It is an irony that a nation that makes such a show of celebrating its war dead does such a crappy job of taking care of our war living. The real scandal is not that the Veterans Administration has failed to do better with the limited resources it has, but that we spent so lavishly sending armed forces to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with so little thought to how we would take care of these veterans upon their return.
Remember all those hundreds of billions of dollars in additional appropriations that were routinely passed during the Iraq war with very little congressional debate (because to question it would have appeared unpatriotic and anti-troops)? That’s the sort of attitude our lawmakers need toward VA funding if we’re going to adequately take care of our veterans over the next several decades.