Talk Nation Radio: Patricia Axelrod: Abolish the Department of Veterans Affairs

Patricia Axelrod is a military scientist for peace and the Director of The Desert Storm Think Tank and ALL Veterans' Advocate - a project dedicated to analyzing and reducing the impacts and consequences of war to civilians and soldiers alike. She is a past recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Research and Writing Award for her analysis of the modern electronic battlefield as well as a Project Censored Award. She has testified before Presidential Advisory Committees on issues of Persian Gulf Illness and other veteran health issues and her work has been incorporated into Congressional Research projects as well GAO efforts. Temporarily residing in Illinois Axelrod has conducted in-theater bomb damage assessment post Desert Storm throughout Iraq (wherein she was held captive by the Hussein gov't) as well as from Budapest to Kosovo following American warfare against Kosovo. Her work on behalf of veterans serves to obtain medical treatment for individual sick and dying veterans otherwise deprived of care by the VA. Her long-term experience battling with the VA leads her to believe that the VA healthcare system is corrupt and broken beyond repair and therefore should be abolished and replaced with medicare and/or another civilian healthcare system.