Sunday, October 17, 2010

Homeless Veterans on 60 Minutes Tonight

Watching this 60 Minutes episode on homeless Veterans was heart wrenching.  Some of our politicians give a lot hollow rhetoric when it comes to taking care our Veterans.  There are of course exceptions.  For example, I know for a fact that Senator Webb is a leader who deeply cares about our veterans.  He recently reached out to my father to thank him for his service to our country and encourage him in his current fight with cancer.

60 minutes reported that there are 9,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets that are homeless.  That is incredible.  

It was stated that the primary reason for homelessness for our Vets is that we are asking our young soldiers are being redeployed 2, 3, 4, 5 and more times and the combat stress is incredible.  There are 250,000 troops who have asked for mental help.  Imagine that numbers who do not ask for help.  IEDs are causing untold problems as well.

The episode is in San Diego at Camp Stand Down which is where these homeless Veterans meet to find out if they can get help.  Only 20% were able to receive help.

I would strongly encourage everyone to watch this.

If we can not take care of these vets, then why in the hell are we nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan?