[caption id="attachment_17094" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Justin Holbrook
Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Veterans Law Clinic at Widener Law School"]
On September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers aboard four planes took the lives of nearly 3,000 people. The tenth anniversary of that tragic day is appropriately a national day of remembrance. A day to remember the World Trade Center’s crumbling towers, the Pentagon’s smoldering walls, and Pennsylvania’s torn fields. A day to remember the lives that were lost and honor the heroism of first responders.
It is also a day to remember the veterans who have faithfully served since then.
In the ten years since September 11, 2001, nearly 1.6 million military members have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and other locations throughout the world. More than 6,000 have died and more than 30,000 have been wounded. These soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines—and their families—sacrificed everything when their nation called. They left homes and jobs, said goodbye to friends and families, and missed birthdays and holidays and life events. The birth of a first child. High school graduations. The death of a parent. Without complaint, they bore the burden we placed on them. As Abraham Lincoln observed in his second inaugural address in 1865, it is now our turn to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan.”
We are failing. Badly.
Of the 1.3 million veterans discharged since 2001, nearly half have filed for benefits with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that the number of VA claims has nearly doubled since 2005. Veterans who were injured in the military are waiting on average more than four years simply to have their disability claims adjudicated. The backlog has grown so large that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in its decision Veterans for Common Sense et. al. v. Shinseki, recently excoriated the VA for delays that “violate the veterans’ due process rights to receive the care and benefits they are guaranteed by statute for harms and injuries sustained while serving our country.”
“There comes a time,” the Ninth Circuit wrote, “when the political branches have so completely and chronically failed to respect the People’s constitutional rights that the courts must be willing to enforce them. We have reached that unfortunate point with respect to veterans who are suffering from the hidden, or not hidden, wounds of war. The VA’s unchecked incompetence has gone on long enough; no more veterans should be compelled to agonize or perish while the government fails to perform its obligations.”
It is time to make things right.
First, both the Congress and the President must act to repair the systemic problems within the VA’s disability benefits system. In recent years, congressional legislation has focused, deservingly so, on expanding the many educational and health benefits available to service members and their families. After all, expanding benefits for veterans is popular, especially at election time. But the expansion of benefits means little if the delay in receiving those benefits is interminable. When disabled veterans are forced to wait years on end simply to have their disability claims adjudicated, something is seriously wrong. Standing alone, additional veterans benefits cannot substitute for the difficult work of ensuring that those benefits are administered in a timely, efficient, and fair process. The President and Congress must intervene. It is time to drastically overhaul the VA’s antiquated and dysfunctional benefits administration system.
Second, both states and the federal government should increase their support of specialized treatment courts for veterans. Currently, some 24 states are operating or developing specialized courts to assist veterans accused of committing low-level offenses. Unlike traditional criminal courts which focus on punishing offenders, veterans courts focus on rehabilitating veterans who find themselves entangled in the criminal justice system. Often these veterans’ criminal actions stem directly or indirectly from the combat trauma they experienced in the military. By pairing such veterans with concerned judges, supportive mentors, and VA health care services, veterans courts reduce crime while serving those who first served us.
For a number of reasons, the case for veterans courts is strong.
Veterans are a population to whom we owe much. Whether young or old, veterans took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution with their very lives. As the Supreme Court noted in its decision in Porter v. McCollum in 2009, “Our Nation has a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service, especially for those who fought on the front lines . . . .” We owe it to such veterans and their families to care for them—including those who commit wrongs—when they return home.
Veterans courts work. Treatment courts have a proven track record of lowering recidivism rates while delivering cost savings to state and local communities. Although the veterans court movement started in only 2008, early indicators suggest that communities with veterans courts have seen a similar reduction in recidivism rates and incarceration costs. Additional savings stem from the VA’s offering of programs ordinarily funded at the state and local level.
Veterans have unique needs. Of the 1.6 million veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, some 10-18% reportedly display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies suggest that veterans suffering from PTSD are involved in more drug and alcohol-related offenses than their non-veteran peers. Veterans courts connect these veterans to the tailored benefits and services provided by the VA and veterans community organizations.
Writing in 1918, Edith Abbott summarized the debt due to service members returning from war. “The country is agreed,” she wrote, “that no effort shall be spared to make the transition from war to peace as little onerous as possible to the great numbers of young men from whom we are already asking such heavy sacrifices.” She continued by saying, “Great pity, kindness, toleration, and infinite patience will be needed on all sides when the men go back from the excitement of war to beat their bayonets into ploughshares, and adequate plans for reconstruction should be got under way if the new peace is to be worthy of those who have sacrificed their youth to secure it.”
In many ways, the language Abbott uses echoes from a bygone era. But the lessons she urges upon us do not. On the tenth anniversary of September 11, we will pause in silence to mourn and remember the victims and heroes of that day. But let us also remember the veterans who have paid the highest price that freedom requires. It is time to commit once and for all to help our veterans turn their bayonets into ploughshares. It is time for us to remember . . . and act.
Justin Holbrook is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Veterans Law Clinic at Widener Law School. From 2004 to 2010 he served on active duty with the United States Air Force and deployed twice in support of OIF/OEF. He is currently a member of the United States Air Force Reserves.
