What a great way to treat our soldiers

[somdebay]

right here in America?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html

1 Trillion Dollars spent on the war and we can't get this guy who fought for our country a better room?

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up ####roaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.

 

[Dupontster]

That just pizzes me off....They can throw away billions in Iraq (see here) but soldiers have to live like this when they come home wounded....

 

[vraiblonde]

OMG! Want to hear my brilliant idea?!!

Let's write our Congressmen and ask them to vote for more military funding! To heck with all those countries we send billions of $$$ a year to - what are we getting out of that deal besides nothing? And let's take all that money, put it into defense spending, give the military personnel pay raises, refurbish old outdated barracks and base housing quarters, spruce up VA hospitals and services....oh my gosh, I can think of so many things that could be done with that money!

Wonder if the WashPost editors and journalists, for all their outrage, are planning on petitioning their Congressman for increased DoD spending?

 

[male20674]

Treatment of our soldiers

I'm very glad that someone else beat me to posting this. It is disgusting how we treat soldiers who have been injured in Bush's war.
Does anyone know how to start a petition or a letter to our rep (Steny Hoyer)?

With his new power in the house, I feel that we will be able to be heard.

 

[male20674]

bush's war

The sad thing is also that these soldiers are coming back with Post dramatic stress syndrome and they are unable to receive the benefits such as disability pay which they are entitled to. A friend of mine risked his life in Iraq for Bush and now is all screwed up and cannot get the medical/psychlogical help that he needs.

There has to be a better answer to this problem.

 

[somdebay]

OMG! Want to hear my brilliant idea?!!

Let's write our Congressmen and ask them to vote for more military funding! To heck with all those countries we send billions of $$$ a year to - what are we getting out of that deal besides nothing? And let's take all that money, put it into defense spending, give the military personnel pay raises, refurbish old outdated barracks and base housing quarters, spruce up VA hospitals and services....oh my gosh, I can think of so many things that could be done with that money!

Wonder if the WashPost editors and journalists, for all their outrage, are planning on petitioning their Congressman for increased DoD spending?

http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/email.asp
http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/

 

[Suz]

right here in America?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html

1 Trillion Dollars spent on the war and we can't get this guy who fought for our country a better room?

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up ####roaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.

totally disgusting. I could not believe what I was reading in the paper this morning. What a way to treat our men and women fighting for this country.........

 

[PsyOps]

I'm sorry, but I'm going to put my typical disagreement on this whole thing.

Although Walter Reed could use some serious upgrades in their facilities, to word it this way: "...but the despair of Building 18 symbolizes a larger problem in Walter Reed's treatment of the wounded" does a complete disservice, in the typical left-wing Washington Post fashion, to the hard work the hospital does on these wounded heroes as well as the heroes that saves these lives on a daily basis.

Walter Reed, with their wide array of services and dedicated doctors and nurses, work long hard hours to give these heroes every possible need they have. They are not to be blamed for this alleged “treatment” of the wounded. If you are going to blame anyone blame our Federal Government for things like BRAC and severe budget cuts that would have maintained these facilities. Because of BRAC and the impending shutdown of Walter Reed, they are not getting the funding necessary to refurbish these old buildings. The people that work at Walter Reed are our unsung heroes in saving these great men and women lives.

It’s not surprising that the Post would mislead folks into believing it’s our military treating our military poorly. Blame Congress! Blame this president and past presidents for budget cuts. The money allocated for the war is not military budgeted money, so don’t even go down that route.

There is a program called Fischer House (another group of unsung heroes) that build facilities to place recovering military members in a place to live while they recover and can spend their recovery time with each other and their family members, while keeping them near military medical facilities. They operate on donations. You, as Americans, can help our troops as well.

 

[zimmie]

if this is true, it's an awful situation that must be fixed. But the Washington Post has no credibility and to accept any of their stories as the unbiased truth, is more than I'm willing to do.

 

[Coventry17]

This story came as no surprise to anyone who has spent time at Walter Reed. My grandfather is a WWII vet and travels an hour to the VA hospital in Roanoke VA monthly. I've gone there with him a few times and that place is a nightmare. As an active duty chief, I volunteered my time to Walter Reed monthly. It is indeed hell on earth. Get one thing straight, the people there are doing their absolute best. However, it is severely understaffed and underbudgeted. The facility is indeed falling apart. Since it is targeted to be closed, no new money will find its way there. For all you people who are so quick to offer up our military to satisfy your own political agenda, study this situation closely. In some aspects, the ones that die on the battlefield are the lucky ones. This is the cost of war.

 

[aps45819]

It is disgusting how we treat soldiers who have been injured in Bush's war..

I thought it was authorized by congress in response to an attack that killed more than died at Pearl Harbor.

