If there is one enduring truth about America, it is this: we are extremely good at making a mess and abysmally inept at cleaning it up.

The Veterans Administration controversy has been over a decade in the making, and is nothing unprecedented or even particularly unusual. Recall that the Afghan and Iraq wars were supposed to be conducted, in essence, free of charge with minimal casualties. The Iraq war, in particular, was low-balled by Bush administration officials, most notably Paul Wolfowitz, who opined to Congress that it might cost us a billion or two. They were convinced that the war would be short and sweet. They did not plan for the occupation of Iraq, nor did they plan for decades of health care services for returning veterans. It was going to be a cake walk.

Yeah, not so much. But it did sound good at the time, didn’t it? And now, many deaths, dismemberments, and billions of dollars later, we are faced with an enormous backlog of wounded and battle-stressed soldiers, attempting to access a VA system that does not have the physical infrastructure to serve them in a timely fashion. That’s a large part of what’s behind the deceptive practices we are hearing about now – people trying to feign success when the system is failing miserably, at least on the intake end.

It is worse than that, though. We also never provided adequately for veterans of either the Vietnam War or the Gulf War. Vietnam vets faced similar problems with the VA upon their return, and now as they age they are coping with the same types of difficulties as Iraq vets: not enough primary care doctors, not enough admission capacity at VA hospitals … simply put, not enough resources to serve them.

I used to bring my dad to the VA hospital in Syracuse so that he could get discounted medications for his glaucoma. That was long before the post-9/11 wars, and outpatient services seemed adequate, if a little stretched. What we need to do, more than anything, is roll the costs of veteran recovery and long-term healthcare planning into any proposed deployment before we undertake it. Just like the oil industry should be expected to invest in proven safety and recovery technologies before they drill, we should plan on these expenses instead of minimizing the impact of war on the lives of our military families and the wealth of the nation.

How can we act surprised when the predictable consequences of more than a decade of war come to pass?

luv u,

jp