Joseph Galloway: U.S. troops are entitled to decent treatment

[babylonsister]

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/joe_galloway/16853394.htm

U.S. troops are entitled to decent treatment
By Joseph L. Galloway
McClatchy Newspapers

It was a perfect storm of a week for the White House as the tidal wave of righteous indignation over the treatment of wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan swept over Washington.

An administration known for being on message and marching in lockstep watched with horror as the wheels fell off the wagon as House and Senate committees now controlled by Democrats held televised hearings into the mess at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

The only news event that took even a bit of attention away from the hospital scandal was even worse news for the White House. A jury in the nation's capital found Vice President Dick Cheney's hatchet man Scooter Libby guilty on four of five counts of lying to a grand jury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Valerie Plame leak case.

If there was even a vestige of doubt left in anyone's mind that the Bush administration did its best, or worst, to manipulate the intelligence and the news to make its case for invading Iraq four years ago, the Libby trial testimony and the verdict wiped it away.

The Bush administration and its allies wrapped themselves in the flag and accused anyone who challenged them of not supporting our soldiers. They used our troops as human shields for their broken policy, but they failed miserably when it came to taking care of those same troops, and their hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Heads already have rolled as the Army and Defense Department scrambled to get out in front of the wave of anger over failures of leadership at Walter Reed. More heads will roll in the wake of the congressional hearings, and as it becomes clear that the problems extend far beyond Walter Reed and the Army and into the far corners of the Veterans Administration, as my McClatchy Newspapers colleague Chris Adams has been reporting since the middle of 2004.

Americans were mad as hell and they buried their representatives in Congress and columnists and editorial writers in e-mail messages and letters demanding that this and other problems in doing the right thing for our wounded troops and veterans be fixed and fixed now.

Tucked among the flood of angry e-mails were some from the wounded themselves, quietly pleading for help.

more...

[Rue]

1. This column's title is so common sense . . .

that I can only conclude that those in charge of our government have none. Support the troops, my, well, you all probably know.

Maybe this will put a nice little gag in the mouths of privatization activists. Or am I hoping for too much?

[babylonsister]

2. Not only does the admin have no common sense, I'm getting the

distinct impression they don't care. Support the troops? :eyes:
And welcome to DU, Rue! :hi:

Edit to add: I take that back. Their priorities are different, and it's all about the money.