Given the recent scandal, why is the government so hypocritical when it says it supports our troops?

Question

I found it appalling when I read about the Walter-Reed scandal involving the care of our own serving men and women. But it got even worse when I read that our OWN government has short-changed our serving men and women by the tune of $38B in much needed equipment, training, and shore leaves--just so they can get them to the front faster.

Is this how Bush and his ilk show "gratitude" towards our own military? By screwing them every which way till Sunday?

I mean, you can't conduct a war on the ground, when you willfully *ignore* the needs of our military, and then go on the parrot-talk show route and claim to support them, and then say: "There will be hard and difficult times ahead, and we know the sacrifices our men and women in uniform have to make by defending freedom and democracy at home and abroad."

I don't know about the rest of you, but this makes me *sick*.

And I'm anti-war, anti-government.

If that's the case, Abby, why wasn't the administration informed of their conditions prior?

Don't you think that's a bit...odd?

Yes, we can point the fingers in the right direction. But let's be frank here for a minute: WHO is sitting in the White House again--and has been for the last six years?

It's not Clinton.

If it's all 'hype', then why didn't the government quietly sweep it under the rugs like so many other "scandals" in the last few years?

Answer 1

Because they do not know what they are doing up there in the white House. This is all Bush's Fault he is picking the wrong people for the Job!!

Answer 2

I can tell you from personal experience that the conditions at Walter Reed have nothing to do with the Bush administration.

I worked at Walter Reed in the late 1990s while Clinton was in office and we were fighting "Clinton's Wars" (all the peacekeeping missions US troops were being sent on across the globe). We had the exact same problems then, and they were a direct result of funding cuts, cuts in military spending, etc.

I was recently back at Walter Reed and while the staff now sees more patients than they did before and also have to provide housing for family members of wounded soldiers, a lot of the old problems have been fixed.

The crappy old med hold barracks that was there when I was has been completely renovated. The old "gym in a trailer" they had has been replaced by a brand new gym. A lot of wards have been redone, repainted, and refurbished. A new computer system is in place to make it easier to share records between wards and among hospitals.

All of these improvements have been made under the current administration, even though there's a war on. Yet the news that are so centered in about how badly the veterans are treated and how horrible and in a shambles the military medical system is completely neglect to tell you about that.

They also neglect to tell you about the run-down barracks on other posts that are run down because of the funding cuts and downsizing of the military under Clinton. When I deployed for OIF at the end of 2003, we spent months refurbishing old barracks that had mold, mildew, water in the basements, etc. They were basically locked up and left when Clinton downsized the armed forces. Now that they're needed, they weren't ready.

If people are going to point fingers they need to point them in the right direction.

EDIT to address OP's edit:

Did you read my post? Things have been getting fixed under Bush. They're getting fixed because the hospital is getting more funding and these things are being worked on.

Just because not everything gets fixed in one day does not mean it's not getting fixed at all. The reports are about conditions in ONE building. Walter Reed consists of a whole bunch of buildings and the vast majority of them are repaired, refurbished, and perfectly usable. The rest are still being worked on.

Answer 3

The worst part is the phoney outrage by all of the Congressmen who haven't found time in th past four years to travel six miles to Walter Reed and see what is going on.
Just like the authorization for the Invasion
Just like GITMO and Abu ghrahib
Stupidy is no excuse.
Vote ALL incumbents out.

Answer 4

The 'scandal' is 90% hype.

If they had upgraded that building you would be complaining about them refurbishing a building that is scheduled to be torn down in a few years.

Answer 5

Bush and his cronies don't care about you, me or the military. We are just a means to an end, in which the end justifies the means. The world will be much better when they are gone.
War is for terrorists, Peace is for humans.