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Veterans’ groups are angry over President Obama’s recent statement that he was considering a plan that would charge treatment for some service-related injuries to the private health plans of soldiers. Obama has explained the idea as a way to generate up to $540 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2010. Overall, the VA has seen a significant budget increase under Obama: an 11 percent increase in 2010 and $25 billion over five years. Despite the fact that news of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has faded in favor of the economic recession, there are hundreds of thousands of returned soldiers, huge numbers of who face near-daily battle with the VA and getting care for their physical and mental injuries. This is what independent journalist and author Aaron Glantz calls “Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans,” the subtitle to his new book, The War Comes Home. According to Glantz’s research, between 15-50% of all post 9-11 veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, 320,000 of them suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury, and 18 veterans a day are committing suicide. Aaron Glantz spent many months reporting on the war in Iraq, and his earlier book was How America Lost Iraq. He is a familiar voice on Pacifica Radio and Free Speech Radio News. I spoke with him recently at KPFK about his new book, The War Comes Home.

GUEST: Aaron Glantz, independent journalist and author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans