David Martin Catches the Army in a Startling Admission

Every once in a while, the working media at the network level gets something right. CBS News Correspondent David Martin nails one of the generals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in a major, major gaffe.

In the wake of the Walter Reed scandal, 35 so-called "Warrior Transition Units" were set up at bases around the world. They were supposed to be places where soldiers could be cared for until they either returned to duty or were discharged.

But the general in charge of the program admits it hasn't been working the way it was supposed to. Here's why.

"How many soldiers in these units were actually wounded in combat?" Martin asked.

"About 12 percent were wounded in either Iraq or Afghanistan," Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek said.

"Only 12 percent?" Martin said.

"Only 12 percent," Cheek said.

If you include those whose injuries could be called combat-related - a stressed-out soldier in a car accident after returning from Iraq, for instance - the percentage goes up to 48 percent.

The rest have injuries or illnesses which have nothing to do with combat. As a result, the number of soldiers in Warrior Transition Units exploded from 6,000 to 12,000 - even as casualties in Iraq were going down.

"We were putting soldiers into the Warrior Transition Unit that really didn't need that complex, managed care," Cheek said.

"So did somebody say, 'Hey, this isn't how it was supposed to work?'" Martin asked.

"I would say yes," Cheek said.

I would say, "fix that problem immediately, and if no one gives you the resources to do it, tell someone BEFORE another reporter finds another massive problem at a major installation and exposes the shocking gaps in medical care that our soldiers are finding when they are injured, sick or wounded.

For every instance where a soldier is injured in combat, or injured in a combat zone, there are still the same basic needs for health care that existed before the Iraq War. Those needs are, by the admission of General Cheek, not being met because the programs designed for wounded warriors are swamped by the needs of soldiers should have already had the resources in place to care for them. The necessary expansion and increase in active duty health care hasn't met the needs. I want to stress something--the Veterans Administration is already overwhelmed. And so is the care given to active duty troops and troops activated for combat duty. The strain must be incredible--so where are the doctors, nurses and health care professionals to meet that demand? Why hasn't the military gone out and either activated them or recruited them or trained them?

We are nearly seven years past the attacks of September 11 and the invasion of Afghanistan; we are over five years past the war in Iraq. And no one thought this was going to be a problem?

With the number of soldiers in transition units increasing by about 600 a month, the Army can't hire health care workers fast enough.

"By the time we got the ratio up to where it needed to be, we were probably 30-to-60 days behind what the population had already grown to," Cheek said.

Last week the Army tightened the medical conditions that qualify a solider for a Warrior Transition Unit. And a new order requires all units to be fully staffed by Monday, but some aren't going to make it.

So when they say "tightened" they mean--they've kicked out the ones who needed care because they weren't already getting the care they needed and they're trying to hold open spots for the soldiers who aren't wounded yet.

It's time to clean house and get the personnel that are needed. If this is the state of medical care in the military, then the current leadership at the general officer level needs to go--and be replaced by a more creative and driven group of men and women who are in those middle grades and who want to step up and start solving these problems.

What a disgrace. Is there anyone in the support element of the United States Army who can figure out that we're actually in a war right now? We have a Combat Arms part of the Army that can definitely fight, and fight like no other Army in history and we have a support infrastructure that can't get them medical care, can't get them the gear they need and is struggling to adapt to the wars we're fighting now.

Obama to Visit Walter Reed

With John McCain now blatantly trying to claim credit for the new GI Bill, Obama needs to outline what he will do for Veterans, not just on the first day of his administration if he wins, but what he will build to take care of them for the next twenty years--like, hospitals, counseling centers and service centers.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is scheduled to pay a solemn visit to wounded Iraq veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Saturday, Politico has learned.

The visit will be Obama’s third.

Obama’s staff is keeping his trip low key. It is not on his public schedule, and his campaign would not confirm it. A pool of reporters will go with him, but will not accompany him inside.

Obama will be in Washington to speak to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. His opponent for president, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), will also address the group.

McCain occasionally visits soldiers at Walter Reed on weekends when he is in Washington, most recently May 31.

McCain’s visits are usually unannounced to the press, and sometimes he shows up without even giving the hospital notice. He tells friends it gives him a sense of peace and feeds his soul.

As usual, McCain is probably sincere in his appreciation, not so sincere when it comes to actually doing anything to help Veterans.

