Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - It's time for Bush to deliver for vets
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - It's time for Bush to deliver for vets
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
July 29, 2007
President Bush says he wants to change the way wounded soldiers are treated when they return from war and last week ordered Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to follow the advice of the president's "wounded warriors commission."
The commission offered great advice: Streamline the bureaucracies that deal with returning wounded military, cut the paperwork, expand treatment of brain injuries and give disabled veterans more advocates to file for their benefits. Carrying out these far-reaching changes, though, shouldn't be left to someone who has one toe in retirement, as Nicholson has. (He announced July 17 that he will be leaving office after a two-year stint but may not vacate until October.)
The president needs to appoint a new secretary immediately and someone who will interpret the commission's broad recommendations in the best possible light for those who have already paid a high price for our freedom.
It was on Nicholson's watch, after all, that several embarrassing news reports -- including an investigation by this newspaper -- revealed substandard care in the VA hospital system and disparity in its disability payouts. Here in Illinois, wounded veterans have received among the lowest disability payouts in the country for nearly 80 years.
The estimated price tag for the commission's suggested improvements --$500 million for the first year and $1 billion annually in the years to come -- is not steep in the larger context of the money being spent in Iraq.
"The money is there," said Tammy Duckworth, the disabled Iraq war veteran who now heads the state's veterans affairs office. "This is part of the cost of the war. When we agreed to go to war, this is the cost we brought on ourselves. I think these recommendations can be effectively implemented. But there has to be a continued focus on this issue by veterans groups and the public and the media."
Duckworth, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Rep. Henry Hyde's seat last fall, also agrees that the best way to convince veterans that Bush is serious about giving the wounded "the best possible care and treatment that this government can offer" is to quickly name a replacement for Nicholson.
"We can't let that office sit empty or with a lame duck in it," Duckworth said. "This is the man who wanted so little money for the VA that a bipartisan group in Congress had to push for more."
Among the commission's other recommendations was a push to adapt to a new kind of war that produces new kinds of injuries. With more advanced medical technology, more soldiers with grave injuries are surviving this war than in previous wars, and they are coming home with far more serious injuries and many more traumatic brain injuries.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R- Ill.), a commander with the U.S. Naval Reserve, called the commission's demand for improved treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder as finally laying "to rest any stigma attached to what used to be called shell shock." Kirk would know; he is a veteran who dealt with PTSD himself after serving in Iraq and Kosovo.
The commission study was a bipartisan effort, co-chaired by former Republican Senate leader Robert Dole and former Clinton Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. Clearly, caring for wounded warriors is neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue. It's simply a matter of extending the same humane commitment to soldiers who have risked their lives for us.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
July 29, 2007
President Bush says he wants to change the way wounded soldiers are treated when they return from war and last week ordered Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to follow the advice of the president's "wounded warriors commission."
The commission offered great advice: Streamline the bureaucracies that deal with returning wounded military, cut the paperwork, expand treatment of brain injuries and give disabled veterans more advocates to file for their benefits. Carrying out these far-reaching changes, though, shouldn't be left to someone who has one toe in retirement, as Nicholson has. (He announced July 17 that he will be leaving office after a two-year stint but may not vacate until October.)
The president needs to appoint a new secretary immediately and someone who will interpret the commission's broad recommendations in the best possible light for those who have already paid a high price for our freedom.
It was on Nicholson's watch, after all, that several embarrassing news reports -- including an investigation by this newspaper -- revealed substandard care in the VA hospital system and disparity in its disability payouts. Here in Illinois, wounded veterans have received among the lowest disability payouts in the country for nearly 80 years.
The estimated price tag for the commission's suggested improvements --$500 million for the first year and $1 billion annually in the years to come -- is not steep in the larger context of the money being spent in Iraq.
"The money is there," said Tammy Duckworth, the disabled Iraq war veteran who now heads the state's veterans affairs office. "This is part of the cost of the war. When we agreed to go to war, this is the cost we brought on ourselves. I think these recommendations can be effectively implemented. But there has to be a continued focus on this issue by veterans groups and the public and the media."
Duckworth, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Rep. Henry Hyde's seat last fall, also agrees that the best way to convince veterans that Bush is serious about giving the wounded "the best possible care and treatment that this government can offer" is to quickly name a replacement for Nicholson.
"We can't let that office sit empty or with a lame duck in it," Duckworth said. "This is the man who wanted so little money for the VA that a bipartisan group in Congress had to push for more."
Among the commission's other recommendations was a push to adapt to a new kind of war that produces new kinds of injuries. With more advanced medical technology, more soldiers with grave injuries are surviving this war than in previous wars, and they are coming home with far more serious injuries and many more traumatic brain injuries.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R- Ill.), a commander with the U.S. Naval Reserve, called the commission's demand for improved treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder as finally laying "to rest any stigma attached to what used to be called shell shock." Kirk would know; he is a veteran who dealt with PTSD himself after serving in Iraq and Kosovo.
The commission study was a bipartisan effort, co-chaired by former Republican Senate leader Robert Dole and former Clinton Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. Clearly, caring for wounded warriors is neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue. It's simply a matter of extending the same humane commitment to soldiers who have risked their lives for us.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 8:17 AM
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