Long Term cost of War

Seems we have not learned any lessons from our past...

Nearly 50% of our vets are on disability... Payments range from $127 a month for a 10 percent disability to $2,769 for full... payments are pretty much for life.

I'm not saying these vets don't deserve disability, in fact i'd say the benefits are rather low and the delays in processing are truly sad.

Approx 2 Million vets are on some form of disability as a direct result of the current and past wars. We can wind down the wars but the spending is not going to change much and our unfunded liabilities are approaching a Trillion $!

"The average wait to get a new one processed grows longer each month and is now about eight months — time that a frustrated, injured veteran might spend with no income.

More than 560,000 veterans from all wars currently have claims that are backlogged — older than 125 days."

"We have 4.4 million case files sitting around 56 regional offices that we have to work with; that slows us down significantly,"

For taxpayers, the ordeal is just beginning. With any war, the cost of caring for veterans rises for several decades and peaks 30 to 40 years later, when diseases of aging are more common, said Harvard economist Linda Bilmes. She estimates the health care and disability costs of the recent wars at $600 billion to $900 billion.

"This is a huge number and there's no money set aside," she said. "Unless we take steps now into some kind of fund that will grow over time, it's very plausible many people will feel we can't afford these benefits we overpromised."


http://news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-almost-half-vets-seek-disability-160656481.html

 

I understand. And yes, on the RARE occasions I'll trust the VA with my health, it's absolutely one busy place right now! The Vietnam guys are in there with prostate cancers, diabetes, heart disease, etc., and that's expensive stuff to treat!

On top of that I'm surrounded by the young guys from Iraq/Afghanistan with prosthetics, hearing loss, lung disorders, and yes, PTSD. Not as expensive as our Vietnam guys, but it will get more and more with age.

I'm 40. Prior USMC Mustang. Did 8 months in the sandbox in 91, and Iraq in 03-04 as an Officer. Combat wounded in the knee, and I get 20%. Yes, about enough $ to make a small car payment. Not much, but I'm not 100% like so many kids are today (and they are that. One is same age-19-as my eldest Son. He was shot 4 times and lost a leg and kidney in Afghan.)

the biggie IMO will be the costs associated with Iraq and Afghan messes now, and much, much more decades from now as aging does it's thing. The costs of war are more than I have the time to type, and you are right, it's going to be VERY expensive for VA medical care. My WWII Grandfather used to say as I was a child, "war is hell." I now know what he meant...

 

next war will be more expensive than the last one. there will always be people fighting in hellish wars, you just can't stop them, why don't you profits from them?