Not only has he refused to support the 21st Century GI Bill, which the Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed last June, he has consistently voted against increasing funding for the Veterans’ Administration, which oversees all medical care for veterans:

– Voted AGAINST an amendment providing $20 billion to the VA’s medical facilities. [5/4/06]

– Voted AGAINST providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care “and treatment for veterans,” one of only 13 senators to do so. [4/26/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes. [3/14/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending “abusive tax loopholes.” [3/10/04]

Typical straight talk express to oblivion--tell enough hazy, patriotic, loving stories, cozy up to the media, and hide from your voting record. And McCain couldn't even bother to show up and vote for legislation he's already flip-flopped on. That's the John McCain way of screwing Veterans. And Obama needs to point this out, every single day.

--WS

How About Some Common Sense Instead?

[Mortimer Mouse by Berke Breathed]

I have been a patient at both Walter Reed and Bethesda here in the DC area, and my own experiences with both were about the same. I had positive experiences but I wasn't treated there for an extended period of time, nor did I need to be housed there. The problems discovered last year were about the temporary spaces used to keep the troops housed in. This is why we donate money to Fisher House and this is what they should have been working on.

Instead, we see this bullshit. If you need to turn to Disney to figure out that you should:

1. Treat people with respect
2. Respond to their needs
3. And use some common sense

Then I can guarantee you that you don't know what you're doing. How hard is it? An organization that craps on people and fosters an indifferent attitude is an organization that is going to frustrate the people that it's serving. If you can't learn that lesson by having it expressed in clear and simple language, there is no amount of money that is going to "solve" the problems Walter Reed faces.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Walter Reed scheduled to close anyway?

Trying Some Disney Attitude to Help Cure Walter Reed
By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 25, 2008

Fifty medical workers -- doctors, nurses, therapists and administrators among them -- sat in a room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gazing at a slide of Donald Duck on a screen.

The oft-cranky Disney cartoon character, wearing his blue sailor jacket and cap, was in a palpable rage. His webbed feet had lifted off the ground, his beak was gaping, and his white-gloved hands were tightly clutching an old-fashioned two-piece telephone.

"We can clearly see he's frustrated," said Kris Lafferty, a trainer for the Disney Institute who was leading workers at the Northwest Washington hospital last week in a four-hour seminar on customer service. "Why do we think he's frustrated?"

A year after a scandal erupted over the long-term treatment of soldiers at the hospital, the Army has turned to Disney for help. "Service, Disney Style" is newly required for all military and other government employees at Walter Reed.

Lafferty and her fellow Disney trainer, Mike Donnelly, handed out little plastic Goofy and Mickey Mouse figurines as they led Wednesday afternoon's discussion with the workers -- some in uniform, some in scrubs, some in civilian clothes.

Various theories were offered for Donald Duck's ire: He was getting the run-around. He could not get a question answered. He was flummoxed by his antique phone.

The lesson: Poor service equals frustration.

At the tables, heads nodded in agreement. It's a familiar story at Walter Reed, where wounded soldiers and their families often confront a numbing bureaucracy.

The Army is paying Disney $800,000 to help revamp attitudes at the hospital.

Next time, just give that money to Fisher House. Better yet, use it to refurbish the rooms that the troops have to stay in. Here's something you can do for nothing--start firing people who treat the troops like shit. Wanna solve problems? Get rid of the people who cause the problems in the first place by throwing their pissy little asses out the door. What enables people to treat people like crap in the first place is the idea that they won't be held accountable for what they do.

[snip]

Last week, nearly 200 Walter Reed employees sat through training by the Disney Institute, a branch of the resort and entertainment empire that offers seminars on what the company calls "the business behind the magic."

Clients often include institutions that have encountered problems because of poor service. "It almost always begins with the need for more service," said Bruce Jones, programming director for the institute, based in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. "What happens is somebody will say, 'Why not Disney?' "

Other government and military entities -- among them the FBI, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office, which handles the nation's reconnaissance satellites -- have trained with Disney, Jones said.

The Navy hired Disney about 10 years ago to improve its medical service, Mateczun said. Customer service ratings improved.

Disney is "sort of a benchmark on how to work with customers," Mateczun said.

