Here's how the richest country on earth looks after its veterans:
Herold Noel had nowhere to call home after returning from military service in Iraq. He slept in his Jeep, taking care to find a parking space where he wouldn't get a ticket.
"Then the nightmares would start," says the former Army private first class, who drove a fuel truck in Iraq. "I saw a baby decapitated when it was run over by a truck; I relived that every night." Across the nation on any evening, hundreds of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan like Noel, 26, are homeless, according to government estimates.
The reasons are many. For some, residual stress from daily insurgent attacks and roadside bombs makes it tough to adjust to civilian life; some can't navigate government-assistance programs; others can't afford a house or apartment.
They are living on the edge in towns and cities from Washington state to California and Florida. Some of the hardest hit are in New York City, where housing costs "can be very tough," says Peter Dougherty, head of the federal government's Homeless Veterans Program...
There are about 200,000 homeless vets in the United States, according to government figures. About 10 percent are from either the 1991 Gulf War or the current one, and about 40 percent are Vietnam veterans.
Something tells me the twitnuts will one day blame the soldiers for losing Iraq...along with the media, along with "libruls," along with everyone except the people who DID lose Iraq: themselves.
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