Taking Care of Veterans

So now we have it confirmed by The Washington Post expose of conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington: not only are the coffins of the military dead from Iraq and Afghanistan hidden from view, so too are the wounded veterans relegated to moldy walls and substandard treatment. Joseph L. Galloway's angry editorial for McClatchy Newspapers, printed in the Austin (Texas) American Statesman -- at least that's where I found it, although it's syndicated, states it best--





Who among the smiling politicians - who regularly troop over to the main hospital at Walter Reed for photo-op visits with those who've come home grievously wounded from the wars the politicians started - have bothered to go the extra quarter-mile to see the unseen majority with their rats and roaches?





read the whole article at http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/02/25galloway_edit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=45





Once again we have the twisting of reality for appearances--the photo op with the veterans (and precious little of
that), who are then shoved aside when they're no longer useful as props.


Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, left, talks with Marine Aaron Schoenfeld of Navarre, Fla. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 6, 2006, prior to Kiley testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

And President Bush addressed the American Legion convention today, and had the gall to sternly announce that conditions at Walter Reed "unacceptable to me" and "are not going to continue." Excuse me? Who's been in charge since 2000? Isn't it a bit late to suddenly discover shameful conditions in what was in the past the shining example of our country's providing for veterans who need medical treatment? And despite the rhetoric in today's speech, veterans and care for veterans have been conspicuously low on Mr. Bush's agenda. You can read his entire speech at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070306-1.html -- it's deeply infuriating. And it's also infuriating to read his smarmy humor. And this on the day that the Vice President's former chief of staff was convicted of lying to a grand jury over the out of a CIA agent. Have they, to paraphrase a famous question asked of Senator Joseph McCarthy over a half century ago, no shame?

And the answer, clearly, is "No. Not a bit." Instead, President and Mrs. Bush host a state dinner this evening for King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan. No Presidential visit to Walter Reed planned.