I've just been watching a tearful appeal for help for veterans featuring the sad case du jour. It occurs to me this is a very bad way of handling the problem we've created by our recent military excursions.

I believe a much better approach would be to fund the VA fully and encourage private organizations to act more in the role of advocates than as primary caregivers. This would give our nation statistical tools for analyzing and critiquing our performance.

We have seen too many occurrences of VA misfeasance in my lifetime, albeit coupled with stories of heroic making do by other VA personnel in the context of insufficient funding, political grandstanding and adventurism that has added inexcusable numbers of unneeded casualties to the system (I give you the heroic invasion of Grenada).

There is no reason to have at the same time a VA with mixed histories and the need to go outside normal channels to receive service. Give the VA what it needs, and let private organizations concentrate on being an external "inspector general" with only the interests of all veterans in its microscope.

This is only a cursory comment, but maudlin appeals will not solve the problem. Only collective, comprehensive action will take care of the current need, and only smarter foreign policy will prevent recurrence.