Almost half of new vets seek disability

Government officials say that 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related. Officials tell The Associated Press that’s more than double the estimated 21 percent who filed such claims after the earlier Gulf War in the 1990s.

These new veterans are claiming an average of eight to nine ailments such as bad backs, hearing loss or post-traumatic stress.

ä story, Page 10a

Comments

1) Comment by twinkie1cat - 28/05/2012

It is only right to providing injured veterans with a comfortable income, housing, education and long term medical care and a good job if they want it and those who were not injured free college or vocational training and a good job, preferably a government job with quality benefits. After all, no one forced them to go into the military. They wanted to take care of their country. Slacking off on any of this is resrespectful to their service. Cost should never even be a consideration and we need to make sure the Republicans don't make it one. It should be expected that we would have more seriously injured veterans from the recent wars because medical technology has advanced to the point where people who would have died in a MASH unit or even on the field are now recovering from their injuries even though they have severe handicaps as a result. It is the same way that neonatal intensive care saves premature babies who would have died a few years ago even though some of them grow up with disabilities. Disability is a price of progress, but wouldn't you rather have an intelligent former soldier discover a cure for cancer although he uses artificial legs than to bury him?

2) Comment by Grannee - 28/05/2012

So, pay them. I would rather my tax dollars go to support vets than to a politicans pork projects and a foreign country. If possible, give them a free house for risking their lives to keep us safe. This is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned.