Editorial: Veterans deserve better

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007 | 8:02 a.m.

As our nation pauses to honor Veterans Day, reports show that troops returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly being denied their old jobs or are plummeting into homelessness.

The Associated Press reported last week that a 2005-06 survey by the Pentagon found 23 percent of reservists polled said they could not return to their old jobs - as guaranteed by law - because their employers would not rehire them or because they had been gone so long their jobs had changed.

Almost half the reservists who complained to the Labor Department said the government mishandled their cases.

In a report released Thursday, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says the complaint process is complicated by the fact that the Labor Department is one of three federal entities involved in various aspects of assisting service members who are wronged by employers.

The GAO has recommended since 2005 that Congress put one entity in charge of handling the complaints. But that hasn't happened.

In another troubling trend, The New York Times reported last week that at least 400 veterans have ended up homeless since returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. And experts say it is only the beginning.

As the number of veterans returning from war increases, so will the number who become homeless, in part because of war-related disabilities and post-traumatic stress. One California veterans shelter director said social service workers "anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami."

This entire situation is shameful.

The government should aggressively pursue employers who fail to honor the law, requiring them to rehire reservists who have been sent to fight for their country. At the same time, this wouldn't be as much of an issue if reservists weren't deployed so long that their jobs disappear before they can return.

Reservists who cannot work are at risk of being added to the already growing population of homeless war veterans - a group that represents another casualty of these wars for which President Bush obviously has no plan.

In the short term Congress should place one agency in charge of aiding returning military personnel who face job discrimination, as recommended by the GAO. Lawmakers also must examine and fully address this emerging problem of homelessness among returning veterans.

The only Americans truly sacrificing for this war are service members and their families. And from the deplorable conditions revealed this year at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the hardships detailed in these recent reports, too often the Bush administration has treated these brave soldiers terribly, discarding them upon their return home. It is a disgrace.