I Had a Dream
By nature. I am a chronic insomniac. A good night’s sleep is hard to come by but when I have one. the dreams come fast and furious. One recent dream that came to me involved a large cow. There it was. this humongous cow grazing on the White House lawn. dropping steaming piles of scandal after scandal.
The war on Iraq. Plamegate. Abu Ghraib and the firings of federal prosecutors littered the Rose Garden and the South Lawn. Frightened groundskeepers ran screaming in to the night. That I live next to a dairy farm gave me a good start on some Freudian post-dream analysis.
One of the biggest piles I saw drop from the giant cow. was the scandal involving the condition of Walter Reed Army Hospital and the now-notorious Building 18. Washington Post staff writers Dana Priest and Anna Hull reported in February on conditions in this wretched facility.
The physical condition of the facility. combined with the muddled and inept response from the Army brass Fake Watches. resulted in universal outrage. inside and outside of the Washington D.C. beltway. In the aftermath. Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey was ousted along with Major General George Weightman. commanding general of Walter Reed.
Did I say universal outrage? Well not quite. Thinking a really bad dream had come to me. I came across a Columbus Dispatch article headlined “Schmidt: Walter Reed not so bad” (March 22. 2007) in which Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt did not completely accept the public outcry over conditions in Building 18. In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Rep. Schmidt had the audacity to announce that she found “the situation at Walter Reed to be overblown by both politicians and the media”.
Holy cow – “the media” strikes again!
Admitting that problems did exist. Schmidt went on to say that “While I believe that this building is beneath the standards of what is acceptable. I think it is wrong to suggest that mold found behind an air conditioner somehow is an excuse to say that all of our veterans are receiving substandard medical care”. Sound’s like Schmidt was trying to spread a few cow pies of her own.
Reporting by Priest and Hull has yet to suggest that all veterans are receiving substandard medical care. Speaking from my own experience. Veterans Administration medical care – in general – is no better or worse than what I have experienced outside the VA Health Care system. A good example is my experience with the VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Athens. Ohio where I have always been treated with respect and dignity. Like many vets. I have received less-than-adequate care at other VA facilities over the last 32 years. But in spite of being chronically under-funded. VA health care has improved since the horrific aftermath of the Vietnam War.
What Schmidt fails to acknowledge is the follow-up reporting on Walter Reed documenting that substandard conditions and care came to light over 3 years ago. The reporting almost certainly indicates a lack of planning for the casualties of war commensurate with the Bush Administration’s lack of planning for the war on Iraq.
As early as October 2003. just months after the invasion of Iraq. Mark Benjamin of the United Press International broke the story - “Sick. wounded U.S. troops held in squalor” -about conditions at Fort Stewart in Georgia. reporting that “Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait — sometimes for months — to see doctors.”
Quoting further from the story –
“One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart — home of the famed Third Infantry Division — as heroes on their return from Iraq. approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare Franck Muller Watches. steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field. waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.”
“Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular. gray. single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack.”
“Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt to a communal bathroom. where they have propped office partitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy.
A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs. because many windows have no screens. Showering is in a communal. cinder block room. Soldiers say they have to buy their own toilet paper.”
The personal testimonies of the soldiers documented in Mark Benjamin’s report detail conditions that must surely have violated U.S. and international law. Strangely. nothing much happened as a result.
Oh the story had legs for a week or so. but was never really addressed by a war-happy news media Prada Replica Handbags. still giddy with reports of “Mission Accomplished” and pronouncements by then-Pentagon advisor and neo-conservative-in-chief Richard Pearle that “Next year at about this time. I expect there will be a really thriving trade in the [Iraq] region and we will see rapid economic development. And a year from now Fake Watches. I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad named after President Bush.”
As we know. the cow pies have really hit the fan in Baghdad and plans for the commemorative George W. Bush Plaza and Shopping Mall are undoubtedly on hold.
What makes the Walter Reed scandal so hard to ignore is that the cow pie landed in Washington D.C.. literally in the backyard of Congress - where “Support the Troops” has always been the rallying cry for House and Senate war hawks.
Troops wounded in the war on Iraq and ensuing sectarian civil war have experienced both the best and the worst of medical care. Combat trauma care in Iraq and follow-up treatment at U.S. military bases in Germany has resulted in an increased survivability among many wounded troops. compared to previous conflicts. But contrast that with the way wounded troops were treated at Walter Reed and Fort Stewart - and the oft-cited slogan “Support the Troops” starts to fade from all those yellow ribbon car magnets.
“…and the cow jumped over the moon.”
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