I am a very lazy blogger don’t have huge wads of free time so check out these links which (surprise) support the general narrative that I have sketched out since the Walter Reed scandal broke.
Start with Steve Benen for context and useful links.
Rep. Don Young (R-bridge to nowhere) C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) now claims that he knew all along but he was afraid to do anything about it. Get a load of his reasoning:
“We did not go public with these concerns, because we did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the Army a black eye while fighting a war.”
No doubt wounded troops lying in pools of their own urine appreciate Young’s concern for their morale.
John Aravosis has a telling catch – Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), former chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, wants to dismiss Walter Reed as political noise. Buyer is half right in the sense that the scandal probably have never happened if it wasn’t for cynical gamesmanship. A little over two years ago Buyer replaced Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) as the panel chair after Republican leaders accused Smith of trying to spend too much money on medical care for the troops.
Fred Kaplan has more at Slate about how the administration’s total disinterest in doing the job right impacts every aspect of this war.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
If America finds out it’s run by a bunch of criminally negligent fuck-ups, the terrorists win.
John D.
It wasn’t Don Young, it was C.W. Bill Young (R-FL).
Tim F.
Corrected. That’s the cost of trying to blog on the quick.
jill
Republican elected officials support loyalty to other republicans, they do not support the troops.
Otto Man
He had to destroy their morale in order to save it.
jill
He didn’t want to embarass the President in a time of war?! How about how embarrassing it was for the soldier (who just was injured fighting Bush’s war) to be lying in a bed soaked with urine?
jake
Yeah. I saw the guy. He was laying on the side of the road and bleeding, but I thought it would make our police force look bad if I said anything.
Gah.
Fuck. If this is “Supporting the troops,” then I guess I really don’t support the troops. I mean, I’d never stop to consider the PR implications if I knew about shit like this. I’d never be able to see that concern about soldiers (much less sick ones) living in moldy rooms was just “political noise.” Thank goodness there are fine Americans like Young and Buyer (what a name) to show us moonbats the way.
OkieByAccident
“You go to bed with the urine you have, not the urine you might have at some later time, or might not wish to have at all.”
– Rummy’s Pools – er, Rules
Nick Kasoff - The Thug Report
I’ve never heard good things about the VA healthcare system, but this goes beyond the worst I’d heard before. Yet another reason to be thankful that my Army Reserve obligation expired years ago. Very sad and discouraging.
Nick Kasoff
The Thug Report
Tsulagi
Hey, if loyal Republican campaign contributors can’t create a company getting government
welfarecontracts to make bucks at the expense of Katrina survivors and WIA, then what is this country coming to? Those guys, like those at DHB who got waivers for body armor that couldn’t stop 9mm, are the true patriots. Anybody who says different is part of the evil gay (Matt Sanchez excluded) agenda.jill
Jake…you are right. I hope no one supports the troops the way the Republicans “support” the troops.
Otto Man
Then you’re listening to the wrong people. Read this.
Oh, also — Walter Reed isn’t run by the VA. It’s run by the DOD, which is why the Secretary of the Army was made to take the fall, and not the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Nikki
This morning, my local news channel had a report about Walter Reed that ended with an interview with a soldier, wounded in Afghanistan, saying that, because the War on Terror is far more important, the soldiers at Walter Reed should have been cleaning their rooms themselves.
Pb
Nick,
It’s not even the VA system–Walter Reed Army Medical Center is the direct responsibility of the Army and the Department of Defense, and indirectly the responsibility of President Bush and Congress.
Tsulagi
Why does that sound familiar?
Oh yeah, sort of similar to “The reason I sat on my thumbs for seven minutes reading a book that was over my head with a stupid deer-in-the-headlights look on my face while the country was under attack on its own soil was because I didn’t want to scare the children.” Yeah, that’s it.
Pb
Standard, craven, self-serving response–it doesn’t even take much reading between the lines. We did not want to reveal our incompetence and/or malfeasance because we did not want to undermine the misplaced confidence of voters and look bad while failing at doing something important, like our jobs. Duh, of course you didn’t–and that’s exactly why you should be tossed out on your ass and replaced by someone competent.
jill
Impeach now!
AkaDad
The rats and the roaches were brought in for target practice, to keep up morale.
Richard 23
Now that’s what I call taking personal responsibility!
jake
I’m going to give this person the benefit of the doubt and assume either:
1. He doesn’t have a fucking clue what he’s talking about. I’m going to assume that all he’s heard or read about this story has been filtered down to: Soldiers complain about dirty rooms at WR.
Or
2. He was “sound bitten” down to a quote that appealed to whoever broadcast the story. Because it is respectful of the troops to make them say what you want them to mean. Or what they would mean. Ah hell, he’s wounded, he won’t notice.
To assume otherwise would suggest this vet meant the soldiers are supposed to patch the ceilings in their rooms, fix the leaks, remove the mold, replace the carpets, buy new matresses and so on. And that would be wookies dancing the damn can-can on Endor.
r4d20
If America finds out it’s run by a bunch of criminally negligent fuck-ups, the terrorists win.
Which naturally means exposing such idiocy provides “aid and comfort” to our enemies.
Richard Bottoms
Everyone in the GOP can kiss my entire ass.
We are going to obliterate you in 2008.
Rome Again
It seems to me that rather than the exposure of such idiocy, but instead the idiocy itself is what is giving aid and comfort to our enemies.
Jonathan
I posted this on a local blog which has more than a few freeper types. Not a freaking peep.
“Support the troops” magnet sales fall
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/05/fox-news-anna-nicole-walter-reed
Richard 23
Congratulations. Please continue to keep us to date every time you “speak truth to power.”
Question: How do you keep a moron in suspense?
Watch this space, Jon. I’ll post the answer later in the day.
garyb50
Back in my mid 20’s I had a cyst cut out of my hand in the Oklahoma City VA hospital. As I was going under they strapped down the wrong hand and laughed and laughed.
It was a joke.
Nothing changes.
Pb
Duh. Every right-thinking patriot already has one. The only reason to buy them now is to send them to Iraq, to be used to up-armor vehicles.
dreggas
Un-Fucking-Believable
Richard Bottoms
Completely believable from the ideological purists of the GOP.
Dumb motherfuckers.
dreggas
And lumping the gop in with motherfuckers is an insult to motherfuckers everywhere…well then again I am sure that the motherfuckers are republican anyway just no one has asked them…
Digital Amish
Worst
Presidentadminstrationpolitical party ever. Is there any aspect of the federal government that is more efficient/responsive/responsible/effective than it was six years ago?dreggas
The FCC only because they are the cultural morality police and have been very quick to hand out fines for “obscenity” based on whatever the admin says (or how many ever calls they get from computer programs giving canned complaints.)
Ting Bu Dong
You have to wonder if these guys could possibly make any more mistakes than they already have. Truly the most pathetic Admin in history. Total losers!
Dave_Violence
I support the war.
But… I can’t help but feel that’s the way every part of it is being run. Apart from my own direct involvement and that of plenty of my friends – people who are not fuck-ups, and who do not like failure and who are not failing in Iraq – I know from experience that the higher-up managers (how’d they get up there anyway? simply by meeting spending targets; the customer and product be damned?) are not interested in recognizing excellence as being important.
“You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie” sure seems to define the way things might be going, from letting off contractors who are ripping US off left and right (legally – think PB and the police academy) scott-free, to Walter Reed.
I don’t see how a Republican can get elected dog catcher in the next election.