Killing U.S. Troops Slowly

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/030807b.html

Killing U.S. Troops Slowly

By Michael O'McCarthy
March 9, 2007


Twenty-five years ago, March 14, 1981 Jim Hopkins, Marine veteran of Vietnam, born on the Marine Corps birthday of Nov. 10, drove his army Jeep through the glass doors and into the lobby of the multi-million dollar, showcase edifice of Wadsworth VA hospital, at Los Angeles, California. He did so to protest the gross, willfully negligent treatment given US veterans within the VA system, specifically, those veterans of the US war in Southeast Asia, aka, the Vietnam War.
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He fired rounds from his AR 14 into the official pictures of then-President Ronald Reagan and ex-President Jimmy Carter. For emphasis he then fired his .45 caliber handgun and a shotgun screaming that he was not receiving the medical attention needed. Hauled from the hospital by law enforcement, he screamed into the cameras that his brain was "being destroyed by Agent Orange."

That sent both a shockwave and a wake-up call through the U.S. and became a clarion call to thousands of veterans who felt the very same as did Hopkins.

Ron Bitzer, director and founder of the L.A.-based Center for Veteran's Rights, and I took up his case. My specialty was dealing with vets suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, (PTSD) who had come into conflict with law enforcement due to their illness.

Hopkins' case gave national voice to three major issues for vets:

1. The failure of Reagan's administration to investigate the damage caused by Dow Chemical's and Monsanto's dioxin-based defoliants spread all over Southeast Asia known as Agent Orange, Blue and other quaint names – and its refusal to treat vets and their families for its damaging effect on both, especially the obvious appearance of birth defects of children born to the vets.

2. The refusal to acknowledge the illness of PTSD and to investigate its damage on vets and to provide appropriate treatment.

3. The callous and insulting disrespect shown the vets by Reagan and his efforts to cut both the benefits of the vets and to close their outpatient treatment centers.

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