POLITICS-US: Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post

[babylonsister]

POLITICS-US: Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post
By Aaron Glantz*


SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 29 (IPS) - Another high-ranking George W. Bush administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit Thursday amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organisation where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.

Cooper has been under fire for using his office to proselytise for evangelical Christianity ever since he appeared in a 2004 fundraising video for Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

In the video, Cooper says of his Bible study, "It's not really about carving out time, it really is a matter of saying what is important. And since that's more important than doing the job -- the job's going to be there, whether I'm there or not."

Cooper's declaration inflamed veterans who saw the number of veterans waiting for the Veterans Administration (VA) to decide their disability claims balloon to 400,000 on his watch, with the average veteran waiting six months for a decision from the government.

"He was clearly a fundamentalist Christian first and essentially a government paid missionary for his particular world view of the gospel of Jesus Christ," said Mike Weinstein, who runs the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. "The fact that he's gone obviously is good."

more...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41423

[dkf]

1. "Bible study was more important than doing his job"

Yeah I'd say that was not a good thing to volunteer

[Frustratedlady]

2. Criminal. First Katrina incompetence and now another example...

Also, it's a good example of why church and state should be separate. In fact, the Bush adminstration is a good example of why church and state should be separate.