{"id":10064,"date":"2007-02-28T12:33:22","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T17:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10064.html"},"modified":"2007-02-28T12:33:22","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T17:33:22","slug":"vas-nicholson-downplays-troop-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/vas-nicholson-downplays-troop-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"VA’s Nicholson downplays troop injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given the recent focus on troops wounded in Iraq, it was encouraging to see ABC’s Bob Woodruff explore the burdens on military families on a news special last night. It was discouraging, however, to hear Jim Nicholson, the secretary of the Veterans Administration, downplay the problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Department of Defense reports that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff reported — through an internal VA document — that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments.<\/p>\n

When Woodruff confronted VA Secretary Jim Nicholson about the disparity in the administration’s figures, Nicholson responded that Americans are probably “surprised to know that 200,000 come to the VA for some kind of medical treatment. That’s probably more than they think.” But Nicholson quickly downplayed the high numbers, claiming a lot of veterans simply “come in for dental problems.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, this is incredibly callous. Woodruff was pointing to an important discrepancy. Instead of offering an explanation, Nicholson characterized the problem as unimportant.<\/p>\n

Second, Nicholson, who really ought to know better given his position as the VA Secretary, was completely wrong on the facts.
\n
\nNewsweek reported<\/a> in its cover story this week that many of the 205,000 Afghanistan and Iraq vets are treated at the VA for multiple medical problems.<\/p>\n

1. Bone and muscle injuries (42.7% of troops diagnosed)
\n2. Mental disorders (35.7%)
\n3. Digestive diseases (30.7%)
\n4. Nervous-system disorders (30%)
\n5. Endocrine\/metabolic diseases (17.8%)
\n6. Respiratory diseases (17.6%)
\n7. Injury\/poisonings (17.4%)
\n8. Circulatory diseases (14.3%)
\n9. Skin diseases (14.1%)
\n10. Infectious\/parasitic diseases (10.4%)<\/p>\n

You’ll notice that “dental problems” didn’t make the list.<\/p>\n

No wonder the Bush administration feels justified cutting healthcare for veterans<\/a>; the Bush gang clearly doesn’t understand the scope and seriousness of the problem.<\/p>\n

Remind me again why these guys are considered supportive of the troops?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the recent focus on troops wounded in Iraq, it was encouraging to see ABC’s Bob Woodruff explore the burdens on military families on a news special last night. It was discouraging, however, to hear Jim Nicholson, the secretary of the Veterans Administration, downplay the problem. While the Department of Defense reports that there have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}