Friday, March 09, 2007

They (GOP) knew about Walter Reed

From Raw Story
The top Republican who previously chaired the committee that wrote Defense
Department budget bills admitted yesterday that he was aware of many problems at
the Walter Reed Army Medical Center but feared that more aggressive oversight
would "give the Army a black eye."

Republican Congressman Young from Florida knew of the problems but did not want to "give the Army a black eye."

So, he gave a few to our Veterans.

All this under the guise of "Support our Troops".

3 comments:

Megan said...

As an Army wife, I have been extremely interested in what's been going on at WRAMC and other treatment facilities around the country. I have a special blog rant planned for Congressman Young.

I have a question for you (meant with utmost sincerity as a registered Democrat myself): If all it took was a few visits to WRAMC to see that there were major issues, why didn't the Democrats know about this as well?

It seems that this is a failure of every member of Congress, as well as the command at WRAMC and to a lesser degree the current administration.

In my opinion, so long as the mud such as this is being slung between the parties, nothing of substance will be accomplished.

Otherwise I have read every one of your posts about veterans and appreciate your efforts. Thank you for caring and I look forward to reading more.

Hal Kimball said...

Thanks for checking out the blog.

I will say first off that regardless of political party, our Veterans have gotten screwed over. Vietnam Vets exposed to Agent Orange were screwed over by LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and now this Bush.

It transcends political affiliation.

It's tough for me, as an 11 year Army Vet that the GOP maintains this stranglehold on these issues. It's as though if you do not support the war, you cannot support our troops or our Veterans.

I'm not sure as many knew about Walter Reed as we may like to think. Congressman Young chaired a committee that would have known this.

Through years of GOP control of Congress, issues of moderate Republicans and Democrats as a whole were never heard from, as it did not fall into the neo-conservative agenda. Issues could not get a committee hearing and no debate on the floor of Congress.

The bi-partisan task force being created by the President, in my eyes, is a mere smoke screen for the issue.

Being an Army wife is tough. I am sure you are heavily involved in your units family support group and offer great support to your husband and the soldiers around him.

Hats off to you! Thanks for the comments and I look forward to hearing your opinions in the future!

Megan said...

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I have adamantly argued on my own blog that to support the troops one does not have to support the war. The neo-con movement tries to make questioning the government and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces an act of treason, when in fact it is not only our right but our responsibility to question him and press him for the truth. We're a democracy, not a dictatorship.

As for being involved in his FRG, they don't really have those for soldiers in Korea. I am also unable to PCS with him to Texas when he comes home (a custody issue with my son), so I will be far from his Unit's support system when he is back "home" anyway. My military community is the internet, and I try to squeeze every last drop out of it.

Thank you for your service to our nation and thank you for addressing the important issues. Do you currently hold office? I can't quite tell.