Passed The Boiling Point

On the fourth paragraph. As a veteran, I am so offended by the treatment to the injured troops and veterans that it is reflected in my blood pressure. Meditation doesn't help, the heck with that deep breathing stuff. Been there, done that and the news just keeps getting worse.

The Washington Post articles on the Walter Reed travesty aren't new, unfortunately. I sent emails (scrubbed by Lycos) about preparing for the increased demand for veteran's services in 2001. Salon wrote about the problems long before I started blogging about it here, which leads me to believe that supporting the troops is just another figment of the American imagination. My heart is just breaking. From

"I met guys who weren't going to appointments because the hospital didn't even know they were there," Robinson said. Kiley told him to speak to a sergeant major, a top enlisted officer.

To

Kiley lives across the street from Building 18. From his quarters, he can see the scrappy building and busy traffic the soldiers must cross to get to the 113-acre post. At a news conference last week, Kiley, who declined several requests for interviews for this article, said that the problems of Building 18 "weren't serious and there weren't a lot of them." He also said they were not "emblematic of a process of Walter Reed that has abandoned soldiers and their families."

And your planet is?

In 2004, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife stopped visiting the wounded at Walter Reed out of frustration. Young said he voiced concerns to commanders over troubling incidents he witnessed but was rebuffed or ignored. "When Bev or I would bring problems to the attention of authorities of Walter Reed, we were made to feel very uncomfortable," said Young, who began visiting the wounded recuperating at other facilities.

Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, "I went flying down to Kevin Kiley's office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else."

A true Bush supporter and enabler. Nothing is too good for troops, unless you actually happen to be one. How deep does the snow job go?

Last October, Joyce Rumsfeld, the wife of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, was taken to Walter Reed by a friend concerned about outpatient treatment. She attended a weekly meeting, called Girls Time Out, at which wives, girlfriends and mothers of soldiers exchange stories and offer support.

According to three people who attended the gathering, Rumsfeld listened quietly. Some of the women did not know who she was. At the end of the meeting, Rumsfeld asked one of the staff members whether she thought that the soldiers her husband was meeting on his visits had been handpicked to paint a rosy picture of their time there. The answer was yes.

When Walter Reed officials found out that Rumsfeld had visited, they told the friend who brought her -- a woman who had volunteered there many times -- that she was no longer welcome on the grounds.

This has the smell of ...coverup. Unless you count the different essences from the barnyard. But the crap continues to increase.

Yesterday, Walter Reed received an unscheduled inspection by a hospital accreditation agency. Members of the Joint Commission, formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, began a two-day visit "for cause" to examine discharge practices that have allowed soldiers to go missing or unaccounted for after they are released from the hospital.

True to form, go after the little people, punish the troops because the government can't uphold its end of the bargain. The injured soldiers aren't missing or unaccounted for, you lost them. Fair and square or through stupidity and arrogance, take your pick. Now you want to balance the books.

With their blood.

Again.