From March 14th to 16th 2008, Pacifica Radio provided coverage of the historic Winter Soldier 2008 gathering in Washington, DC.
National broadcast (April 22nd) on the first class action lawsuit brought by Iraq war veterans against the Department of Veterans Affairs. US vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are alleging a system-wide breakdown in the way the government treats injured soldiers.
When young American men and women sign up to serve in the US military, our government makes a basic promise to them: that if they are wounded in the line of duty they will get the care they need. Unfortunately, for tens of thousands of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a promise that only exists on paper.
Corporal Phillipe Louis Jean: When I Got Back from Iraq, They Tried to Deport Me
Specialist Joshua Casteel: Abu Ghraib Interrogator Meets With the Pope
Lance Corporal Jeff Key: Gay Marine Comes Out on CNN
Sergeant Todd Bowers: While I Was in Iraq, My Student Loans Were Sent to Collection
Sergeant James Dean: Afghan Vet Shot by Maryland State Troopers
The True Cost of war is often "excessively conservative"
Washington Post- Tuesday, March 18, 2008; 3:00 PM
Joseph E. Stiglitz, author and economist, was online Tuesday, March 18, at 3 p.m. ET to discuss his book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," which was reviewed in Book World. The book is co-authored with Harvard University's Linda J. Bilmes.
This was my question for him:
Jacksonville, Fla.: "My husband is a 24-year-old combat veteran of OIF and OEF who testified in Winter Soldier near Washington, D.C., this past weekend to the failings of the Veteran's Healthcare Administration. How would the fact that 10,000 veterans have committed suicide upon returning home to the U.S. affect your calculation of the cost of the war? How much value should be assigned to each human life lost? The military gives us $500,000 if our loved ones die in battle, and nothing if they come home dead inside. To me, my husband's life is more valuable than then entire war debt, and no one could ever compensate me for what we both lost. Thank you."
Joseph E. Stiglitz: "You have emphasized one of the tragic costs of this war to which we did not give adequate attention. We noted the psychological problems facing many of the returning veterans--of the 700,000 returning veterans, more than a 100,000 have been diagnosed with problems, but the numbers are likely to get worse, as those with multiple deployments return. We should have valued the loss of life as a result of these suicides, using the same procedures we used for the loss of those who died in combat.
This is another example showing that our numbers were excessively conservative."
I am grateful for this answer, considering it is the first time I have heard anyone admit that active duty combat deaths and veterans suicide deaths should be valued using the same procedures. Only when we begin to change the way we assess value to human life when calculating statistics will the United States Congress be required to act on this information. Then, in the future, they can remember how expensive the price of aggression really is. So that our children will not forget the price of Iraq and Afghanistan like our generation forgot the price of Vietnam. This is a sad, sad reality, but there you have it. So, I would like to say to all researchers of veteran's issues and the costs of war: Open your ears and your hearts and listen to what the veterans have said at Winter Soldier and what they are still saying. What is more significant to a researched solution than first-person accounts?