Sounds like we're wasting money. Does the military want to adopt Disney's methods for dealing with Lesbian and Gay employees? Pardon me for piling on, but this little snippet from the archives of "The Anchoress" [yes, she is insane--don't ask] had me laughing out loud most of the morning:

A refreshing take on Disney “Gay Days”
I don’t know if anyone even remembers it, but one of the things the Senate Judiciary Committee held against Bill Pryor (aside from the fact that he had those dangerous “deeply held beliefs” that so troubled Chuck Schumer) was that, upon discovering he’d inadvertently booked a family vacation to Walt Disney World during “Gay Days,” he decided to cancel the vacation. The Committee gave him a hard time about, demanding to know why he cancelled his vacation, demanding to know what the problem was with going to Disney during “Gay Days” and wondering what could possibly be in his head beyong raw homophobia and rampant nazi hate. Okay, they didn’t say that, exactly, but they implied it.

Pryor answered that all he wanted to do was have a vacation that did not involve being forced to explain adult matters to his small children.

[snip]

I can’t help but think of, and feel sorry for – the unsuspecting family who saved for years for a once in a lifetime trip – only to arrive and find that Disney had in fact, been invaded by he-women and shaved down muscle boys. By itself that would not be a problem, but the sheer number of people who seem to go out of their way to rub their sexuality in everyones face during this ‘event’ is nothing short of disgraceful. Is the Magic Kingdom REALLY the place for a 5 year old to ask his father why those two men are kissing? Is it really up to any person to decide for that parent when, or if, they will have that conversation with their child? I’ve always believed the best way we, as gay men and lesbians, could further our cause was to simply live our lives openly, and with dignity. Not hide in shame, and not force our beliefs or lifestyle down anyone elses throat. I don’t like it when I hear pompous windbags telling me I’m going to burn in hell for being gay, and I’m sure most of the free world would appreciate a visit to Disney World that did not include the vision of grown men in go-go shorts, and ads for lubricant prominently displayed throughout the host hotel.

I'm telling you this for your own good--don't read anything by the Anchoress with fluids in your mouth. You have to be in the mood for full-on delusional wingnuttery, and prepare to be horrified and confused all at the same time.

I can guarantee you--guarantee you--more than a few conservative Republicans have wanted to accidentally show up at Disney World on that weekend so that they could continue their public hypocrisy AND get some free lubricants. This is how that crowd likes to roll.

Next time, give me the $800,000. I'll show up and we'll have a five minute training session. I'll stand there for 4 and a half minutes, and then I'll say:

Treat people the way you would want to be treated. And if you don't, your ass is gone. You're not here to do anything other than take care of the people who defend this country. If that doesn't motivate you to use common sense and do a good job, get the fuck out of here now.

And then I'll turn around and give that money to Fisher House myself.

Traumatic Brain Injuries or PTSD?

[image: an upgraded Personal Armor System for Ground Troops helmet with Operation Helmet-supplied kit--cost is $87 for old models, $56 for newer ones.]
I think Blue Girl might have more to say about this, but here's what we know so far:

A new military study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine says soldiers who suffered concussions in Iraq were not only at higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, but also that the depression and PTSD, not the head injuries, may be the cause of ongoing physical symptoms.

Five percent of the 2,500 soldiers surveyed by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research said they had concussions in which they lost consciousness during combat. Forty-four percent of these soldiers ended up with PTSD.

Researchers were surprised to find symptoms normally associated with concussions -- headaches, dizziness, irritability and memory problems -- were actually related to PTSD or depression.

"It isn't the combat exposure or physical injury, it's the PTSD that seems to drive these symptoms. That's a surprise," said Joseph A. Boscarino, Ph.D., who studies PTSD at the Geisinger Center for Health Research in Danville, Pennsylvania. "You would expect they would have these other symptoms related to traumatic brain injury, that maybe they have a permanent injury, but it's explained by whether they have PTSD or depression."

About 8 million American adults have PTSD. A 2003 New England Journal of Medicine Study found that 15 percent to 17 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were suffering from PTSD, and more than 60 percent of those showing symptoms were unlikely to seek help because of fears of stigmatization or loss of career advancement opportunities.

As of June 30, 2007, the Department of Defense reported 3,294 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs. Bomb blasts caused nearly 70 percent of those TBI cases.

Dr. James Kelly, a neurology professor at the University of Colorado and a co-author of guidelines the military uses to identify traumatic brain injury, expressed concerns that doctors will attribute lingering health problems to psychological issues.

"I think if people misunderstand or overextend beyond what this survey shows, they could dismiss true brain injury features as psychological only," Kelly said. "It would be a terrible disservice to our military for that to happen."

Kahlor is worried this study will make it harder for soldiers to get appropriate medical care.

