Vets Under Siege or Locke

Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles

Author: Martin Schram

AFTER MEMBERS OF OUR ARMED forces bravely serve their nation, they sometimes come home to find themselves battling another enemy- within their own government. Using decades of case histories, statistics, and firsthand accounts, Martin Schram exposes a shocking culture of antagonism toward veterans by the very agency- the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)- that was formed to serve them.

Schram places our veterans' current struggles within a historical context, going back to the Bonus Army of beleaguered World War I vets who camped out of Washington's National Mall in 1932, demanding their promised benefits, only to be turned away by their own brethren in the U.S. Army- led by future military heroes Douglas MacArthur, George S. Patton Jr., and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Readers will be angered to learn of the legions of veterans- from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars- who are routinely denied benefits to which they are entitled and who die while awaiting benefit reviews that are stalled by institutionalized delays. And they will be downright outraged by the results of a 2002 Mystery Caller test that showed VA representatives treating help-line callers with condensation and even ridicule- one service rep is shown laughing and hanging up on a caller- and providing "completely correct" answers to questions regarding care and compensation just 19 percent of the time.

In the most intimate segment of the book, we meet Gulf War vet Bill Florey, who contracted a rare cancer after his exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons that were mistakenly detonated by the U.S. Army. Florey's crucial medical tests were delayed, he was denied service-related compensation he deserved, and he died before a government study finally linked the exposure to his form of cancer. Schram also highlights accounts of shameless deception of our soldiers, including misleading information provided by recruiters, and discloses how Iraq and Afghanistan war vets were being denied benefits for post- traumatic stress disorder- even after diagnoses by the VA's own doctors.

The author not only exposes a chilling pattern of institutional neglect, delay, and denial, but also points us toward solutions: the outsourcing of expertise, the institution of a "Vet-med card," and the elimination of negative incentive bonuses for VA officials, to name a few. Schram's bold bugle call, sounded on behalf of our nation's beleagured servicemen and women, culminates with a proposal to reinvent what has become a department of veterans' advesaries by giving the VA a new name that makes clear ots true mission: The Deparment of Veterans' Advocacy.

The Washington Post - Kim Ponders

Government agencies suffer all too often from mind-bogglingly abstruse procedures and bureaucratic malaise, but Martin Schram's expose of the Department of Veterans Affairs makes the agency appear downright Kafkaesque, particularly in its handling of claims filed by disabled veterans…he should be commended for presenting a fairly cohesive exploration of the VA's numerous faults.

Publishers Weekly

Former Washington Post correspondent Schram (Avoiding Armageddon) airs a long list of grievances in this impassioned exposé of government callousness toward veterans. While including other issues, this indictment focuses on the Department of Veterans Affairs' slow, disputatious processing of disability claims, which can drag on through years of arbitrary decisions, byzantine appeals and lost paperwork, with claimants sometimes dying before a final ruling. Drawing on eye-glazing excerpts from bureaucratic reports, Schram blames these problems not just on red tape but on an adversarial mindset at the VA, where the operating principle, he says, is "safeguard the money and not the vets." Schram unearths some egregious injustices: the VA declined one Iraq veteran's disability benefits because " '[s]hrapnel wounds all over the body [are] not service connected.' " But most cases involve disability claims for cancer, diabetes or psychiatric problems, where the VA puts on the vet the burden of proving a link with decades-past exposures to Agent Orange or traumatic stress; Schram contends these should get the benefit of the doubt from a revamped "Department of Veterans' Advocacy." His is an eye-opening, if one-sided, j'accuse.(July)

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Stephen L. Hupp - Library Journal

In 2007, the Washington Post published articles uncovering the terrible conditions endured by injured veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Now syndicated columnist Schram shows that was not an isolated circumstance, presenting examples of U.S. government mistreatment of veterans since the close of World War I. He cites World War II vets denied benefits for later medical problems caused by their wounds and Vietnam War vets who faced considerable difficulty obtaining benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder and exposure to Agent Orange. Those serving in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq have encountered similar problems, although both the Defense Department and the Bureau of Veterans Affairs were aware of the situation and presidential, congressional, Government Accounting Office, and other commissions have documented poor service by the Veterans' Administration (VA). Schram shows the atmosphere of distrust that prevails in the agency, the long delays in processing claims, and the rejection of payment of benefits without adequate explanation. He closes with a series of recommendations, the most important being to give veterans the benefit of the doubt when requesting VA benefits. Schram uses government documents as well as his own and previous interviews with veterans and their families, but this is not a systematic, scholarly study, and offers no notes or bibliography. But no other long-term study of this topic is currently available, so it is a valuable contribution. Recommended for all public libraries.

Kirkus Reviews

Schram (Avoiding Armageddon, 2003, etc.) combines history, investigative journalism, advocacy and diatribe as he criticizes each branch of the federal government for its abysmal treatment of needy war veterans. During the first Gulf war, Army E4 Specialist Bill Florey suffered exposure to chemical weapons while in a combat zone. First the Pentagon denied that troops had been exposed. Then the Department of Veterans Affairs, a federal agency, denied benefits, even after Florey developed cancer consistent with exposure to chemical weapons. He died in his mid-30s after more than a decade of pain, refusing to complain and proud of having fought in the U.S. military. Schram opens the book with Florey not because his case is extreme, but because it is in many ways typical of the callous treatment meted out to loyal veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and all levels of the judiciary. After playing out the Florey melodrama, Schram adds other case studies that demonstrate failures by each branch of government. His strong and empathetic reporting reflects his experience as Washington bureau chief for Newsday and national correspondent at the Washington Post. When the author manages access to secretive, defensive officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs, his confrontational interviews prompt some to stonewall, others to concede that they poorly serve their constituency. Promises of reform are usually empty words, Schram emphasizes. Most Americans assume that the proud words about our troops uttered by the Bush White House and previous administrations have been accompanied by proper care for theseverely injured and the survivors of the dead. The author does his best to blast that comforting idea out of the water. Overheated prose and much repetition, not to mention the grim subject matter, make this an unpleasant-but vital-read. Agent: Ron Goldfarb/Goldfarb & Associates

Interesting textbook: A Survivors Guide to Open Heart Surgery or Soul Healing

Locke: Two Treatises of Government Student edition

Author: John Lock

This is a new revised version of Dr. Laslett's standard edition of Two Treatises. First published in 1960, and based on an analysis of the whole body of Locke's publications, writings, and papers.The Introduction and text have been revised to incorporate references to recent scholarship since the second edition and the bibliography has been updated.

Table of Contents:

Foreword;

Part I. Introduction:

1. The book;
2. Locke the man and Locke the writer;
3. Two Treatises of Government and the revolution of 1688;
4. Locke and Hobbes;
5. The social and political theory of Two Treatises of Government;
6. Addendum: the dating of the composition of Two Treatises; Editorial note;

Part II. The Text:
7. Preface;
8. First treatise;
9. Second treatise; Suggested reading; Bibliography; Index.