Ah, the mantra of everyone who has nothing left to grab onto to support the boondoggle known as Iraq. Well as everyone has found out this week, that little phrase truly rings hollow. The Washington Post and NBC News discovered that at Walter Reed where many of our injured veterans are recuperating, things aren't going so well. Rooms infested with roaches. Mold on the walls. Soldiers lying in their own urine. A bureaucratic nightmare straight out of the movie Brazil. Many veterans and their families tried to go through the usual chain of command and were brushed off. So they did what anyone had to. Go to the media. Sadly, earlier this week they were slapped down because of it. The military decided to ban media from the buildings mentioned and order soldiers to be up at 6 every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection by 7. These are injured veterans we're talking about. And not ones with scratches or splinters. We're talking about amputees. Of course things starting looking better this weekend. Earlier in the week, the Secretary of the Army relieved the man in charge of the hospital and put in place the former commander Kevin Kiley as interim commander. The problem is that most agree it was Kiley who let the mess degenerate to begin with. The new guy was trying to improve things. So he was treated as a scapegoat. Fortunately Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wasn't pleased and announced that the Secretary of the Army had resigned. Although most said that he was fired by Gates. Gates also criticized the military for being too defensive in the situation and not being proactive in helping the veterans. I don't know if anything will improve but this looks like a hopeful start.
So next time you hear someone say that we should "Support Our Troops", ask them if we should support them like our administration has done for years at places like Walter Reed. Everyone who allowed this to transpire should be ashamed of themselves.
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