WP (Dana Priest): "If Iraq Don't Kill You, Walter Reed Will"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/16841213.htm

This article was published Feb. 19 in The Washington Post.

Posted on Tue, Mar. 06, 2007
‘If Iraq don’t kill you, Walter Reed will’
By ANNE HULL and DANA PRIEST
The Washington Post

- snip -

Mostly, what the soldiers do together is wait: for appointments, evaluations, signatures and lost paperwork to be found. It’s like another wife told Annette McLeod: “If Iraq don’t kill you, Walter Reed will.”

The conflict in Iraq has hatched a virtual town of desperation and dysfunction, clinging to the pilings of Walter Reed. The wounded are socked away for months and years in random buildings and barracks in and around this military post.

The luckiest stay at Mologne House, a four-story hotel that opened 10 years ago as short-term lodging for military personnel, retirees and their families.

Two Washington Post reporters spent hundreds of hours documenting the intimate struggles of the wounded who live there. The reporting was done without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials, but all those directly quoted agreed to be interviewed.

MORE

[Solly Mack]

1. I've said it before and I'll say it again

The government would have much preferred they had died in combat. Less money that way... and dead troops can be used a lot easier to promote an agenda...it's so easy to "support the (dead) troops"...it doesn't require any money, time or care

[malaise]

2. Well nine more died today

so Bushco gets their wish.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6421903.stm

[Solly Mack]

3. and he'll call the dead heros and use their deaths to promote his

lies and it won't cost him a thing

Dead troops can't complain about poor treatment.

[salin]

5. More talk of "we can't let their deaths be in vain" (ala Support the Surge)

from the jr president. Grr...

[Solly Mack]

7. exactly...to keep Billy from dying in vain we have to let Bob die as well

and to keep Bob from dying in vain, Carla must die and to keep Carla from dying in vain, Greg must die, and to keep Greg from dying in vain, Renee must die....

Incredible isn't it?

[salin]

8. Stunningly cynical

astonishingly political (as if keeping the war on through his administration will really rehabilitate his dark political legacy), and nationally tragic.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. They can't take care of the number of wounded they have right now...

What would they do with the ones coming back from IRAN?

One thing that floored me was, the stats on the disability claims. The Navy/Marines disables over 30% of their applicants, the Air Force disables 24%, the Army disables 4%. Sounds like the Army is cheating(stealing from)the wounded troops, instead of supporting them.

[Solly Mack]

6. The army is cheating in my opinion and from my experience

and they can't handle another series of wounded from another war

America invaded Afghanistan and made plans to invade another country without once ensuring the facilities and services were available to handle the wounded for such protracted and widespread conflicts...

The government spoke of "decade long wars" and never once prepared for it.


I call that criminal negligence

On top of every other crime - this is also criminal.

A country that engages in a "global war on terror" and doesn't make sure care for the wounded is in place before invading is a country that

1 - is lying about their true intentions (you don't go to war unprepared unless you are using that war for another purpose other than actual security)

2 - doesn't care if the troops are maimed and left without care because the troops are just seen as a political tool to use to promote an agenda.

Even if the military health care system and the VA weren't up to speed in 2001, the government has had 6 years to bring them both up to speed...and they didn't. And they didn't because they didn't care.

But that's just my opinion and I might be bitter.

[salin]

9. I agree

criminal negligence, and then some. Worse - is that one of the reasons that it wasn't done (bring facilities and services up to speed) was the political decision to try to keep the war away from the general population - keep it "patriotic jingo" but ask for no cost (gotta keep those massive tax cuts for corporations and rich folks). Disgusting politics at its absolute worst. There is simply no allegiance to the citizens of this country and their wellbeing - and worse there is complete disregard for those who serve.

[Solly Mack]

12. I agree with you completely

[malaise]

10. Just heard Ann Cox from Time Magazine

mention the Haliburton connection to WR on Imus. Truth will out.

More and more people are beginning to expose the truth about the aspens turning in clusters, except that this clusterfuck is all connected to Bushco's criminality.

[Solly Mack]

13. And Bush will get away with it

in the name of national healing...and that healing will taste like bile and America will choke on it

I have zero faith in my government to hold the guilty accountable

and I have nothing but contempt for the words national healing

but like I said, I might be bitter

[Hubert Flottz]

11. I think you're exactly right.

Bush is like a Nazi, once the trooper is of no further USE, for his bullshit political war or his photo ops, Bush would just as soon write him off and forget about him. The generals on TV yesterday talked like the military would be better off if they couldn't save so many severely wounded soldiers. The DoD brags about being able to save so many more lives now days, but then they gripe about it at the same time.

The difference between this war and Vietnam, which they still aren't addressing, is the additional mental disability cases, caused by today's troops doing extra tours of duty and then the Army extending those extra tours of duty. Those kinds of cases are going to double and triple, in direct proportion to the extended exposure to the horror.

The Army brass KNOW what they are doing to these kids and they know it's very, very, WRONG! The cheapskate GOP's DoD think they can dodge the expense by dumping these people out on the streets and playing like there's nothing at all wrong with them. They got away with it after Vietnam. But this time the problem will be too big to ignore.

Mistreatment(ignoring)of any wounded troops, including our own, is criminal!

[Solly Mack]

14. I hear it that way too...if only they had died

like it's a bad thing medicine has advanced enough to allow so many to survive..as if that's a problem...instead of the actual problems.

Reminds me of Rummy and his cameras...it wasn't the torture, it was the evidence (pictures) he thought was the problem

[KharmaTrain]

15. "We Didn't Expect To Have So Many Veterans"

On a local public radio station, I heard an interview of several former VA administrators who described what is now coming to light...years of a military more interested in "Shock & Awe"...spending billions on useless weapons systems while investing very little toward Veterans needs...in specific health care. It's yet another sorrid tale how cost cutters played god in deciding who got treatment, what type of treatment and how "disabled" a person was. Meanwhile, buildings were allowed to crumble, equipment...that was antiquated a decade ago became even more obsolete and repeated requests for replacements were ignored. All this against a backdrop of a growing veteran population...and this was before boooshie's wars for profit...and went into hyperdrive as the first Iraq victims started needing space and special attention.

The abuse of our military by Repugnicans...first as a smoke screen to divert billions to their pet contractors and contributors and then all but indoctrinated the military with its rhetoric of being "pro-military" while framing Democrats as "weak" to milk votes and power. Then, they shat upon the military with their total mismanagement of this invasion and the rubber check it gave booshie and his ilk a free pass for all their crimes and abuses. Words can't express my disgust...but that's been the case since I started chatting with Iraqi vets.

The mess in the Veterans Administration is widespread...another boooshie patronate shop, just like we found out what had happened to FEMA. And where's the man most responsible for the destruction of our military...and what does he have to say about this latest scandal? Donny Rumsfeld, you still there? Don? Bueheler?

[salin]

16. This morning I got an echo in my ear from the 2000 election...

don't I recall smirking jr stating that Clinton had essentially broken the military but that... "help is on the way".? Or do I have a fuzzy memory. I could swear that was one of his punchlines.

[Solly Mack]

17. Yeah he did...claimed it was stretched too thin

and that the military was decimated and its strength level brought down but that he would do something about it

What he didn't say was his plan to kill off troops and veterans through constant war and neglect and giving the money to his cronies.

[KharmaTrain]

20. Oh, You Mean This? (Puke Warning)

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/republican/transcripts/bush.html

For eight years the Clinton-Gore administration has coasted through prosperity. The path of least resistance is always downhill. But America's way is the rising road. This nation is daring and decent and ready for change.

Our current president embodied the potential of a generation -- so many talents, so much charm, such great skill. But in the end, to what end? So much promise to no great purpose.

Little more than a -- little more than a decade ago, the Cold War thawed, and with the leadership of President's Reagan and Bush, that wall came down.

But instead of seizing this moment, the Clinton-Gore administration has squandered it. We have seen a steady erosion of American power and an unsteady exercise of American influence. Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, "Not ready for duty, sir."

Nothing more need be said, right?

:puke:

[Hubert Flottz]

19. Don Rumbo wasn't grateful at all, until he was shamed into it!

Mark Shields: From Rumsfeld, an ugly smear and a giant fib

snip...

First, the smear of veterans. Speaking of the 11 million Americans who, during the Vietnam years, answered their country's draft call and the 2 million who served in Vietnam, Rumsfeld alleged that these draftees "added no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone."

I'll say "then, they were gone!" Of the 58,152 Americans who gave their lives in Vietnam 20,352 of them were draftees. How dare the secretary of defense say these good and brave Americans "added no value, no advantage, to the United States armed services?"

Why would he slander the sacrifice of these brave men, dishonor their memory and rub salt in their families' wounds? MORE..........

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/20/column.shields.opinion.rumsfeld/index.html

Rummy should have been fired the day he said that.

[Cabcere]

18. K&R.

I have no words for this... :cry: :grr: :nuke: