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August 2, 2007
Forgotten Victims
Today I listened to the story of Jeffrey Lucey and it made me SO angry. There are many victims of the so-called war on terror and our occupation of Iraq. I find the ill-treatment of the young men and women who are placed on the front lines to be one of the most shameful; unfortunately, this is nothing new. Although it is certainly worse than ever, there has always been a certain amount of mistreating and forgetting of veterans, especially around PTSD. Thankfully, some news sources (at least on NPR and Democracy Now!) have been covering this, but it still doesn’t seem to get the full attention that it deserves.
It’s hard to say who exactly is to blame for the sad state of veteran care in this country; it is somewhat overdetermined. Of course, this is true of most social problems, which makes social change (with the exception of all out revolution) excruciatingly slow. In this case, the VA and Veteran Services are certainly at fault, but I think military culture in general is the biggest culprit. My family also owes a huge debt of gratitude to the VA. My uncle was diagnosed with brain cancer almost a year ago. We found out, too late, that like many working Americans, he was without health insurance. We were able to get him into the VA system (he served in Vietnam) and they paid for everything—retroactively. For that I will always be grateful. On the other hand, my brother, who serves as an officer in the Air Force, expressed surprise when he heard about that. We were clearly an exception. I am thankful that my uncle was able to get the care that he needed, but I can't help but think of all the forgotten victims, like Jeffrey Lucey, who we never talk about.
Posted by sara at August 2, 2007 9:34 AM