"The military doesn't want to diagnose people with brain injury," he said. "So what they'll do is play it off as PTSD as the sole injury for everyone, because PTSD and traumatic brain injury have very similar symptoms," he said. "The disability [compensation] is a lot higher for traumatic brain injury. What the military is saying is, you can't be diagnosed from a brain injury unless you get better from PTSD. It's kind of like a paradox."

First of all, citing a study from 2003 is WAY out of date. The larger IEDs used against our troops are causing a more severe type of brain injury, obviously. The different vehicles being used, such as the MRV and the Stryker, are helping, but is it enough. And then there was the campaign called Operation Helmet. Here's something from their site, which you could visit and support if you choose to:

Jan 21, 2008: Received a request from a Marine Reserve unit (155 Marines) headed back into combat...and unable to use the 'GI' pads at all, so have reverted to the un-protected form of combat helmet. We MUST NOT let this happen. While we're pressuring Congress and the military to do what's right, we need an urgent fund-raising campaign to outfit these troops before they reach their combat assignment. PLEASE HELP WITH YOUR DONATIONS IF YOU CAN.

Which outrage do you want--that a Marine reserve unit is going into Iraq in 2008--nearly five years since the start of the goddamned war--WITHOUT adequate headgear? Our military health care system finding a way to get rid of people and not pay benefits??? Now, why would the military do something like that?

Remember when the military started going after people who had "personality disorders" that were really manifestations of PTSD? How could you blame them? It was a fantastic way of getting rid of people and cutting costs!

But instead of sending Town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, did something strange: They claimed Town's wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.

Town is not alone. A six-month investigation has uncovered multiple cases in which soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder, then prevented from collecting benefits. The conditions of their discharge have infuriated many in the military community, including the injured soldiers and their families, veterans' rights groups, even military officials required to process these dismissals.

They say the military is purposely misdiagnosing soldiers like Town and that it's doing so for one reason: to cheat them out of a lifetime of disability and medical benefits, thereby saving billions in expenses

Here's the original link to WWTC [where Blue Girl spends some of her valuable time] Your government. Acting like a craven HMO. You gotta love it when they pull this kind of thing. All that stands between them and their goals is exposing their attempts at shortchanging Veterans.

Lets clarify something right now...

This comment left at Political Animal set me to thinking about something…

"The Justice department is in big trouble." And Homeland Security is in big trouble. And the national economy is in big trouble. And unions are in big trouble. And the poor are in big trouble. And ... Just the way the left likes it.

Posted by: mhr on March 25, 2007 at 12:54 PM | PERMALINK

As the ground erodes beneath those intent on denying reality and it’s well-known liberal bias, the meme is shifting.

Suddenly, the right is engaging in a particularly smarmy smear campaign. Now, we are ‘gleeful’ and ‘joyful’ when we hear bad news, because we hate Bush so much. So really, you see, those dirty hippies to the left of Ollie North are all still “bad Americans” and that justifies continuing to ignore us.

Yep. We have had the audacity to be right for the last six fucking years. Therefore we are bad Americans because we were not only right, we have lost our sense of humor with the mantra of the lockstep lemming brigade who ignored us and pooh-poohed us.

Anyone who thinks I take one scintilla of joy in any of this shit is barking mad. I absolutely do not take any measure of satisfaction in anything that has happened, and I take it as a personal affront if anyone ascribes that motive to me.

There is nothing – absolutely nothing – to celebrate in anything that is happening.

Claiming such undermines and maligns the credibility of those who maintain otherwise, not those who have, I repeat, been right all along.

Kiley Resigns

The general who played golf while soldiers suffered, families were dismissed as meddlesome trouble makers and the brass played on has been asked to resign.

He will not be missed.

Meet Anne McLeod

Walter Reed is a mess. But everyone is focusing on the wrong mess.

Mold and mildew can be cleaned up. Stained carpets can be replaced. Walls can be painted and structures can be repaired.

But abuse and neglect...That is not so easy to whitewash.

The crass and craven perfidy is staggering in it's scope. Last week, I was very close to flabbergasted when I heard Secretary Harvey state that he hoped the Washington Post was satisfied, having managed to "ruin some careers." (A few decades of being affiliated with the military has made me not so easy to knock over with a feather when I hear of an outrage, if you know what I mean.)

I wanted to go through the radio and do an injury to the feckless, cowardly mother fucker.

