Wounded vets also suffer financial woes [the economic casualties]

[rodeodance]

Source: ap




Wounded vets also suffer financial woes

By JEFF DONN and KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press writers 56 minutes ago

TEMECULA, Calif. - He was one of America's first defenders on Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq.


Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain. In a few weeks, he may lose his house, too.
........

More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That's a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries from homemade bombs and the unremitting anxiety of fighting a hidden enemy along blurred battle lines. Treatment, recovery and retraining often can't be assured quickly or cheaply.

These troops are just starting to seek help in large numbers, more than 185,000 so far. But the cost of their benefits is already testing resources set aside by government and threatening the future of these wounded veterans for decades to come, say economists and veterans' groups..............

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070929/ap_on_he_me/coming_home_wounded_the_price;_ylt=Ajp7VFkOx09SB7ViMPbroX2s0NUE

[bronxiteforever]

1. K and Rec'd-It is amazing that King George chastises Dems

for spending when his war costs BLOOD and TREASURE

[lyonn]

2. Dreadfully sad article, thanks for posting. nt

[Feral Libertarian]

3. Sad, but........

a $5,700 a month mortgage? That is a $1,000,000 house. Yea, he may loose his house, but does any vet expect a disability pension that would allow them to live in a million dollar house?

[lyonn]

5. His home was bought during better days, prior to deployment

From article:

"Awad could once afford it. He used to earn $100,000 a year as a 16-year veteran major with a master's degree in management who excelled at logistics. Now, at age 38, he can't even manage his own life."

Don't know if he was reserve or not??

[OneBlueSky]

4. mulltiply the cost of caring for this veteran by ten or twenty thousand . . .

or more, and you discover a huge ongoing financial obligation that someone's going to have to pay . . .

the military, of course, is doing its damnedest to disqualify as many wounded vets as possible in order to decrease this obligation . . . by claiming that certain injuries are due to "pre-existing conditions" of one kind or another, for example . . . the claim doesn't even have to make sense -- and often doesn't -- since few if any of these veterans have the financial resources to mount a legal challenge that the government can draw out for years . . . the military knows this and counts on it . . .

beyond medical costs, the costs to these vets in terms of earning capacity is also enormous . . . the nation's obligation should include job re-training assistance and a whole range of other services to help these war heros cope with their new circumstances . . . fat chance of that happening . . .

the cost of the Iraq war doesn't end when the last American troop leaves . . . there's a perpetual cost of caring for wounded veterans that will at least equal, and possibly surpass, what the war itself is costing . . . the only way to cover this cost is the same way they're employing to conduct the war: printing more money . . . and we all know where that leads . . .

[depakid]

6. Tomorrow's homeless

If anything, they'll be treated worse than Vietnam vets were.