OPINION: OBAMA MUST END VA BACKLOG

IN TWEET: THE BACKLOG OF DISABILITY CLAIMS AT THE VA IS A DEBACLE THAT REQUIRES PRESIDENTIAL INTERVENTION NOW. OUR TAKE ON THE CRISIS AND WAYS YOU CAN HELP.

NOTE: THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO MY DAD, AN ALL AROUND COOL GUY AND A VETERAN. I GREW UP HEARING STORIES OF HIS DEALINGS WITH THE VA. I WISH I COULD SAY LESS-THAN-WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES LIKE HIS WERE A THING OF THE PAST. SADLY, WHERE THE VA IS CONCERNED, IT LOOKS LIKE WE'VE GONE FROM BAD TO MUCH WORSE.

Meet Allison Hickey , Undersecretary for Benefits for the Veterans Affairs Department. Her Aqua Net hair and frozen grin aside, this is one do-nothing bureaucrat with little to smile about. She presides over a backlog of disability claims from veterans that is staggering in size. If you were less than inspired by her appearance in front of a House panel last week, you’re not alone. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House Veteran’s Affair’s Committee, called for Hickey to resign. It’s probably the only time I’d be inclined to agree with him.

CLICK HERE FOR AN INFOGRAPHIC LOOK AT THE CLAIMS BACKLOG.

Of course, axing Hickey will do little if anything to solve the problem but, it would be a tiny moment of bloodless, off with their heads-like catharsis. Her stunningly inept testimony wasn’t enhanced much this week by her boss, U.S. Secretary for Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. He popped up on the Sunday morning political chat circuit to crow about his “goal” of ending the backlog by 2015. Huh?!? 

I’m no math wiz but I’m thinking if I’m an Iraq or Afghanistan War Vet missing, say, a limb or two that kind of “goal” really wouldn’t give me the  warm and fuzzies. What the hell kind of response is a 2015 “goal” of ending the paperwork logjam when the shit pile is already more than a year deep? If this is the best we can do for the men and women we sent off to fight two wars, we are nation that should be profoundly ashamed of itself.

CLICK HERE FOR COLUMNIST JOE KLEIN’S SPOT-ON ASSESSMENT OF THE CRISIS.

Personally, I think Shinseki has been a major disappointment as the head of the VA. Given his personal history, this is a a guy who should have been all over this mess and prevented it from become a crisis. Instead, he has demonstrated a frustrating knack for not being present in the moment and appearing to ignore all the smoke that was billowing before the big fire . Remember, this claims backlog is not new nor is it something that just appeared, as if by magic, at Veterans Affairs offices around the country.  Perhaps instead of reiterating the fact that the VA and the DOD seem incapable of playing in the same sandbox, Shinseki should have gotten off his butt and done something about it much sooner.

Only after allowing the backlog to explode into a first-class disaster, and only after Allison Hickey did such a piss-poor job during her testimony, did Shinseki finally stroll out from wherever he was hiding and start talking. Of course, after hearing his plans, he might as well have maintained radio silence. One thing is clear: it’s time for President Obama to take the reigns and make ending the VA backlog a top priority. Anyone with half a brain knows there is a problem here. Tough words and moral outrage are only as good as the authority behind them. Obama must fill the leadership gap here and turn talk into walk.

With all of the attention paid last week to the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, it would have been nice to see some of that spotlight given to the claims crisis. Those who duped us into war could have taken a small step towards an apology by hitting the airwaves and demanding action. Instead, they chose to take part in a campaign to re-write history. Major media outlets who enabled the march to war could have dedicated some above the fold space to this story. Instead, most chose to engage in self-loathing or blissfully ignorant hand-wringing. Leading progressives, who never miss an opportunity to bitch about the Iraq War, could have been equally outraged about the present-day crisis. Instead, most chose the path of least resistance by engaging in another round of self-congratulatory preaching to the anti-Bush choir.

CLICK HERE TO EXPERIENCE THE BACKLOG FROM ONE VET'S PERSPECTIVE

I’m not saying it was a bad thing to call out Donald Rumsfeld for Tweeting lies or for any media outlet to take a critical look at the lead up to Iraq War but, it is profoundly troubling that we spent a ton of time looking back without dedicating equal time to where things stand right now. That inability to focus on the present while learning from the past is how we get pushed into wars based on lies. It’s also how situations like the claims backlog at the VA are allowed to fester and become living nightmares. That things like this happen over and over again isn’t anyone’s fault but our own. We can point fingers all we want but, if we don’t at least admit we are all part of a problem then we are never going to find a solution.

Fortunately, at least where the VA claims crisis is concerned, each of us can help. There are some simple steps we can all take that, collectively, will help move things forward. It took me less than 15 minutes today to complete the top three items on this list. It’s certainly the least any of us can do for the brave men and women who chose to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those veterans of past wars who are still fighting for basic disability support.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. CLICK HERE to visit the IAVA website and sign the online petition to demand that President Obama step in and take charge of the claims backlog solution. Share the petition with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers after you sign. Adding a personal message to these shares is also helpful.
   
