This latest posting in the "Lamborn Files" comes via the esteemed Colorado Independent (see the Extended Post Text).  Where we learn that the lesser Congressman from Colorado Springs has pronounced his policy for providing Veterans Administration (VA) benefits only to deserving (according to his confused definition) veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and standing against his delusional tide of undeserving vets suffering from PTSD.

Wendy Norris lays it out pretty clean and to the point reporting this story.  But, there's the rest of the story to consider.  Lamborn's conduct is an indictment both of his inadequacy to represent the people of the heavily military 5th CD, but also of his Party's penchant to picking, choosing (discriminating) and ultimately denying the right of Americans to adequate healthcare.

Perhaps in earlier decades a Congressman could get away with making such statements.  In the age of C-SPAN such an allowance and forgiveness for being horrifically wrong cannot go unanswered and without penalty.  While it is shocking that Lamborn would disregard the pleas of the supporting Veterans organizations, the silence of those groups in response to Lamborn’s offense is an even greater indictment of their often brazen Conservative posturing.

It is fortunate that America is not facing a Republican controlled US House.  With the likes of Lamborn in charge such a deserving and important piece of legislation could very well have been defeated.  Don’t hold your breath waiting for the national vets groups to thank the Democratic Congress, or criticize a Republican.

This is a clear example of the long-running self-destructive practices of the veterans and military advocacy groups.  Regardless of the truth and obvious merits of Democratic introduced policies and legislation it is all too often the reaction of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign War and others to side with the Republicans who have inexplicably sided not with soldiers and veterans, but with off-shore defense contractors and mercenaries.

Lamborn opposes changing combat rule designed to help vets with PTSD

By Wendy Norris 3/25/09 5:00 PM

Veterans groups fighting to update the definition of combat to ease hurdles for service personnel to tap into health care benefits found an unlikely opponent in U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn. The Colorado Springs Republican’s district includes five military bases — including Fort Carson, which has suffered a rash of murders and suicides attributed to untreated stress and brain disorders.

Advocates are working to change a World War II-era rule that requires military personnel to provide proof of battlefield service in order to receive Veterans Administration benefits for battle-related psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Veterans groups argue that that standard cannot be met by contemporary war-zone service members and women — who are prohibited from serving in infantry roles — though they are still vulnerable to stress- and injury-inducing roadside bombs and mortar attacks.

At a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Lamborn said “he was concerned that changing the combat veteran definition could result in a reduction of benefits overall, and that ‘too loose’ a definition could diminish the sacrifices of those ‘who actually did engage in battle with the enemy,’” according to an Associated Press story.

That’s an awfully tough argument to make, considering the devastating effects of PTSD among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in Colorado.

A Feb. 9 story at Salon.com documented 25 deaths by suicide, overdose and murder by Fort Carson soldiers since 2004 following an Army study that the suicide rate among soldiers is the highest in three decades. In 2008, at least 128 soldiers took their own lives, with another 15 under investigation as possible suicides.

Intensive study of 10 of those cases exposed a pattern of preventable deaths, meaning a suicide or murder might have been avoided if the Army had better handled the predictable, well-known symptoms of a malady rampant among combat veterans: combat-related stress and brain injuries.

(Check out more the Independent's great reporting.  Here's the link:  http://coloradoindependent.com/24987/lamborn-opposes-changing-combat-rule-designed-to-help-vets-with-ptsd)