Veterans For America

While the brass at Fort Lee, Virginia, was extolling the post’s Warrior Transition Unit, eyes in the audience were rolling. Our wounded troops deserve more than “another dog-and-pony show” when it comes to their health and recovery. Despite claims made otherwise by the brass, troops say that they can’t get appointments at their Warrior Transition Unit; are forced to perform 24-hour duty while on sleeping medications; are treated as whiners; and sometimes see their injuries dismissed as less important. Two at Fort Lee confessed to seeking off-post counseling simply to help deal with the stress of being in the WTU. This is a serious matter for our military and our nation — as our troops made and continue to make incredible sacrifices on our behalf. That merits nothing less than our nation’s full commitment to their health. Too many tours end in trauma for our troops. Our government asked them to risk everything, and it is our government that must make our vets whole again — a burden that should not be picked up ad hoc by volunteers.

Even so, our troops continue to be deployed to Iraq — even the single moms with kids. The strain is particularly acute on our National Guard members, our citizen-Soldiers who were not meant for this kind of continuous, high-tempo role in ongoing wars. The Guard leadership clearly understands this, as in the middle of a Holiday message issued this week lies this sentence: “As the operational tempo of the National Guard increases both at home and overseas, so does the stress on individuals and families.“ 

Despite a report this week claiming that Indiana National Guard members were not overexposed to toxins while in Iraq, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, wants to set up a medical registry to track troop exposures to toxins. Our troops don’t necessarily need to go overseas to see environmental poison.

Now-and-future Defense Secretary Robert Gates asks all Bush Administration DoD appointees to stay on the job until they’re replaced by choices made by the Obama Administration — to prevent a leadership vacuum with troops engaged in two wars. Could that be awkward, at the very least? In Afghanistan, the genuine front against those who plotted the 9/11 attacks, more than seven years after the start of the war deadly violence and fraud still plague Afghan civil society — particularly around election time. Is the US planning to role the dice on even more bloodshed by recruiting local militias in Afghanistan? As for Iraq, the timeline for bringing our troops home from that costly distraction should be maintained.

Happy Holidays. We wish all of our troops good luck and a safe trip home…