Data Suggests Vast (Troops) Costs Loom in Disability Claims

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/washington/11veterans.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

October 11, 2006

Data Suggests Vast Costs Loom in Disability Claims
By SCOTT SHANE

Nearly one in five soldiers leaving the military after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has been at least partly disabled as a result of service, according to documents of the Department of Veterans Affairs obtained by a Washington research group.

The number of veterans granted disability compensation, more than 100,000 to date, suggests that taxpayers have only begun to pay the long-term financial cost of the two conflicts. About 567,000 of the 1.5 million American troops who have served so far have been discharged.

“The trend is ominous,” said Paul Sullivan, director of programs for Veterans for America, an advocacy group, and a former V.A. analyst.

Mr. Sullivan said that if the current proportions held up over time, 400,000 returning service members could eventually apply for disability benefits when they retired.

Entitlements = bad
Corporate tax breaks = good
Money for the poor, sick, old, orphaned or disadvantaged = bad
Money to bribe foreign dictators or sponsor military coups = good
Money to help American citizens = bad
Money to grease the skids for American corporations = good

leave them disabled for years and thus expensive.

:sarcasm:

one in 4 homeless men are combat veterans. PTSD is hell.

since before the war started.

The stats from Gulf I were disastrous.

To say "I told you so" to the neocons is a waste of effort and cheapens the sacrifices and suffering of literally hundreds of thousands of our own people and an even large number in other countries.

This country has no soul.