   
2. Call both of your Senators and your Representative and demand similar action (that’s a total of three calls, folks). Let them know you are a constituent who feels that 2015 is too long to wait for an end to the current disability claims backlog. Calling your elected officials has a much bigger impact than emails or other auto-response options. Always be clear, courteous and concise when speaking with staff members who answer phones in the offices of elected officials. CLICK HERE to find your Senators and their contact numbers. CLICK HERE to find your Representative in Congress and their contact numbers.
   
   
3. Call the White House and express your support for our veterans and ask that President Obama step in to end the claims backlog at the VA. Again, always be polite to whomever answers the phone. Let them know your are aware of the statements that have been made by Undersecretary Hickey and Secretary Shinseki and are not satisfied with their responses. Leading veterans support organizations are calling for President Obama to intervene and you support that call to action. Extra points for sending a hand written letter. CLICK HERE for the White House contact information.
   
   
4. Follow @ronthinkblog and @iava on Twitter for regular updates on this issue. Re-Tweet relevant content with #endthevabacklog.
   
   
5. Share this post and the call to action list with at least one friend who isn’t a RONTHINK reader, especially those  who might be unaware of this issue.

I will continue to post key updates on the VA claims backlog crisis (here and on Twitter). If you’re still sitting on the fence, check out this clip from The Rachel Maddow Show. She has been a tireless voice of support for all veterans and this piece from her show last week definitely lit a fire under me.

OPINION: LIAR, LIAR WAR QUAGMIRE

 

IN TWEET: TO MARK THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE START OF THE IRAQ WAR, SOME ARE TRYING TO RE-WRITE HISTORY. WE’RE NOT GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN.

BOONDOGGLE (noun): a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy motivations.

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. While anyone who is awake and has at least one foot planted in reality knows the truth, there are some folks who are clearly hell bent on re-writing history. Just so we’re all starting at the jumping off point, here are the facts:

 

• There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

• Despite assertions to the contrary, there was no credible evidence that Iraq was actively producing or trying to start production of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
• There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks.
• Despite assertions to the contrary, there was no credible evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.
• The Iraq War is not now nor was it ever designed to “liberate the people of Iraq.”
• The Iraq War was based on a well-orchestrated and intentionally designed plan by the Bush Administration.
• President George W. Bush, you lied to us.
• Vice President Dick Cheney, you lied to us.
• Donald Rumsfeld, you lied to us.
• Condoleeza Rice, you lied to us.
• The news media, a large majority of Americans and a majority of our elected officials enabled the campaign of lies and fell in line with the liars even if they suspected something was fishy.
  

 

While some might greet this list with a “well, duh,” judging by Tweets, interviews and right wing media reports yesterday, it’s pretty obvious that an attempt to re-position the Iraq War as a liberation effort is well underway. It’s also important to acknowledge the last bullet point on my list because hindsight is 20/20. I remember all too well being in the minority at the time when I would question the flimsy evidence we were being presented or post public comments supporting folks like The Dixie Chicks.

While it’s certainly offensive that these latest attempts at revisionist history have been timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, it’s even more reprehensible when you remember that this same war resulted in the deaths of almost 4,500 US troops and well over 100, 000 Iraqi citizens. Even if there was an iota of truth to the “war of liberation” fiction, those combined body counts would add up to be a pretty shoddy effort at freeing a repressed people.

 

There’s a ton of great writing out there on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War (some of it is linked to throughout this post) but I found this timeline from Mother Jones to be especially illuminating. CLICK HERE to check it out.

Rachel Maddow did a great piece yesterday focusing on Donald Rumsfeld that I think is particularly well done and worth watching.

 

One of the best catch-all summaries of the war came from Chris Matthews yesterday. I was happy to see him take the news media to task for dropping the ball.

I was on vacation in Thailand 10 years ago this week. I watched then President George W. Bush announce the start of military operations in Iraq on the only TV screen available at our tiny resort on Ko Samui. It was both bizarre and disconcerting to be a world away from home at the start of a war. It was also especially frustrating because even then I knew we were being lied to.

 

Though we were the only Americans in the room when the announcement was made (outside of the US  the war was extremely unpopular from the start), at no time did anyone direct so much as an angry glance our way. On the contrary, all of our interactions with those from other countries were exceedingly positive and deeply gratifying. In fact, the next morning I was out with a pair of Muslim fishermen helping them with their crabbing in the tidal pools.

 

I mention all of this because I’ve never forgotten this window of time and these are memories that remind me of the basic good of most people. These experiences and the lives of those lost in the Iraq War must not be forgotten. It is equally important that we do everything in our power to ensure that such a grand lie is never repeated.

If you missed the excellent MSNBC documentary HUBRIS, here it is in six parts. Each is a thematic segment that, as a collective, takes a damning look at the campaign of lies that led to the Iraq War.

 

HUBRIS is based on the book HUBRIS: THE INSIDE STORY OF SPIN, SCANDAL AND THE SELLING OF THE IRAQ WAR by David Corn from Mother Jones and Michael Isikoff.

HUBRIS will be re-broadcast on Friday, March 22 at 9pm E/P on MSNBC.