The-ultimate-betrayal-of-veterans-

We've known for a very long time that the VA system is broken. It is not broken because its task is impossible, it is broken because too many decision makers make far too many errors. A great number of those errors are the same errors over and over again. Recently, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco stated in no uncertain terms that the VA was violating veterans' due process rights because of their ongoing incompetence and unnecessary delays. In January of this year (2011) the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims stated in Harvey v. Shinseki that unnecessary delays in processing claims due to administrative inattention may result in a finding of contempt of court.

While it is not necessarily surprising, the VA is now filing for a full court review of the 9th Circuit Court's decision. (See http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/va-appeals-court-ruling-vets-and-nation-face-consequences)

Instead of accepting what is reality and dedicating itself to fixing the serious problems, the VA is defending itself in what is indefensible. In my humble opinion, this is the greatest and most blatant betrayal of veterans to ever come out of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

On June 9, 1954, the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was certain everyone but he was a communist, was grilling an attorney named Joseph Welch. No shrinking violet, Welch said on the record to McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

This quote came to my mind as soon as I read that the VA was more intent on defending the indefensible than correcting the problems they have ignored for decades. Is there no decency left in the Department of Veterans Affairs? Is there no commitment to the concept of doing what is right? Is our nation, a nation based on government of the people, by the people and for the people so disengaged that we do not care how our veterans are abused? How does the VA defend itself against the truth and how much longer will we as a nation continue ignoring what they do?

Leo Dougherty

The ultimate betrayal

of veterans?