Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

They deserve a lot better. Walter Reed is not funded by the VA (who don't get enough money from Congress), they are funded by the DoD, directly. The governmental agency that receives over 50% of all discretionary budgetary funds allocated by Congress.

And the DoD would rather line the pockets of large contractors than take care of the troops.

 

This story sucks really really bad.

What else is there to say?

I need a new administration just to give my outrage muscles a chance to recuperate.

 

Good to see the Bush Administration is being consistent in its cradle-to-grave criminality and mismanagement of this war.

Their planning for treating the wounded is the same as their planning for occupation in Iraq--zip.

As a friend of mine recently said, "No outrage left undone."

And then cutting VA funding just to make sure.

 

This is the saddest and most disgusting thing I've ever read about the current admin.

 

Remember, its OUR obligation to Support the Troops. The Administrations obligations dont extend beyond supporting the Corporations who make things which fly and go 'boom'.

 

This isn't something that happened overnight. Military facilities didn't become shitholes yesterday. I used to live in condemned barracks that were built under Carter and allowed to go to shit under Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton. I used to work in a converted condemned PX that was built under Ford and allowed to go to shit under all those who came after him. The massive amounts of cash the military is recieving is a fairly new thing. Sure they've always had a pretty big budget, but running a world class military isn't cheap. Just like these places didn't become dumps overnight, they can't be fixed overnight either.

Another thing to look at is the fact that some of these medical issues are being dealt with for the first time. Mental issues have in the past, in both the military and civilian worlds, been something that just wasn't dealt with. Guys would just "suck it up" and "deal" with it themselves. Not the way to do things, but that's how it was. So now, for the first time, the military has to deal with this stuff. Anyone who has ever been in the military knows how well they deal with change. There is also a huge number of wounded coming back. This is due to better battle field medicine which means instead of being dead, they are back in the US for treatment. Again, something the military wasn't ready to deal with.

Having said all that, the situation is unacceptable. But before I take the lazy approach of blaming Bush, or saying the military is too busy lining the pockets of contractors, I'll probably just look at the past 60 years or so of neglecting the heath and welfare of the military and blame that.

 

No doubt the neglect of facilities has been an ongoing thing, but the fact that Bush is cutting VA funding at a time when more and more soldiers require attention (again, because of Bush's total clusterfkc in Iraq) is just sickening.

"Support Our Troops", indeed.

 

As has already been stated, the VA doesn't fund Walter Reed. Nor does it fund Bethesda or any other active duty military hospital.

 

Absolutely pathetic. The fact that such deterioration takes time means that the guilty parties extend far beyond the current administration. However, to hide behind the 'support the troops' rhetoric and misplace billions of dollars only to leave a huge problem like this unresolved is pathetic.

I would love to see this issue brought to light in a real public forum. Bush is right about one thing, these guys are laying their lives on the line for us, we should support them; this, however, is not support. It is criminal negligence.

I've been making annual donations to a local fund that provides armor for troops without it, but I might have to look to see if there is a fund that addresses this issue instead.

 

It would have to be a massive fund. The biggest problem facing the military when it comes to fixing the decades of neglect is that the buildings are usually full of asbestos, lead paint, mold, and anything else you can think of. That means that fixing the problem isn't exactly cheap. So right now they are faced with choices like do they provide better armor to the combat troops or get rid of the lead paint. Usually they'll buy the armor and then put up a sign telling you not to touch the wall.

 

That's damn ********ing right. You crybabies need a dose of Pat Dollard.

http://patdollard.com/young-americans/

 

Yea, that is the bitch of it. One man can do something, but one man with limited funds and time can only do a little. Like I said, you just really hope this story makes it to a major forum sooner rather than later.

 

One can hope, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The only thing I can think of that would lead to better conditions in military hospitals is to privatize the whole thing. If you give the military more money they're just going to buy more bullets, they aren't going to "waste" money on things like troop moral or welfare.

Unless you're in the Airforce, then they'll probably buy everyone a new plasma TV to replace that old one you got last year.

 

Quick question: You've served, so maybe you can answer it.

Is there any way to earmark military funding so that they cannot buy more bullets, but are instead forced to use the funding to do right by the kids they sent over there for Dubya's idea of glory?

 

Point taken, but these guys will eventually wind up in the VA system.

 

Yes, most likely they will. But at least with the VA you do have some choice. You can shop around and find the locations with the best VA facilities and move there. Of course that's like looking for the prettiest turd in the toilet, but at least its something.

 

Today's WPost brings some news of improvements on the way:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900759.html

And an investigation of an ex Aid Chief at the hospital: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021901113.html

While it's great the Post articles have resulted in some movement for improvements it's no comfort to the soldiers and their families who fell threw the cracks.

K

 

Well, if you hadn't selectivly edited my post you would see I'm talking about the present day blaming of contractors. But even in the grand scheme of things, yes, it is still the lazy approach. Do you really think the military would ever pass up any weapon system in favor of buying some new beds for the troops?

And PS, those horrible contractors aren't always the ones to blame. Think about an example like this: you've got a guy who's dreams of putting on that star are riding on a weapon system he's been working on for 10 years. Do you really think he's going to allow another system to be purchased without putting up a fight? Or how about the Senator who represents the district where those F-22s, to use your example, are built? I'm sure he has nothing to do with making sure all those workers stay employed.


But we can just blame the corporation. That's a good, easy place to lay the blame.

 

I'm not disputing what you are saying in the overall picture, but I just wanna say that there is an awesome VA hospital out here in the Bay Area. I worked there briefy several years ago during some training. I was in their hospice.

I have a Vietnam Vet friend who has been going there for everything he needs for a couple of decades now, including life-saving psych services.

It's very confusing why some places are dumps and some are shiny first class facilities. Could it be that this VA is associated with a well-known medical school right down the street? Even the VA long term care center is not bad here.

 

And sometimes I find perfectly good, edible peanuts in my turds.

Seriously, I'm not saying all the VA hospitals are horrible, there are a few good ones out there, especially in your larger metro areas. But the overwhelming majority of them are pretty horrible. I'm sure it has something to do with how they are funded. I don't know exactly how the VA funds the different facilities.

I'm also not trying to speak ill of those who work in the facilities. I'm sure the vast majority of them do the best they can with what they are given.

 

I'm a contractor. It's indisputable that contractors are making a heck of a lot of money. They are being paid by the DoD. Which could give us an excellent military for a fraction of what they spend now.

With good leadership, yes.

As you so aptly point out, the contractors are only the ones profiting. Who's making the decisions that result in the contractors profiting? And why are contractors able to have so much influence on the decision makers? Might it be the flow of personnel between the two systems? How often do you see high ranking military officers retire from the service to become lobbyists for major contractors? It goes the other way too - our current Vice President used to be the CEO of a certain major contractor that is reporting insane profits right now.

Eisenhower was right. The system is now broken.

 

Oh, wow, hey, congrats on that. So am I. So are a hundred thousand other folks. We've already had a very long discussion about how much money the government would really save by not using contractors.

Just keep in mind that the "L" in Army, Navy, Airforce and Marine Corps stands for leadership.

There has been and always will be contractors. And I'm not saying the companies don't share in the blame. What I am saying is it is lazy to just blame the contractors without looking at the others who deserve just as much, if not more blame. I mean, a company trying to make profits? Who would have thunk it? So who is to blame, the company doing what companies do or the people who created the system in which the companies can do it?