Now that we are almost three weeks into the scandal involving the horrendous conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center a new development has surfaced. It appears that the GOP Congress was well aware of the dire situation, yet refused to act. Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young (R-FL) mentioned that they knew what was going on but refused to go public. His reasoning was that giving the issue exposure would "give the Army a black eye."
This was the official statement from a Congressman who chaired the committee that wrote Defense budget bills. Instead of the black eye at the time, wounded soldiers were subjected to terrible living conditions and medical care. One soldier even died as a result of the lack of attention. Army Staff Sargeant William T. Latham was given percussive therapy and bled to death because the therapist did not the severity of his condition.
Being fully aware of the conditions, Rep. Young offers this excuse:
"General Kiley, we did not go public with these concerns because we did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the army a black eye while fighting a war," he said.
Young also seemed to worry about embarrassing soldiers and their families.
"I would not hold hearings on patients and their problems and violate their privacy," he said.
Young and his wife, Beverly, have done extensive volunteer work at Walter Reed, and he said he used his contacts to make changes in a more 'personal' way.
"We worked person to person, directly with civilian and military leaders to solve the individual problems without casting blame on the many good functions at Walter Reed," he said.
The former chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee also said his committee had carried out regular hearings on the military medical care system and called out the generals testifying before the committee for not bringing the problems now seen at Walter Reed to the fore.
If these hearings were carried out, why was nothing done? His 'personal' way of fixing the fiasco had no effect on changing the way things operated. Congressman Young's inaction is one more sad example of how the Republican Congress did business and especially shows how they 'supported' the troops. The only support given was to hide the truth of Bush's operations and the military's failure to provide for our brave soldiers.
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