The way the United States government treats soldiers returning from its wars of imperial conquest indicates its priorities.
There have been many reports of failures to adequately treat all the cases of mental illness resulting from the wars of occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq. High levels of alcoholism, drug use, depression and suicide have been reported by veterans and their families.
The latest scandal first erupted in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System, in Phoenix, Arizona. In April, CNN reported: 鈥淎t least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments 鈥 many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.
鈥淭he secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by 鈥 managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,500 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor.鈥
Dr Sam Foote, recently retired after working for 24 years in the VA system, said there was a fake 鈥渙fficial list鈥 for public consumption that showed the VA providing timely appointments. However, there was a separate, real list that was kept secret. It showed waiting times can be more than a year.
The scheme included shredding of evidence to hide the real list. Foote said officials instructed staff not to make appointments on the VA computer system.
Instead, when a veteran came seeking an appointment, 鈥渢hey enter information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then do not save what was put into the computer so there鈥檚 no record that you were ever even there.
鈥淭hat hard copy that has the patient demographic information is then taken and placed onto a secret electronic waiting list.鈥 The hard copy is shredded.
鈥淪o the only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list,鈥 Foote said.
Whenever an appointment was finally made months later, the patient was taken off the secret list. A record on the public list showed the appointment was made at that date for less than 14 days after.
One case publicised in the media was that of a 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen. His son and daughter-in-law noticed he had blood in his urine and took him to the emergency room at the VA facility in September last year.
The doctors noted his history of cancer and wrote on his chart that he should see a primary care doctor 鈥渦rgently鈥 in one week. He was sent home.
Placed on the secret list, he was not given an appointment. He or his daughter-in-law called 鈥渘umerous times鈥, she said. She was told: 鈥淲ell, you know, we have other patients that are critical as well. It鈥檚 a seven month waiting list. And you鈥檙e gonna have to have patience.鈥
Finally, she got a call on December 6. 鈥淲e finally have an appointment. We have a primary [care doctor] for him.鈥
But he had already died on November 30.
Foote says Breen is a perfect example of a veteran who needed an urgent appointment and was instead put on the secret waiting list.
Foote says that when veterans on the secret list die, they are simply removed. 鈥淭hey could just remove you from that list, and there鈥檚 no record that you ever came to the VA and presented for care 鈥 It鈥檚 pretty sad.鈥
Foote put the number of such cases resulting in death in Phoenix as at least 40.
Top VA officials initially downplayed the scandal. They insist there were no such deaths associated with the system and denied there were secret waiting lists.
But whistleblowers reported the same system was used to conceal long wait times at VA facilities in Colorado, Texas and Wyoming. More will undoubtedly come to light.
CBS News obtained an email, written by a registered nurse, exposing how patients at the VA medical centre in Cheyenne, Wyoming, were always listed as getting appointments within a 14-day window regardless of when the appointment was first requested and regardless of how long the patient actually waited.
An official memo to the staff admitted: 鈥淵es, this is gaming the system a bit鈥︹ It instructed staff to cancel the record of when a veteran first comes in and then 鈥渞escheduling it within a desired date within that 14 day window鈥, sometime later.
The Cheyenne incident was reported by an informant last year. CBS News said: 鈥淭he VA鈥檚 Office of the Medical Inspector had already investigated and substantiated claims of improper scheduling practices.鈥
It was not until an inquiry by CBS that any action was taken, six months later. It is clear the problem is system-wide and known at the top.
Under pressure, VA Secretary General Eric Shinseki has promised an investigation. In other words, the VA will investigate itself.
On May 16, Shinseki accepted the resignation of undersecretary for health in the Department of Veterans Affairs Dr Robert Petzel. However, Petzel was already scheduled to retire this year, making it an obvious move to deflect public attention from the scandal.
It was met with derision by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 need the VA to find a scapegoat,鈥 the group said, 鈥渨e need an actual plan to restore a culture of accountability throughout the VA. To be clear, Dr. Petzel鈥檚 resignation is not the step towards accountability that our members need to see from VA leaders.鈥
The VA hospitals are understaffed and underfunded. One main reason for the long waiting lists and cover-up came to light in one of the Texas cases.
A former top administrator of the system in south-east Texas said: 鈥淧atients faced denials or long delays in getting routine colonoscopies and other medical tests because of bureaucratic cost-cutting.
鈥淒r. Richard Krugman 鈥 said his boss implemented a policy in 2010 that colonoscopies would only be approved if the patient tested positive in three successive screenings for bloody stools.
鈥淏y the time you do the colonoscopies on these patients, you went from a stage one to a stage four [cancer], which is basically inoperable.
鈥淭his was done because of dollars and cents.鈥
In World War I, the term 鈥渃annon fodder鈥 was used to explain the fundamental attitude of the warmakers towards the grunts who fight their wars for them: disposable tools.
The same attitude prevails today. It is an attitude that cuts costs not by slashing the war machine, but by cutting care for the veterans who like the occupied populations are victims of Washington's imperialist wars.
[Barry Sheppard was a long-time leader of the US Socialist Workers Party and the Fourth International. He recounts his experience in the SWP in a two-volume book, The Party 鈥 the Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, available from . Read .]