VA Health Care Controversy

Marquette, MI – The current controversy which is placing blame for the broken VA system on current VA Secretary and retired Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Erik K. Shinseki is a poor attempt to find a scapegoat as distraction from an already longstanding problem which he inherited.

It’s a shame to see that a decorated general who achieved great success the hard way from his humble beginnings to the highest rank in the military is now blamed to all that’s wrong with the VA system. Inefficiencies and neglect in budget have plagued the department since the late 1990’s, long before Shinseki was appointed by president Obama in 2009. One could even say that from the moment the U.S. military became a professional army instead of the people’s army it’s become neglected and most everyone stopped caring.

U.S. Air Force Veteran, Bruce Carlson, spoke with MQTMag.com about his experience with long waits for care from doctors and other health care providers in Marquette, MI. (MarquetteMagazine.com photo by Ron Caspi)

The current scandal and blame being placed upon Shinseki is unfounded and more likely to be a punishment by Republicans as revenge for his difference in opinions with leaders at that time over the handling of the Iraq invasion. In 2003 Shinseki publicly clashed with former Secretary of Defense at that time Donald Rumsfeld, over the planning of war in Iraq and the amount of troops needed to attain security in the post-war occupation.  In hindsight we’ve seen that Shinseki’s military analysis and advice was accurate while administration and many members of Congress were wrong.

Fingering a scapegoat for the current VA situation is a sad waste of time for a problem that could be fixed by the reallocation of funding by Congress!  Better to follow the trail to those controlling the strings of the purse…

by marquette_magazine