos who hate America and are just trying to make President Bush and the Republicans look bad.

At least, that's what I heard on Fox News. And Rush. And Laura. And Hugh. And George. And Tim. And John. And Joe. And Katie. It's a good thing there are still some pockets of the truth out there in the little spaces that the librul media don't dominate. Sometimes you really have to look hard to find out how none of this is the Republicans' fault. It's not surprising that lazy libruls don't bother to find out the truth, and just latch onto the first Bush-bashing thing they can think of.

And need I add . . . :sarcasm: