In Miss., veterans face cutbacks

God may be the only back-up returning soldiers get according to the news coming out of South Mississippi. What happened to "We Support the Troops"?

Affordable mental-health care took another blow last month, when Medicare and Tricare - one of the few health-care options for military veterans and their families - reduced the amount it will pay providers.This comes at a bad time, as a large number of returning veterans display a host of post-traumatic stress-related symptoms and average Coastians begin to show the painful long-term effects of traumatic stress from Hurricane Katrina.

"Let's start the cutbacks in Mississippi, no one will notice or care." This is almost certainly the thought behind these reductions. Mississippi has the poorest population in the country and the least able to 'fight back.'The cuts will affect health care in our newest, most vulnerable population--returning soldiers. We know the VA and the military hospital systems are already overwhelmed with demand, yet the Bush administration cuts funding. There are too few mental health resources currently available, these new cuts will add insult to injury. What's new? The actions of BushCo have been and will continue to be criminal, and without question, are morally and ethically bankrupt. Since the Walter Reed story broke, the focus has lasered on the military medical system, for good reason. Now just as the story has cooled, the administration slips this one past the goalie. Easy to do since no one is guarding the net. Democrats and Republicans need to step up and not allow the less than one percent of Americans who sacrifice for the war to be forgotten as well. Read the Mississippi Sun Herald story here.