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Growing up in Los Angeles, it is not unusual to see the homeless on nearly every street corner, sleeping in the most remote of places and pleading with pedestrians and stopped cars for a little spare change. I haven't put much thought into it until now. I remember seeing many of those homeless men with signs reading "Vietnam veteran, please help." According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, veterans make up only 9 percent of the U.S. population but 23 percent of the homeless. Almost 47 percent are from the Vietnam era. America has failed at many things, including health care, the war on poverty and the objective in Iraq, but why have we failed so miserably at taking care of America's national heroes? The president and other government officials lay a thick layer of guilt on many Americans when it is time to enlist and serve on behalf of their country. The call to duty comes with a uniform, a one-way ticket and generic speech about how you're "doing the right thing." But how many generations of war veterans have to suffer before we take a more critical look at how little the government cares about them? The striking similarities between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq are difficult for any history buff to miss. In 2004 USA Today reported mounting casualties and growing guerrilla resistance, skepticism about the justification for going to war in the first place and no clear strategy for finishing the job and coming home. Like Vietnam, the war in Iraq gives Americans a clear perspective on presidential authority. For Vietnam veterans, this is like a bad dream. They watch as their grandsons march off to fight a war that has indiscriminately lost its objective and caused the death of thousands of American soldiers and countless Iraqi militants and civilians. "I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war ... suffer the loss of the same old illusions and learn the same old lessons on its own," Philip Caputo, American author, journalist and Vietnam War veteran told ThinkProgress.org. In his book "In Retrospect," Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the 1960s said, "We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation ... Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why." One can't help but wonder if a similar statement will be made fifty years from now. Recent news about the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is depressing and leaves no doubt about the mistreatment and neglect of our troops. The Washington Post called the center "a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients." The living conditions at the center are utterly deplorable. Cockroaches, cheap mattresses and mouse droppings litter the facility, which is covered in mold. No person, especially a severely wounded war veteran, should have to transition from uncomfortable conditions in a foreign land to repulsive conditions at home. "We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months, in an interview with The Washington Post. The distorted priorities of the government have let down the sick by failing at health care reform; it has let down the poor by failing at the war on poverty; it lets the children down with atrocious public school systems, and it has let the elderly down by attempting to privatize Social Security. Our service men and women deserve better than this. They deserve to come home and be thanked for their honorable efforts. This tradition of neglect and ill-treatment of our troops after they've become "damaged goods" is unacceptable. The powers in control need to take a critical look into budgeting. Many Americans hope the war in Iraq will end in the near future, but if this doesn't happen then funding must be appropriated to ensure the healthy homecoming of our wounded soldiers.
----- Contact Shanelle Matthews at smatthews@lsureveille.com
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