Veteran's Day

The N&O editorial page is not known for its elegance. But today's lead editorial about the disastrous consequences of Bush's War in Iraq and Republican "leadership" on veteran's affairs over the past six years is a moving call for action.

Some veterans of the Vietnam War still express surprise at the unfriendly receptions they received when they returned to the United States from that combat zone. But they could have predicted that many of them would end up on the streets within a few years of arriving back home. Chronic homelessness has been a cruel reality for veterans since at least the Civil War, when former fighters who hit hard times took the nickname "tramps," after the sound they made when they had marched into battle years earlier.