 

[itsbob]

This story came as no surprise to anyone who has spent time at Walter Reed. My grandfather is a WWII vet and travels an hour to the VA hospital in Roanoke VA monthly. I've gone there with him a few times and that place is a nightmare. As an active duty chief, I volunteered my time to Walter Reed monthly. It is indeed hell on earth. Get one thing straight, the people there are doing their absolute best. However, it is severely understaffed and underbudgeted. The facility is indeed falling apart. Since it is targeted to be closed, no new money will find its way there. For all you people who are so quick to offer up our military to satisfy your own political agenda, study this situation closely. In some aspects, the ones that die on the battlefield are the lucky ones. This is the cost of war.

I was in Walter Reed for more then two months.. nothing similar to the conditions mentioned here (granted it was ten years ago). For one thing I'm sure they are trying to find rooms, which means doing what you have to do to include using buildings and rooms that my have been abandoned years ago for nicer places. Military hospitals have always been known, even in peace time, for patieints taking care of themselves, and each other. No one makes up your bed, I made mine the following day after surgery. If one of my ward mates couldn't get out of bed and needed a dring someone would get him one. It's part of being in the brotherhood, from boot camp to grave, you take care of each other.

DO I want to live in conditions like that? No, but with the islamocrats threatening to cut off funding for this war do you think it's going to get better of worse.. thank you, everyone, that voted for one.

I will have to say one thing that pisses me off, I bet everyone of the soldiers, sailors, airman and mentally unstable living in these conditions are enlisted. I think they should go back and find the wounded Lt's and Cpt's, you know, the ones with all of three or four years in service, see how they are getting treated compared to the Chiefs, the SSG's and SFC's that have put in 15 - 25 years.. THAT pisses me off!

 

[Larry Gude]

We've been treating...

...our soldiers and our vets poorly since before we actually became a nation. It was something like 30 years after the Revolutionary when when vets got paid in full, those still alive of course, for service rendered.

The word 'shoddy' became part of the popular vernacular in our civil war as profiteers supplied and the army issued bad meat, poor quality clothing, weapons and gear of all type and manner.

We had riots on the Mall after WWI as vets tried to get the government to honor our responsibility to them.

Men froze and suffered in Bastogne because much of the cold weather gear had been stolen by US commissary personnel in France and sold on the black market.

In Vietnam, troops were issued the M16 and it's tiny .223 round and worked out the bugs, in battle. We have a 9mm side arm for reasons I still don't understand. Today, troops are still clamoring to get back to the heavier and tougher, tried and true M14 (.308) and 1911 (.45cal) pistol because they kill the enemy better.

It is both the good and bad news that our military is commanded at the top by civilians.

 

[Toxick]

Let's write our Congressmen and ask them to vote for more military funding!

Nah - I think they have enough toilet paper at the Capitol.




And I'm becoming more and more convinced that's what happens when you write to your Congresscritter.






Of course Mikulski might just chew the paper up.

 

[Mikeinsmd]

I thought it was authorized by congress in response to an attack that killed more than died at Pearl Harbor.

Correct. These dumbasses conveniently forget that part.

 

[protectmd]

The conditions are substandard, for any US medical health care facility. In fact I believe they have better hospitals in Mexico. Something should be done... Here's an idea. Instead of building another rehab center in southern maryland for the crackheads to flock to Charles County, lets build a wounded veterans facility, or fix the veterans hospital in Charlotte Hall. Have you ever been in there? that place is depressing! Of course the majority of the money would have to come from the counties down here, because the VA doesn't have any budget anymore since the war is still going on...

Steny Hoyer is apart of the budget slashing war protesting regime. If he does anything about it, I would be suprised, and have no doubt that it would take years before anything physically is done about any of this... till then its just the power of the pen.

As far as the war materials, there has been no shortage of that sort of thing in Iraq. Body Armor, Vehicle Armor, etc... you want it, you get it. There were rules on alot of the bases where you couldn't leave without certain things (A weapon that is working, armored vehicles, radio etc).


If I would like to see anything changed about the whole thing over there, I think that you should be able to bring and carry whatever weapon you want in a combat zone. I know a guy who was given NJP/Article 15 for having a personal firearm and bringing it from the states to over there. Me personally, I carried an krinkov (cutdown AK-47) and rounds in my backpack on convoys when I was there... however if I could have carried my 12 guage shotgun and a pistol of my choice then I would have felt alot safer!

 

[itsbob]

Looking at the picture.. bldg 18 is the old guest house that my ex stayed in while I was across the street at the hospital.. that building was abandoned back in the mid 90's due to security reasons.. and has been empty since..

 

[Coventry17]

I thought it was authorized by congress in response to an attack that killed more than died at Pearl Harbor.

You're not serious, are you?

 

[forestal]

Don't expect much to change if Bush's plans for budget cuts continue..

Unkind cuts
Bush Plans VA Funding Cuts in '09

Critics say White House may have made up numbers to keep budget promise.
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's budget assumes cuts to funding for veterans' health care two years from now - even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system.

 

[ylexot]

Of course Mikulski might just chew the paper up.

:goat: