Thanks For Your Sacrifice, Now Go Away
The Bush administration and their cronies continue to toss out their full-throated "we support the troops; they don't" distractions to avoid talking about the invalidity of their war. They support them enough to send them off to die without blinking twice, we all know that. And they support them by providing them with little, old, or wrong equipment, just to make it a little more challenging to survive. But what about when the guys come home?
The WaPo is running a series on life at Walter Reed hospital for those who weren't lucky enough to get out of Iraq untouched. While the article focuses on Walter Reed, it's evident that wounded vets receive far less than the administration's "full support" across the country.
You gotta give it to this administration. They're not shy about their flagrant hypocrisies. The link above gets you to the first article in the series. Do your part for the troops today and read the whole series. The outtakes below are just part of the story:
Seventy-five percent of the troops polled by Walter Reed last March said their experience was "stressful." Suicide attempts and unintentional overdoses from prescription drugs and alcohol, which is sold on post, are part of the narrative here.
Life beyond the hospital bed is a frustrating mountain of paperwork. The typical soldier is required to file 22 documents with eight different commands -- most of them off-post -- to enter and exit the medical processing world, according to government investigators. Sixteen different information systems are used to process the forms, but few of them can communicate with one another. The Army's three personnel databases cannot read each other's files and can't interact with the separate pay system or the medical recordkeeping databases.
Oh, and as for hope for the future -- [Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed] said a 21,500-troop increase in Iraq has Walter Reed bracing for "potentially a lot more" casualties.
The WaPo is running a series on life at Walter Reed hospital for those who weren't lucky enough to get out of Iraq untouched. While the article focuses on Walter Reed, it's evident that wounded vets receive far less than the administration's "full support" across the country.
You gotta give it to this administration. They're not shy about their flagrant hypocrisies. The link above gets you to the first article in the series. Do your part for the troops today and read the whole series. The outtakes below are just part of the story:
Seventy-five percent of the troops polled by Walter Reed last March said their experience was "stressful." Suicide attempts and unintentional overdoses from prescription drugs and alcohol, which is sold on post, are part of the narrative here.
Life beyond the hospital bed is a frustrating mountain of paperwork. The typical soldier is required to file 22 documents with eight different commands -- most of them off-post -- to enter and exit the medical processing world, according to government investigators. Sixteen different information systems are used to process the forms, but few of them can communicate with one another. The Army's three personnel databases cannot read each other's files and can't interact with the separate pay system or the medical recordkeeping databases.
The disappearance of necessary forms and records is the most common reason soldiers languish at Walter Reed longer than they should, according to soldiers, family members and staffers. Sometimes the Army has no record that a soldier even served in Iraq. A combat medic who did three tours had to bring in letters and photos of herself in Iraq to show she that had been there, after a clerk couldn't find a record of her service.
Oh, and as for hope for the future -- [Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed] said a 21,500-troop increase in Iraq has Walter Reed bracing for "potentially a lot more" casualties.
posted by Anonymous at 10:03 AM
1 Comments:
that's right, an outrage. it's perfectly consistent with their M.O. in other places...make sure the President is seen often with patients in the state-of-the-art hospital, or for that matter in the streets of New Orleans, publicize his intentions and remarks, then take comfort in the certainty that there will be no followup or broad examination of phenomena beyond the Presidentlal walkabout. good for the post, they're not letting them get away with it on this issue.
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