Wounded vets also suffer financial woes

September 29, 2007
Wounded vets also suffer financial woes

TEMECULA, Calif. - He was one of America's first defenders on Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq.

Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain. In a few weeks, he may lose his house, too.

Gamal Awad, the American son of a Sudanese immigrant, exemplifies an emerging group of war veterans: the economic casualties.

More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That's a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries from homemade bombs and the unremitting anxiety of fighting a hidden enemy along blurred battle lines. Treatment, recovery and retraining often can't be assured quickly or cheaply.

Veterans boost Democrats' Iraq war exit plan

March 21, 2007
Veterans boost Democrats' Iraq war exit plan

Murphy, a former paratrooper who went to Iraq shortly after the 2003 invasion, is in his third month on Capitol Hill. But as the only Iraq war veteran in Congress, the 33-year-old freshman has become a central player in the most intense lobbying effort since Democrats assumed the majority in January.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and her top lieutenants work to rally Democrats behind a bill to force President Bush to begin bringing troops home no later than next March, they are relying on lawmakers like Murphy who have served in the military.

Veterans Affairs: backlog of 400,000 case

February 4, 2007
Veterans Affairs: backlog of 400,000 case

The California Nurses Association reported that in the first quarter of 2006, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "treated 20,638 Iraq veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, and they have a backlog of 400,000 cases." A returning soldier has to wait an average of 165 days for a VA decision on initial disability benefits, and an appeal can take up to three years.

This is unacceptable and reprehensible.

Care for U.S. veterans could cost $662 bln

February 2, 2007
Care for U.S. veterans could cost $662 bln

BOSTON (Reuters) - Medical costs for U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could range from $350 billion to $662 billion over the next 40 years, as soldiers survive injuries that would have killed them in past conflicts, according to a Harvard University study.

Due to improvements in battlefield medicine and equipment, there are now about 16 "nonmortally wounded" soldiers for every death, far more than the 2.6 soldiers wounded per death in Vietnam, the study said, citing Department of Veterans' Affairs data.

Over 1,000 active duty military members signed petitions against the war

January 16, 2007
Over 1,000 active duty military members signed petitions against the war

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Several anti-war groups that include members of the military on Tuesday
delivered petitions against the war in Iraq to U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat who's long
been against the conflict.

Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out sponsored the
"appeal for redress" petition, which was signed by more than 1,000 active duty military members,
according to Kucinich's office.