Second of two parts
Re “Government’s Endless War Against Vietnam Veterans”
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Homeless Vietnam War Veteran searching for food in West Los Angeles
President Obama, who is not a Veteran, has failed to deliver on repeated promises that his Administration would faithfully honor a sacred trust to care for our disabled and homeless Veterans. VA Secretary Shinseki has likewise failed in his entrusted duty to deliver on the President’s promises.
In fact, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Secretary Shinseki and his executive director at the Los Angeles VA, Donna Beiter (not a Veteran), for misusing Veterans’ property and the mistreatment of disabled and homeless Veterans.
One of the major plaintiffs in the 97-page lawsuit is Vietnam Veterans of America, which is chartered by the United States Congress.
Correspondingly, Veterans believed President Obama would honor his Memorial Day promise to end the shameful mistreatment of Vietnam Veterans by proffering to settle the lawsuit, since nearly half of today’s homeless Veterans are from the Vietnam War era.
To the contrary, President Obama is treating Vietnam War Veterans with appalling disrespect and dishonor as U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder (not a Veteran) and his U.S. Attorneys are waging serious war against their last hope for respect and justice.
Veterans held faith that the ACLU lawsuit would bring long-sought justice against the VA, particularly during a court hearing on Sept. 8, 2011, when U.S. District Judge S. James Otero called for settlement discussions and chastised U.S. Attorneys: “I'm not going to let the federal government hide behind bureaucracy.”
For a fleeting moment, Veterans believed that justice was on their side. But instead of honoring his word and ruling with a heavy hand on behalf of Veterans, Judge Otero (not a Veteran) surrendered to the heavy hand of the Obama administration’s Dept. of Justice by dismissing major claims in the lawsuit. He hid behind nebulous loopholes instead of ruling up front with moral and honorable discretion.
By bowing to the Obama defense team instead of standing up and defending the men and women who courageously pledged their lives to defend our nation, Judge Otero cowardly betrayed our disabled, disadvantaged and homeless Veterans who desperately need housing and care.
The equally shameful betrayal by the U.S. Depts. of Justice and Veterans Affairs fighting against disabled and impoverished Veterans is embarrassingly disgraceful and manifestly un-American.
It’s long been held that anyone who betrays our nation, which is heroically defended by our military, commits one of the most abhorrent of all crimes.
So what would be the most abhorrent crime if it weren’t betraying the very men and women who have defended America, particularly those who became disabled and disadvantaged from their war injuries?
The very people who should be coming to the defense of our Veterans, our U.S. government employees, are the ones who continue to fight and betray our Veterans.
The defendants in the ACLU lawsuit are government employees in the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. The U.S. Attorneys who are defending them are government employees in the Dept. of Justice. And the U.S. District Judge who is presiding over the lawsuit is a government employee in the Dept. of Justice.
From Strongest to the Weakest
All of these public servants are fighting against the most vulnerable in our society, disabled and disadvantaged Veterans who are homeless, elderly, and in failing health.
Can there be a bigger bully or traitor than the employees of the U.S. government?
Think about it. The Vietnam War ended 37 years ago. Yet the U.S. government continues to wage an endless war against the military Veterans of that war instead of defending them.
It’s indisupted that “war is hell.” Whether America’s military men and women are fighting a war or trying to heal from fighting a war, it’s always hell because the war never ends.
When our military troops go to war, they serve under the Dept. of Defense as highly trained professional warriors who are equipped with the finest defense weapons in the world to defeat the toughest enemies in the world.
After returning from overseas war zones, they are supposed to be served by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs with the finest healthcare facilities in the world. But instead of healing from war, America’s military Veterans are fighting some of life’s toughest battles, day-by-day, just to survive in the country they defended.
Unfortunately, these battles are not fought as a collective and supportive military unit, but as one lonely Veteran against the bullying bureaucrats of the VA, one of the largest bureaucracies in federal government.
Fighting Your Own?
To make matters worse, Veterans are not trained to fight personal “David vs. Goliath” wars with our own government. They have no protective force or weapons of defense in these endless and tiring battles.
As time goes on, their warrior and survivor skills diminish. Their sense of victory becomes hopeless while their opponent keeps getting bigger and more powerful.
Most would be far safer fighting in a foreign war zone with their military unit than they are trying to survive alone fighting the domestic enemy of government bureaucracy.
Tragically, every year more than 6,500 Veterans voluntarily surrender their lives … victims of bureaucratic battle fatigue.
Their solace is found in Plato’s prophetic claim more than 2,500 years ago: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
An Astounding Fact
It is estimated that since the Vietnam War ended, more Vietnam Veterans have committed suicide than the 58,272 who were killed during the war.
The death toll amongst homeless Vietnam Veterans will continue to climb as more commit suicide, overdose on VA drugs, are murdered, or die of hardship and old age while fighting against the domestic enemy.
With nearly half of all homeless Veterans of the Vietnam era, eventually Iraqi and Afghanistan Veterans will impact the number of homeless Veterans and we will not allow the U.S. government to wage war against them.
The Civil War between the U.S. government and Vietnam War Veterans is the longest in American history. It must cease, posthaste.
The government of the United States must lay down its defiant weapons of disrespect, apathy, neglect, abuse, revenge and hostility toward Vietnam War Veterans. If the U.S. government could provide emergency shelter and care for 50,000 Vietnam refugees nearly four decades ago and help them to become productive participants in society, then surely we can do the same today for 20,000 of our disadvantaged Veterans in Los Angeles who have been exiled from their rightful and legal Home by the same government,
On behalf of all disabled and homeless Veterans, particularly our Vietnam War Veterans in the Los Angeles area, this is to respectfully charge the President of the United States and members of Congress to accept full responsibility and honor the promise in the Deed of 1888 that was made on behalf of our Veterans, just as our Veterans have honored their promise on behalf of America.
It’s time for our government to show the same benevolence to our Vietnam War Veterans as it did when welcoming Vietnam refugees by immediately bringing our homeless Veterans “Home” so they can safely and peacefully heal from the war injuries they have suffered for decades.
God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!
(To be continued)
Mr. Rosebrock, a Vietnam War era Veteran, may be contacted at RRosebrock1@aol.com