But today, someone else (without my penchant for rhetorically dousing offenders with gasoline and tossing a match on 'em then busting out the s'mores fixin's) delivered a body blow to Harvey that should have knocked the wind out of all the upper brass. Sometimes a defter touch is demanded. Anne McLeod, wife of an injured Iraq War National Guard Soldier had the right tone, timbre and inflection.

The thing of the matter is, Mr. Harvey made a statement the other day that really bothers me. He said he hopes the Washington Post was satisfied because they ruined careers. First, let me come on record by saying, I don’t care about your career as far as anybody that’s in danger. That doesn’t bother me. All I’m just trying to do is have my life, the life that I had and that I know. My life was ripped apart the day my husband was injured, and having to live through the mess that we lived through at Walter Reed has been worse than anything I have ever sacrificed in my life.

Go to Think Progress to watch video of her testimony.

I dare you to watch it and not tear up, even if you have never had any connection to the military.

This is a topic that is not going away. So let's take a page out of the right's playbook, as written by Frank Luntz. When this subject comes up, use these words in framing the debate:

• Abuse
• Neglect
• Suffering
• Cruel
• Heartbreaking
• Disgraceful
• Depraved indifference
• Families
• Inhuman treatment
• Perfidy
  

Those words focus the debate where it belongs:

On beings, not buildings.

GUILTY ON FOUR COUNTS

Justice isn't dead. In fact, she seems to be responding remarkably well to therapy.

It isn't okay to out a CIA agent for political purposes, because you have been caught fixing *facts* and called on it.

It isn't okay to subvert justice and - let's call a spade a spade here - commit treason just to make some political hay.

Get it now?

Libby is guilty on four counts, and the Associate United States Attorney's who were fired for political reasons are pushing back. Hard. And good for them.

The Walter Reed scandal grows daily. And the squalor is not the worst of it. The neglect is the scandal.

The wheels are coming off the bus. It is obvious to all except the most willfully ignorant in our midst that the man in the oval office is not fit to live among us, and neither are his cronies.

The Bush administration is the gravest threat to the American way of life - to America herself - that has ever been faced in our history.

Can we get our impeachment on yet?

Crack the Whip, Claire!

Missouri’s junior senator, Clair McCaskill (who I worked tirelessly to elect) is emerging at the forefront of the Medical Hold scandal. After careful and considerable deliberation, McCaskill issued a statement yesterday calling for the firing of Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley. McCaskills remarks came in the wake of Maj. Gen. George Weightman, Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s commander, being relieved of his command earlier in the day.

“It’s clear that General Kiley, the surgeon general at the Army, knew about the conditions at Building 18,” McCaskill said. “The irony of this situation is General [George] Weightman stepped up. He’s only been there a year.” McCaskill said in calling for the resignation or firing of General Kiley.

Kiley is the former commander of Walter Reed, and the Washington Post reported Thursday that he was informed of the problems in 2003 that, unpalliated, have emerged as a scandal in 2007. Yet Weightman is relieved of command, and Kiley is back in charge.

“I Felt Sick”

“This is about a system that is not trying to make it easy for the wounded to get what they deserve,” McCaskill said during a news conference Thursday with Obama after introducing their bill.

[Snip past the commentary about Obama’s rock-star status]

How did McCaskill, still waiting to move into a permanent office on the Hill, seize the reins on such a highly charged issue with such a high-megawatt candidate for the White House?

Upon reading the Sunday newspaper reports, “I felt sick,” McCaskill said.

“Somewhere along the line, someone saw this and said to themselves, ‘We’re not supposed to complain.’ Any fresh set of eyes looking at rotting ceilings and peeling mold, and realizing our battle-weary men and women are being forced into those circumstances would say, ‘Whoa. This is wrong.’ Somebody ought to have pounded the table somewhere.”

She directed her staff to collect information about the problems and how she could help fix them.

In the Senate hierarchy, McCaskill knows her place — fourth from the bottom in seniority. She figured more senior colleagues would quickly wade into the controversy. The outrage level was blinking red, after all. Still, there was no harm in being prepared.

At the time she directed her “staff” to get on it, that staff still consisted of one overworked legislative assistant – but she has since added more, including an infantry Captain who was part of the Iraqi invasion to advise her on military affairs. One of his first acts was to go tour Walter Reed.

Earlier this week, McCaskill and her top aides gathered in her small, temporary office to prep her for her own tour Wednesday. A key question to the hospital brass would be: In light of the problems, where is the accountability going to be in the senior chain of command?

