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U.S. Troops Are Technically War Criminals, Fearing Hostile VA
PTSD - Just Frauds Assures AP Writer
Just off the phone with a veteran who told me U.S. soldiers and Marines often take pictures in war zones [such as they are] of enemy dead in violation of various articles of the Geneva Conventions. Guys figure they’ll have an easier time with the VA if they have pictures of the dead (if they make it out) that they can file with VA documents.
Veterans’ fathers, their grandfathers (and women too) know the story about the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA), a predatory and dysfunctional agency that denied their family members’ health and lives. We hope it’s changing, but the VA ain’t your friend, especially if you’re a Vietnam-era veteran: The VA just loves you guys to death.
But the DVA does have it share of defenders: The kindest thing these defenders are called by veterans are “chickenhawks,” “house cats,” and “pukes.”
One of the DVA’s friends is AP national writer, Allen Breed.
Breed defends the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and the U.S. Dept of Justice (DOJ) who went after Wisconsin Navy veteran Keith Roberts in 2004 for blowing the whistle on the DVA’s shredder-gate scandal in the most undiplomatic way possible: Repeated obscenities.
I broke the story on Roberts on few years’ back; but Roberts is the tip of the iceberg of systemic mistreatment of our veterans.
Readers have seen saturation coverage of the deficiencies and hostilities of the DVA and embedded neocons in these pages.
Reviewing Allen Breed’s national AP hit job on U. S. veterans and reformist elements at the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA), there is a danger in writing a follow-up piece asking for comment from veterans.
Namely, Breed’s assertions that disability claims are being handled too “quickly, humanely, and mostly in the vets’ favor” present a risk that veterans may just stroke out in righteous anger when asked their opinion of these statements. I don’t want cause an activist veteran his or her life. Not kidding.
As axiomatic to veterans as the oath they swore to defend the U.S. Constitution is the reality that a veteran filing a disability benefit claim encounters the VA’s ‘deny-delay-and-hope-you-die’ culture.
How bad is the disability claim process?
The long document that a claimant must fill out [over one-million claims were filed in 2009, predicted to grow by the 100,000s] will more than likely be denied or delayed by a some claims specialist at the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA), like Mark Rogers quoted by writer Breed.
Rogers makes the absurd statement, unchallenged by any source Breed presents, that all a veteran has to do is “lie” and they can easily obtain “100 percent disability compensation.”
Breed’s editor has a nice shot of the VBA bureaucrat, posing before the camera like he’s actually proud of the mess he’s makes veterans slog through.
As Mike Bailey writes over at Kos, “I have spent years advocating for veterans and their families. I am used to the major news agencies that report just facts and leave opinion pieces to others to write, Reuters, AP even Bloomberg News, but this [Breed's] is the most opinionated piece I have ever seen from the AP.”
For a benefits process that hums along so “quickly [and] humanely,” there sure seems like a lot of suicides; see the Unseen Enemy: Corps had military’s highest rate in 2009.
Speaking of unseen enemies, they’re not just embedded bureaucrats at the VBA, or pencil-necks at the the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the enemy of the veteran is in the press as well.
Writes Breed, “No one knows the full extent of PTSD fraud. But there have been some hints.”
Here’s a hint for you, Breed: Our sworn veterans deserve the benefit of the doubt and one hell of a lot more than that.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=29768
Posted by Yanira Farray on May 3 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Vet News, Veterans Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Hi Mike,
How bad is the disability claim process? In my opinion, pretty bad. My claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) is now 14 years and eight months old. I am sure that there are others much older.
” 60 Minutes ” of CBS did a beautiful exposure of the DVA on January 3, 2010. Their
television news piece was titled ” Deny and Hope that they die. ” Again, in my opinion, this is the truth.”
The DVA also projects a backlog of veterans seeking disability compensation to reach 1.3 million. ( Source: Army Times, February 2010, article by Rick Maze )
Where is our President, our Senators, our Congressional Representatives?
Try writing to them with a problem on the DVA. Guess what? You won’t receive a reply.
So much for CHANGE!
As bad as it is, here’s a theory: DVA Sec. Shinseki is serious about reforming the DVA.
The neocons hate the idea. So, like what the AEI did during the Bush years, fraud becomes the real scapegoat over at the VBA.
http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/ has somewhere on their site some great work on blaming the victim for PTSD during the Bush-Cheney years.
This is it: http://www.epluribusmedia.org/features/20060206PTSD_intro.html
Don’t waste your time writing any of those pinheads in Washington, I did and even our reps here in California… Guess what??? Out of 15 different letters, including the DVA with my appeal statements, NOT one reply…. I to have been at war with the DVA for almost 10 years now myself… They give you crumbs every few years or so but no real answers or increases in your disibility…. I’ve been 40% for hearing loss and PTSD, 4 different appeals now to increase my PTSD, all I get are the same form letters asking for more evidence and statements, even though they have all that in my files already… I have beed seeing the same Doctor for my PTSD for 8 years , and he is the Chief of the department who has given my numberous letters to support my case and the appeals board still wants evidence…It’s a good thing the DVA buys good drugs, some for sleep, and some to stay mello, and some just for the HELL of it…. After 3 heart attacks and other cardio complcations, they finnally two years ago made that Service Connected and secondary to my PTSD but with NO increase what’s so ever, More crumbs, so that is another appeal that has been pending… DELAY, DELAY….
As of the 1st of the year, I got feed up with all their crap, did some research and finally found a Lawyer that deals with the DVA, for 20%, and so far I have gotten 3 different letters from the review board and the dickheads at the Los Angeles Office telling me they are working on my case but the are other Veterans ahead of me, HUMMMM, I wonder how long they have been waiting???
Another thing, After almost 10 years of going to VET REPS, and back and forth with the DVA, I just found out that seeing I am on SSDI for as long as I have been dealing with the DVA, and and am Permantaly Disabled and can’t work, that I am eligible for Unemployabilty,and my Lawyer asked me why I haven’t been getting it… I told them I didn’t know anything about that and it was NEVER mentioned in the past by anyone… My Bad….
Just another chapter of a Viet Nam Vet’s delay,and don’t inform, or be misinformed, dealing with our presious DVA… I took the oath and did TWO TOURS in the bush for our country and this is what you get back…..
Thank You DVA… My recruter forgot to mention any of this back in the day, and I know it’s still the same today… These kids today need to know this crap before they sign their life away and take the OATH too….
Here’s an idea, let’s let the DICKHEADS in congress and the rest of Washington, go to the sand box and let them live in that hell hole for 18 months, and after they get back if they get back, send them back there for another 18 months…