7/17/05
"Some 12,500 American GI's have been wounded in Iraq. Eight soldiers
have been wounded for every one killed, about double the rate in
Kora, Vietnam, and the Gulf War.


"The percentage of soldiers who have undergone amputations is twice
that of any of our past military conflicts; nearly a quarter of all
the wounded suffer from traumatic head injuried, far more than our
other recent wars."


"These are soldiers who have survived Improvised Explosive Devices
(IEDS) and car bombs, who are living with mangled limbs, eye
injuries, and brain damage."


"The VA now serves 7 million of the country's 25 million veterans; in
the last year alone, the VA provided 6,000 new prostheses and
perfomred more than 40,000 adjustments."


"The average wait for a VA decision on an initial claim for
disability benfits is 165 days; to rule on an appeal of one of its
decisions, the VA takes, on average, three years. (In the last ten
years, some 13,700 veterans have died as they were waiting for their
cases to be resolved.)"


"In Minneapolis the waiting period for an orthopedic appointment at a
VA hospital can be more than six months, and patients there have been
told to expect a further decrease in services over the next budget
period."


"Of the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who had left active duty by
January 2005, 22 percent have already sought treatment from the VA;
more than a quarter of them were diagnosed with some form of mental
disorder."


"The GAO recently found that six of seven VA medical facilities it
visited 'may not be able to meet' increased demand for PTSD(post
traumatic stress disorder.) Hundreds of billions have been given to
the Pentagon to pay for this war; to pay for the war's aftermath, VA
discretionary funding for 2006 is to be increased by only one third
of 1 percent."


-Ronald J. glasser, "A War of Disabilities" Harper's, June 2005


http://www.villagesoup.com/commletters/letters.cfm?TopicID=5261