Supporting the Troops

As I blogged before, ABCNews.com had a harrowing article about injured vets coming home to poverty. When I post links about problems like that, I like to post links to you-can-help kind of sites, but I'm often not sure that the ones I find are really good charities to be directing my readers to, even with caveats. With the problem of helping veterans, it's particularly hard because it's often so politicized. However, I've just discovered the official non-profit organization for helping out veterans: The Armed Forces Relief Trust, which combines the Air Force Aid Society, the Army Emergency Relief, the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. I am a little disquieted by the fact that, in the case of the Army at least, the aid is disbursed through the military command structure. That makes me wonder how well aid gets to whistleblowers and people who talk to the press. But it is probably the most efficient method, and in these trying times, I'd like to spread the word about a real way to support the troops, as opposed to mere flag-waving.