McCaskill was already cynical: “It’s going to be like the prison,” she told them, referring to the scandal over Abu Ghraib, a U.S. military prison in Baghdad. “The guys at the bottom will be held accountable and the guys at the top will not.”

Stepping up

After her tour, she said most of the top officials she met recognized how steep a climb they face to restore trust. But some “seemed very closed-minded and defensive,” she said. “One bragged this process has to be dispassionate, which seems to me to be oxymoronic.”

Her bill with Obama has begun to draw bipartisan support, including the backing of Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican. Hearings on the problems will start next week.

“Introducing legislation is not anything exceptional,” said Ross K. Baker, an expert on the Senate at Rutgers University. “What is exceptional is if it eventually improves the conditions at Walter Reed. She would be in a charmed circle. Very few freshmen are able to author a major piece of legislation.”

Keep it up, Claire. You occupy the seat once held by Harry S Truman. It is your legacy as the occupant of that seat to hold feet to the fire, blisters be damned.

McClatchy recaps the scandal highlights for your convenience

Problems at Walter Reed

The problems at Walter Reed pertain not to the quality of medical treatment for wounded soldiers but rather to the care for those who are well enough to be outpatients:

•Seriously wounded soldiers outnumber hospital staff 17 to 1. As a result, recovering soldiers, some with psychological issues, are asked to oversee other patients.

•Case managers for the wounded are overwhelmed and sometimes untrained.

•Building 18, a decrepit former hotel housing 80 recovering soldiers, had mold on the walls, secondhand furniture, soiled carpets, rodents and cockroaches.

•Bureaucratic delays stem from Army computer systems that do not interact, leaving the typical soldier to file 22 different documents with eight Army commands.

•Disoriented patients and their relatives get little help dealing with the 113-acre campus or the confusing paperwork.

[crossposted from Watching Those We Chose]

Assault on Dignity

Just when I think I have reached the limits of my disgust and anger at the Walter Reed 'medical hold' scandal, another outrage comes to light, and new heights are achieved.

I have avoided this topic because it just offends me on so many levels. It offends me as a healthcare professional. It offends me as the daughter, sister and wife of a Sailor, a Soldier and an Airman, respectively. It offends me as an American Citizen, ostensibly served by the sacrifices of our military. It offends me as a human being.

Honestly, I don’t believe I am in possession of a single, solitary unoffended sensibility.

The level of disgust and outrage I feel is not compatible with a reasoned discussion of the subject, and this topic is too important to me to alienate anyone with an invective-laden tirade that questions the parentage of various command level medical officers and elected officials.

Retaliation

How dare those soldiers in Building 18 talk to the press and allow the public to become aware of the conditions troops in medical hold have had to deal with, and the indignities they have already suffered?

The troops in medical hold have been told they will now roll out at 0600, and have their quarters ready for inspection by 0700. Not to worry, amputees and others with special needs! They have break-away uniforms for you!

These are combat veterans who have paid a heavy price with a precious coin, at the behest of their government, and they are being treated like they are back in basic training. It is outrageous. It is maddening. It is unconscionable.

And no matter how the pentagon tries to spin it from the lower levels while Gates expresses his outrage, this is a retaliatory move, and the interests of the troops are not being served.

I am curious about something and have been since the story broke. Suddenly elected officials are demanding accountability, and medical officers are falling all over themselves to accept responsibility.

Well, Duh. Command knew what the deal was. Command always knows, and don’t believe otherwise. Those soldiers weren’t sequestered to Bedlam, unsupervised, existing entirely in a vacuum.

My first thought was to wonder where the hell they have been for the last four years.

Are they admitting that all those trips out to Walter Reed with news crews in tow were just 15-minute photo-ops; benefiting only the politicians by having pictures snapped while they look admiringly at a plucky amputee who just wants to get back to his unit?

Are they admitting, ipso facto, that those soldiers cease to matter as soon as the lens-caps go back on and the mics go dead, and their utility to the politician has been expended?

I think we should trawl the nets and find those pictures and hang them around the necks of the media whores who send our young men and women off to fight and die in unjust and unjustified wars – the media whores who are deeply concerned for 15 minutes while the cameras roll – the media whores who allowed troops who did their duty live in squalor as they struggle to recover from war wounds.

Failing to step up and do what’s right, neglecting ones responsibilities – these are the kinds of things that prompt me to press a hot iron against your flesh to brand the word feckless onto your person.

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]