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Since the 1960s the combination of the antiwar and non-military serving sectors of academia, the
media, the leaders of various peace causes, the "allergic to combat" upper income sector of
society and the shrinkocracy have made various cases with various levels of proof that not only
was the old Mothers for Peace poster correct that "war not healthy for children and other living
things," but that it causes far more casualties than are normally counted.
Veterans have always found war downright hazardous to their health. But now their own lobbying
groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, and Vietnam Veterans of America, and
employees of the Veterans Administration itself have decided to facilitate a blizzard of dubious
veterans' benefit claims worse than the wildest dreams of any welfare queen.
Now the anti-military groups and some veterans' lobbyists appear to be combining forces in asking
that the honored Purple Heart for those physically wounded in combat be awarded for mental
conditions based upon some highly dubious criteria. And this proposal is actually receiving
serious consideration by the Bush Department of Defense.
Claims of injuries from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are being used to grossly inflate the
casualty rate and establish a whole new class of dubious "victims" out of veterans who served
their country and are now being induced to serve themselves by both those who hate the American
military while, of course, ritually praising their "service," and veteran lobbyist groups who
claim to speak "for veterans" while increasing their ability to sell veterans on the benefits they
get by paying for membership.
In doing so, they have helped veterans and in some cases people who simply claimed to be veterans
make hundreds of thousands of PTSD injury claims in what military records fraud expert B.G.
Burkett calls "by far the largest collection of military disability fraud cases in the history of
the United States, all alleging PTSD."
PTSD is a real condition and many do suffer from it, but it is a lot easier to fake than it is to
diagnose, and with the sloppy standards currently in effect, it is inevitable that the system is
constantly abused.
Seventy per cent of the disability claims presented to the Veterans Administration come through
what is called "a membership representative," who often works for one of the veteran's lobbyist
organizations and helps applicants with the difficult paperwork. One of the recent candidates for
president of the Vietnam Veterans of America had to disqualify himself when it was revealed that
he had admitted drawing up phony claims for disabilities by VVA members to the Veterans'
Administration.
Since a 100 percent disability payment for PTSD can be worth more than $30,000 a year for life, it
is not surprising that a high percentage of veterans working for the VA also receive payments for
PTSD themselves. It also makes the grantee eligible for a 50 percent disability payment under
Social Security. Together they total over $40,000 a year, tax free and inflation-indexed.
Burkett, a veteran himself, has been hired as an expert to the Marine Corps and the FBI, and
testified on cases of phony assertions of rank, military service and medals awarded in numerous
legal cases. His book Stolen Valor led to the recent passage of the Stolen Valor Act of 2006. The
Act established Federal penalties for attempts to pass off fraudulent claims for medals or
military service.
Newspapers have carried stories for years about Burkett's work in helping unmask pretenders to
military rank and honors who had been showing up on 4th of July reviewing stands and public
ceremonies for years in full dress uniforms, with ranks and decorations they had invented rather
than earned.
In an attempt to try to get a handle on the flood of PTSD disability claims overwhelming the
Veteran's Administration, its Inspector General department briefed Burkett about a pilot study the
VA had made of 2100 random PTSD cases that had been extracted out of the 287,000 cases they were
considering at the time.
Of that sample group, for example, more than 28 percent had no medical trauma event of any kind in
their records. And the rate of successful PTSD claims processed through the VA system was far
higher in some parts of the country. Some areas approved 60 percent of claims with no trauma
record while only 10% were granted in others. The VA seemed on the edge of uncovering the most
massive fraud in its history and one in which it bore at least part of the blame. As the second
largest agency in the Federal government with almost 300,000 employees it was at least possible
for it to do a solid evaluation.
But as soon as word of the VA's intention of a broad review of hundreds of thousands of PTSD
claims costing potentially billions of dollars got out, Congressional members like Barack Obama
and Lane Evans proposed legislation to block any review of possible fraud as an attack upon the
rights of veterans. Not surprisingly, no review has taken place. In the meantime the paperwork on
PTSD disability claims has gotten so huge at the VA and the expense of reviewing each claim is so
high, that the VA is considering routinely granting disability payments before finally approving
claims.
There has been enough medal inflation in the American military over the past half century. From
the medals "package" that started being handed out like Red Cross donuts in the Vietnam War to the
rows of ticket-punching "I was there" ribbons that clutter the chest of an 18 1/2-year-old who had
some involvement in the current conflict in the Middle East, it is hard enough to separate those
that mean something from the rest.
Gaming the military awards system for medals has always been a problem. The fictional Victorian
Sir Harry Flashman was constantly able to get medals for bravery during his worst acts of
cowardice. And the real Swift boat naval officer John Kerry managed to somehow get the three
Purple Hearts it took him to get out of any further service in Viet Nam in just four months,
without losing a single day on duty.
But the idea of seriously considering awarding the Purple Heart for an as yet difficult to
establish PTSD condition that is the focus of an immense fraud being concealed from the public,
whose taxes have to pay for it, by both the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal
Government, is a cynical obscenity.
Let's do the best we can to support the Military Order of the Purple Heart, made up of those to
whom it has actually been awarded, in keeping the one medal established by the nation's first
commander in chief and first President, George Washington, for what it is. It is one of the few
awards that has maintained its value during all the medal inflation of the past 70 years since it
was re-established by Douglas MacArthur.
It should not be allowed to fall the victim of the military's self-interested "friends" and long
-standing enemies. We don't need another worthless example of the inability of our society to tell
a proud citation for what novelist Stephen Crane called "the red badge of courage" from the
bloodless transmittal sheet for yet another questionable disability claim. (We report this story
as written. We do not attempt to approve or disapprove of it. However, we do feel the Purple Heart
is the Purple Heart)