A Black Eye Or A Punch In The Gut?

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.

Who's Responsible For Walter Reed?

Tony Snow and George Bush have made the issue of supporting the troops and taking care of them so complicated, only the brilliant mind of Jon Stewart can decipher it all:

All The News That's Fit To Print

Or so they say in journalism. Of course, the wingnut o'sphere does not even come close to anything resembling journalism. Not even a faint cry from what the mainstream media has become today. To the media's credit, they did break the story on the terrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The scandal created a huge firestorm that resulted in two generals being fired and the Army Secretary resigning.

With the White House in crisis mode, Bush is doing anything he can to look like a leader after the last six years of merely paying lip service to the hundreds of thousands of troops he has unjustifiably sent into harm's way. The media and the blogosphere has been on the case for two weeks now, but where are the right-wing blogs speaking out for the troops that they claim to support?

Well Jesus' General made this nifty little chart to show all the posts about the scandal on the right:



Wow, four fuckin' posts from those wingnuts that claim the left hates the troops. The same garbage that comes from those that cheer on the war without actually having the guts to serve on the front-line, or any line for that matter. For them it is back to the keyboard to type out their hate and their lies.

The Pentagon Does Not Care About The Troops

The fact that our troops are sent in harms way without adequate equipment and body armor is something to shame even the most hardened soul. What is worse than that is what the Pentagon did today when they fired the commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

It was the right thing to do to fire him for the terrible conditions at the Maryland facility. It was absolutely wrong to replace him with Lt. General Kevin Riley. Riley's current position is as the Army's Surgeon General. His previous post was at....Walter Reed Army Medical Center, while the problems were ongoing!

From the Washinton Post:

Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, said he ran into Kiley in the foyer of the command headquarters at Walter Reed shortly after the Iraq war began and told him that "there are people in the barracks who are drinking themselves to death and people who are sharing drugs and people not getting the care they need."

"I met guys who weren't going to appointments because the hospital didn't even know they were there," Robinson said. Kiley told him to speak to a sergeant major, a top enlisted officer.

A recent Washington Post series detailed conditions at Walter Reed, including those at Building 18, a dingy former hotel on Georgia Avenue where the wounded were housed among mice, mold, rot and cockroaches.

Kiley lives across the street from Building 18. From his quarters, he can see the scrappy building and busy traffic the soldiers must cross to get to the 113-acre post. At a news conference last week, Kiley, who declined several requests for interviews for this article, said that the problems of Building 18 "weren't serious and there weren't a lot of them." He also said they were not "emblematic of a process of Walter Reed that has abandoned soldiers and their families."

So tell me, how does one claim these people support the troops while those that expose this shit hate America? What will it take for the wingnuts across the country to see that the real enemies of the troops at home are the ones that are supposed to take care of them. People like Kevin Riley, and people like George Bush.

The Albany Project has the story on NY's own Louise Slaughter's call for Riley's immediate removal.

Bush Talks Tough About Veterans Care

With the tragic conditions at Walter Reed continuing to be on display in the media, President Bush is finally addressing it almost two weeks after the Washington Post broke the story on the squalid conditions that some of the hospital's veterans endure. As usual, George Bush made claims that he was going to seriously look at the problems that veterans face with their health care that the government provides. What he will actually do in reality is another story.

Bush proposed to name a bipartisan commission to look at all the government's facilities. He will even devote his weekly radio address to veterans' care. So let the talking begin, while real action languishes. Despite the rhetoric, Bush's record in the last six years is atrocious when it comes to taking care of those that serve our nation in combat. The Veterans Adminstration has seen deep cuts over the years and now it can be seen that even the army has cut funding for the care of the wounded. Those cuts are hard to justify with their ever-increasing budget that the President and until recently, the Republican Congress has granted them. With over half a trillion dollars in their budget in addition to the hundreds of billions spent on the war, we still see that our nation's soldiers are mistreated and abused.

If the President wants to really do something, he will cut back the funds that go to military contractors and fully fund the VA. Then he will force the Pentagon to adequately fund (if not go above and beyond) the hospitals that care for the thousands that have been wounded by his illegitimate war. Of course, the President is talking this weekend but somehow I don't see much action in the future.

Another Question Tony Snow Can't Answer

This time David Gregory of NBC asks Tony what the President is going to do about the tragic story over the weekend that showed the deplorable conditions for amputee victims at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Tony has plead the fifth on hundreds of topics in the past and here is another one about the ignorance of the White House. For all the talk about supporting the troops and how the Democrats don't, the facts seem to tell a different story when it comes to the Bush Adminstration and his Department of Defense.



Update: There is something that you can do, Crooks and Liars talked to the Medical Family Assistance Center and asked them what the soldiers needed right now. Any type of calling card (international is a high priority) and black back packs would be greatly appreciated. If you can help, send them to:

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Medical Family Assistance Center BLDG. 2, Third Floor, Room 3E01.

6900 Georgia Ave NW

Washington, DC 20307