The Military State: Disposable Soldiers

Another must read article from The Nation:

by Joshua Kors

For three years The Nation has been reporting on military doctors' fraudulent use of personality disorder to discharge wounded soldiers. PD is a severe mental illness that emerges during childhood and is listed in military regulations as a pre-existing condition, not a result of combat. Thus those who are discharged with PD are denied a lifetime of disability benefits, which the military is required to provide to soldiers wounded during service. Soldiers discharged with PD are also denied long-term medical care. And they have to give back a slice of their re-enlistment bonus. That amount is often larger than the soldier's final paycheck. As a result, on the day of their discharge, many injured vets learn that they owe the Army several thousand dollars.

According to figures from the Pentagon and a Harvard University study, the military is saving billions by discharging soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan with personality disorder.

In July 2007 the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs called a hearing to investigate PD discharges. Barack Obama, then a senator, put forward a bill to halt all PD discharges. And before leaving office, President Bush signed a law requiring the defense secretary to conduct his own investigation of the PD discharge system. But Obama's bill did not pass, and the Defense Department concluded that no soldiers had been wrongly discharged. The PD dismissals have continued. Since 2001 more than 22,600 soldiers have been discharged with personality disorder. That number includes soldiers who have served two and three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This should have been resolved during the Bush administration. And it should have been stopped now by the Obama administration," says Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. "The fact that it hasn't is a national disgrace."

The rest of the story: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100426/kors/print by Joshua Kors (The Nation 2010-04-07)

Female Vets Face Homelessness, Dearth of Services

"...the new faces among America's homeless veterans.

"They're younger than homeless male veterans and more likely to bring children. Their number has doubled in the past decade, and there are an estimated 6,500 homeless female veterans on any given night - about 5 percent of the total homeless veterans population.

"But women-only programs...are few.

"'It is always hard to find a place or resources or help when you are homeless,' said Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. 'It is almost impossible if you are a woman. Most of the VA facilities cater to men, and you can't take a mom with two little kids and put her in the middle of a homeless center with 30 or 40 male veterans,' said Murray, D-Wash.

"The distressed economy only made things worse....

"Like male veterans, many homeless female veterans face substance abuse and mental health problems. Many also struggle with sexual trauma that occurred in their childhood, in the military, or elsewhere."

The rest of the story: Female Vets Face Homelessness, Dearth of Services by Kimberly Hefling (Associated Press 2009-12-15)

Resources: U.S. Vets
Department of Veterans Affairs
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran of America's report on female veterans (pdf)

As Unemployment Ranks Swell, Veterans Fare Worse

"The unemployment rate for veterans who left the military during the past three years is 18 percent, nearly twice the national average. The average for all veterans is about 11.6 percent. Even those numbers, however, may not reflect the situation as the economy worsened....

Every year, 220,000 service members exit the military. About 10 percent of them are retirees and about 10 percent of them are officers. An additional 80,000 to 90,000 National Guard members or Reservists leave the military.

The rest of the story: As Unemployment Ranks Swell, Veterans Fare Worse by Les Blumenthal (McClatchy Newspapers 2009-11-30)