The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Saturday there are 827 homeless veterans in Arkansas – that we know of. The VA says there may be 131,000 nationwide. The story cited Estella Morris, director of the Veterans Affairs Drop-in Treatment Center in Little Rock, as saying that 90 percent of the veterans involved in its program have substance-abuse problems.

We should be ashamed that so many veterans live on the street and should make it a national priority to prevent that from happening.  At the same time, it’s difficult to help someone who has combat-related mental health issues along with drug and alcohol addictions.

We should do all we can to help our veterans. But the best way to reduce the number of homeless veterans is to produce less veterans. Let’s fight wars only when they are unavoidable for a change.