Reply #85: New veterans fear repeat of Vietnam [View All]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/30/new_veterans_fear_repeat_of_vietnam/

WASHINGTON -- There were no victory parades for Vietnam veterans. They were seen -- and often derided -- as the product of a failed policy. They struggled for decades for acceptance and many are still fighting for veterans benefits.

Now, with polls showing a steady decline in public support and average Americans increasingly tuning out the war in Iraq, a new generation of veterans are warning that they, too, are at risk of the same kind of indifference that confronted Vietnam-era veterans, many of whom suffered from homelessness and mental disabilities, and sometimes slipped through the cracks of the Department of Veterans Affairs .

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But leaders of the veterans movement are concerned that the challenges facing this new generation are not well understood by Congress and Americans. They point out that less than 1 percent of the population will have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, making it a war far removed from the everyday lives of average Americans or members of Congress, very few of whom have served in uniform.

``This is the first war that has become an issue rather than a national experience," said Paul Reickoff , president of the nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in New York. ``How many soldiers were killed this week while we were obsessed with `American Idol'? But when the war winds down, the veterans' issues are going to be here for decades. We need to make sure both political parties make veterans a priority."

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One new veterans group is Veterans and Military Families for Progress, a nonpartisan grass-roots organization that is dedicated to ensuring the rights and needs of veterans and their families ``are understood by the American public, endorsed by our elected officials, and are protected by legislation, regulation, and public policy initiatives."

``We don't want to reinvent the wheel, but we think we can bring something new to this," said Matt Cary , a Vietnam veteran and the group's executive director. ``We are trying to make the main focus that if you turn on the war machine and ask our sons and daughters to risk their lives that you make a commitment to fulfill certain promises when they return: healthcare, jobs, housing."

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