Chicago Tribune: Averting another Walter Reed

[babylonsister]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0703110413mar11,1,2034868.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed

Averting another Walter Reed

By Jack Fuller
a former editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune
Published March 11, 2007

I wonder if any veteran was surprised to learn that soldiers wounded in Iraq were put up in miserable quarters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and treated with bureaucratic callousness.

Appalled and furious, yes. But surprised?

Anyone who has been a tiny cog in the great military machine has encountered levels of human indifference so profound that the only way to keep from exploding is to laugh. Think of Joseph Heller's furious humor in "Catch-22."

Eventually most soldiers come to realize that the very nature of the military enterprise requires that it put its mission beyond the reach of the needs of individuals.

Clint Eastwood depicted the tragic nature of this moment of recognition in his recent film "Flags of Our Fathers." In one early scene a group of mostly green Marines is on the way to Iwo Jima in a vast convoy of hundreds of ships steaming one after another through dangerous waters. One of the men tumbles overboard. The rest go to the railings and shout wisecracks until they realize that their ship will not slow down to rescue him, nor will any other.

Another essential aspect of a military enterprise is that the only way it can tame the chaos inherent in its mission is through elaborate procedures--in short, through virulent bureaucracy. Think of the Post Office with heavy weapons.

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[Bitwit1234]

1. Mention of the Post Office

That is going to be the next privatization. The post office is looking into ways to contract all rural delivery. They say it will be cheaper and easier. They won't have to pay benefits or the big bucks. You see Halliburton will get the contract. Cut the number of employees. And you will probably get your mail twice a week.

[Monkeyman]

2. Yep plus others