A half-hearted salute

There are yellow ribbons everywhere these days. Some simply flutter, pinned to book bags and tied to front doors. Others are large magnets, slapped on the sides of SUVs, bearing the motto "Support Our Troops." Yes, yellow has become just the latest in a politically fashionable spectrum of ribbons, and like many pins before them, these ribbons do little to actually solve real-world problems.

In recent months, reports have appeared in an ideologically diverse set of newspapers -- from the liberal Christian Science Monitor to the conservative Washington Times and Boston Herald -- all indicating a new wave of homeless veterans from the ongoing war in Iraq.

Veterans like Petty Officer Luis Arellano, whose thumb was nearly severed by shrapnel, who was driven from his job and his marriage by depression and who could not get help from the Department of Veterans Affairs because of long delays in receiving help.

Veterans like Lance Cpl. James Claybon Brown Jr., who fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marines. He is now living in a shelter in Los Angeles run by an organization serving homeless veterans.

Veterans like Nicole Goodwin, formerly of the 501st Forward Support Battalion, who now wanders New York City from shelter to shelter with her one-year-old daughter and a bag holding her possessions.

Executive Director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans Linda Boone confirms that these anecdotes are indeed representative of an emerging trend. "We already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," she told the United Press International in December. "I have talked to enough [shelters] to know we are getting them. It is happening, and the nation is not prepared for that."

The picture is clear: The next wave of homeless veterans is returning home from Iraq. The time to take action is now.

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, one-third of all homeless men have served in our nation's armed forces. There are various reasons for this strong correlation. Some veterans return to find their previous jobs filled by new employees, and some struggle to find their first jobs outside the military. Many suffer from illness, both physical and mental.

According to an Army study published in The New England Journal of Medicine last July, 17 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq met criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. This reality is reflected on the streets, where, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, more than three-quarters of homeless vets have problems relating to mental health and/or substance abuse.

All these facts and figures pose to America a significant yet unanswered question: Are we really supporting our troops and our veterans? A look at President Bush's budget proposal brings one to the clear and unavoidable answer: No.

While the budget does actually increase the funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs by 1 percent, it does so by increasing the costs to some veterans in terms of higher co-payments and an annual fee, asking more from those who have already given so much to their country.

John Furgess, the commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, explained his take on the Bush budget in a VFW press release: "The claimed increase of $880 million for VA health care funding is really only about $100 million once you subtract those amounts that would be shouldered by military veterans, and $100 million neither matches inflation nor [does] anything to help the VA keep pace with the needs of a veterans' population that now includes wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan."

And that is only in the short term. The Bush administration has promised to keep spending flat and cut the deficit in half. In order to accomplish this goal, White House budget projections cut spending on veterans' medical care between 2007 and 2010 by 16 percent after inflation.

The New York Times noted this month that such cuts leave the budget forecast $5.3 billion below what would be needed to maintain the VA's current level of activity, which of course ignores the increase in demand from even more soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

And all the while, Bush is still pushing to make permanent his tax cuts for the wealthy.

True respect for the armed services is manifested in deeds and dollars rather than in words and ribbons; it's time that we started supporting our veterans with some green instead of just acting yellow.

Kevin Collins is a junior Political Science major from Milwaukee. ...And Justice For All appears on Tuesdays.

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