Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to US

From Reuters courtesy of Eschaton:

When the single mother was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, she was 24 and had little money and no place to live. She slept in her son's day-care center.

Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- homelessness.

On any given night the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) helps 200 to 250 of them, and more go uncounted. They are among nearly 200,000 homeless veterans in America, largely from the Vietnam War.

Advocates say the number of homeless veterans is certain to grow, just as it did in the years following the Vietnam and Gulf wars, as a consequence of the stresses of war and inadequate job training.

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Obviously, this is inexcusable. As somebody quoted in the article observes, it's not a lack of money that's behind this: we're spending billions a week over in Iraq; it would take only a tiny fraction of that money to make sure vets are taken care of. I don't think I really need to go into a lengthy explanation as to why the government owes these people. In short, they've put their lives on the line for this country and deserve special status. Period. You know, I just don't understand how the GOP and their supporters can go on and on about how everybody should "support the troops," and then turn around and allow this to happen. How does it support the troops to continue slashing VA budgets? Clearly, "support the troops" is just a political slogan that amounts to a bunch of bullshit.

And why the hell are there 200,000 homeless vets from the Vietnam War?!?

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