By Aaron Glantz

“(IPS/GIN) - Two veterans groups sued the Department of Veterans Affairs Monday for alleged “shameful failures” to help veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, seeks to be a nationwide class-action suit on behalf of an estimated 320,000 to 800,000 post-9/11 vets with post-traumatic stress disorder, which is commonly known as PTSD. The groups sued the department in federal court in San Francisco.

The VA’s motto, which was taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, is “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.”

Melissa Kasnitz, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates, said that “instead of living up to this motto, the VA is abandoning disabled veterans and following a path that will lead to broken lives, homelessness and staggering social costs.” Kasnitz’s group is one of the organizations that prepared the lawsuit.”

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