Press TVThe US government talks a lot of being appreciative of its war veterans, but actually leaves them in the lurch once they return home, an American political commentator says.
Linn Washington Jr., who is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia and a weekly columnist for the historic Philadelphia Tribune, made the remarks in a telephone interview with Press TV on Tuesday.
New US government figures have shown that the unemployment is haunting American military veterans, who served on active duty in the US armed forces since September 2001.
The unemployment rate among working-age veterans averaged 9.0 percent in 2013, down from 9.9 percent a year before, but remained well above the overall civilian unemployment figure, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The Labor Department statistics cover veterans who had joined the military after September 11, 2001, a group that is referred to as Persian Gulf War-era veterans.
“The unemployment among veterans is abysmally high, and that compounds with the fact that over the years America has mistreated its war veterans,” Washington said.
“A number of vets – say from the Vietnam War, decades ago — are now homeless, and as a result of homelessness and other economic deprivations a large number of them are incarcerated,” he added.
“A number of the vets who returned from the adventures in Kuwait, or misadventures in Kuwait, and Iraq and Afghanistan, are also showing high levels of unemployment, and high levels of homelessness,” the analyst said.
“So the government here in the United States talks, a lot of talk, about being appreciative of these veterans but it doesn’t show it with providing job opportunities on the back end after they finish. And also on the front end, in terms of adequate salaries, one of the scandals that very rarely get missed is the fact that active duty military personnel, particularly families of younger lower grades of military personnel, have to get food assistance benefits from the government, which is normally called food stamps,” Washington noted.
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http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/26/356041/us-abandons-war-vets-as-they-return-home/
I hate to see this but the vets also just suffering what the country suffering,a real tough economy.I will say that at least in our area vets seem happy with the va hospital in that not only health services but other resources for employment ect.I had a friend in first gulf round,he was pretty messed up head wise and lived on my couch off and on for a year.The thing that made me most angry was not lack of govt. but a few vets seemed to think since he only saw a week of combat not a real combat vet to which I replied screw that noise(actually a lot more colorful!).I say whether you see combat for only a minute or years you are a combat vet,he took lives and was at serious risk of losing his,needless to say those guys were escorted calmly away by a majority of the party.He is doing much better now and seems to have shelved experience into a place were he can move along.On the plus side have another friend who did multiple combat tours in Afghan,he is home and seems to be doing great,back with family business ect.When he first got back,we went partying in woods for weekend,beer and local fungus!We talked about everything under the sun excepting his experience,he wants to talk about it,will listen,he wants to talk with others who can more relate tis fine and understand.I went thru things as a kid hope folks can’t relate to personally.My point is as with any friends,friends that are vets,help any way you can to make the transition back to home life easy,we wait for govt. will not be too helpful though realize sometimes you need to steer folks in a direction with folks that may be more capable helping,I learned with one friend I was in no way able to help with all issues but at least got him on a path with those who could and did help him.