Wounded

So let me get this straight, Cheney authorizes Libby to speak to the press on matters of secret national security but our troops can’t talk about conditions in the VA?

Following up on its earlier report, the WaPo says that family members, soldiers, veteran’s groups (and others) have been complaining about Walter Reed for three years. The Army’s surgeon general supposedly knew about the complaints.

The Post lists public comment after public comment … going back to just after the Iraq War…. detailing problems…. and the need to develop solutions. :-/

From everything I’ve read the past few years, the problem isn’t just Walter Reed…the entire VA system is underfunded.

When gates says he wants to get to the bottom of this, he must be joking. The problem is the overextension of the U.S. military and the underfunding of veterans affairs by Congress.

It would help if Bush would put forward an honest budget with true accounting for the costs of the Iraq war.

TPMmuckraker has the details on the investigation and a summary of Pentagon response (divided) to the story.

If you missed it – ya need to read it. Very sad. Thousands of soliders waiting for disability rulings. One story is especially painful—how our gov’t went out of its way to say IT wasn’t responsible for the soldier’s disability. Too bad he couldn’t have that decision made by a jury of his peers.

I read another report that says the wounded-killed ratio in this war is the highest ever—10-to-1. Vietnam, reportedly 3-to-1. That means a lot of folks are gonna have lifelong care—and our system isn’t set up to handle it. :-/